Knowledge Does Away with Darkness

Joseph Smith

"Knowledge does away with darkness, suspense and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is. … In knowledge there is power." 

- The Prophet Joseph Smith

Deep Down Inside Us There Is Good

President Harold B. Lee

What were young people like in the early 70s? Whippersnappers?  Hooligans?  Full of shenanigans?

Not according to President Harold B. Lee.  In his talk Today's Young People, President Lee recalls that a former educational director of the Boy Scouts of America, Dr. Fisher, complimented the youth of their generation: "If the youth of today were not twice as good as were the youth of two generations ago, they wouldn’t be half as good as they are."

While you're figuring that one out, President Lee drops another: "Our job and your job, my job, is to look after the man behind the one in front of you."

The basic message: Never give up on anyone.  The worth of souls is great.  Even the 3% who are hoodlums are worth saving (and perhaps especially so).  Be anxiously engaged in a good cause. 

It reminds me of President Monson's pithy counsel: "Our youth need less criticism and more models to follow." 

True. 

Just like the Jets in West Side Story, deep down inside us there is good. 

See also:

Better Friedan and Bishop Brown (by Ralph Hancock at The Soul and The City)
Love Fervently (by Nathaniel Givens at Difficult Run)
Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd (By Daniel Ortner at Symphony of Dissent)
Why I support Friends of Scouting (By Michelle Linford at Mormon Women)
God’s Plan to Exalt His Children (By Michael Worley at Michael’s Thoughts and Ideas)
Bites from the April 1971 Priesthood Session (By G. at Junior Ganymede)
Meetinghouse Libraries and UX for Gospel Learning (By J. Max Wilson at Sixteen Small Stones)

     

Warnings from Warnings from the Past

Elder Mark E. Petersen

Elder Mark E. Petersen was born on November 7, 1900.  That seems like a long time ago.  He was called as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ on April 4, 1944.  That also seems like a long time ago. He gave his talk "Warnings from the Past," in the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April of 1971.  Even that seems like a long time ago.

But Elder Petersen's warnings were echoes of warnings that were raised centuries, and even millennia ago.  What were those warnings?  Why were they raised?  Why do they matter today?

In this talk Elder Petersen echoes the warnings of three great civilizations: the Jaredite civilization, the Nephite civilization, and our own.  What caused the downfall of the great Jaredite civilization? What caused the downfall of the great Nephite civilization?  What will cause the downfall of our own great civilization if we fail to learn the lessons of civilizations past?

Like the prophets of old, from the times of the Jaredites and the Nephites, Elder Petersen raises a clear warning voice against the sins of pride, of sexual immorality, of violence, and of idolatry.  Lest we suppose that our own civilization is somehow immune to the self-destructive tendencies of previous civilizations, Elder Petersen reminds us that "Much of the corruption which is common among us today resembles in striking detail the degradation that afflicted them."  What is the striking detail of which he speaks?  A careful study of the Book of Mormon will reveal it to you.

Recently the living prophets and apostles have encouraged members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ by improving Sabbath day worship.  Is this something new?

"The Almighty provided that we should observe a sacred Sabbath each week," declares Elder Petersen.   "We have flouted this law to his face, and most of us have turned his holy day into one of pleasure or of 'business as usual,' and yet the Sabbath was given as a symbol of allegiance to our Creator."  

A symbol of allegiance to the Savior.  That's food for thought.

God consecrated the American continent to the Lord's work, and to the service of the Lord.  The Jaredites failed to heed the warning.  The Nephites failed to learn from the example of the Jaredites. Will we fail to heed the warning, or to learn from the demise of the two great civilizations that preceded our own?

Elder Petersen echoes the voices of a few of the great leaders and statesmen of the past:

• George Washington: "… we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained. …" (First inaugural address, April 30, 1789.) 

• Abraham Lincoln: "told the people of his day that America 'need fear no danger from without. … If danger were ever to threaten the United States, it will come from within. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide...We have grown in numbers, wealth and power. … But we have forgotten God. … It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.'"

• Daniel Webster: "If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no one can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity."  

Elder Petersen then quotes the economist Roger Babson: 

"Only religion can prevent democratic rule from developing into mob rule. A nation can prosper only as its citizens are religious, intelligent, capable of service and eager to render it... Every great panic we have ever had has been foreshadowed by a general decline in observance of religious principles."

Are we religious? Intelligent? Capable of service and eager to render it?  Do we observe religious principles?

Will the warnings of three great civilizations suffice?  Will we listen to the still, small voice?  Or will we listen to the voice of the Lord in tempests, earthquakes and other calamities?

"The extinct civilizations of the past now speak to us out of the dust of the ages, giving warning against the same conditions which brought them down to oblivion." - Elder Mark E. Petersen

Will we listen?  There's no better time to start listening than now.

Other blog posts looking back on the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1971 General Conference:

• "Satan" - Moral Agency and the Problem of Evil (Ralph Hancock at Soul and City)
• Good Timber Does Not Grow at Ease (Nathaniel Givens at Difficult Run)
• The General Conference Project: Controlling the Hulk, Believing the Devil, and Cussing GAs (Walker Wright at Difficult Run)
• LDS Conference April 1971 - The Sexual Revolution and Entertainment Media (J. Max Wilson at Sixteen Small Stones)
• When Thou Art Converted (Chastity Wilson at Comfortably Anachronistic)
• The Adiabolist, or Jihad of the Heart (G at Junior Ganymede)
• Being Slow to Anger (Daniel Ortner)
• Creativity and Celebrating Success vs. The D.F.T. File (Michelle Linford at Mormon Women)
• 58 years of General Conference: What can we learn?/Messages on morality, religious freedom, and the Sabbath from 1971 (Michael Worley at Michael's Thoughts and Ideas)

Determined to Serve God at All Hazards

The Prophet Joseph Smith

"After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands),which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses...

...Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions--Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the First Born."

- The Prophet Joseph Smith, Instruction on Various Doctrines, June 27, 1839

Service Brings Growth

"In serving others, we 'find' ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives. Furthermore, the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others—indeed, it is easier to 'find' ourselves because there is so much more of us to find!

George McDonald observed that 'it is by loving and not by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another' (George McDonald Anthology, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1970). Of course, we all need to be loved, but we must be giving and not always receiving if we want to have the wholeness of our lives and a reinforced sense of purpose." 

- President Spencer W. Kimball

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; 

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am? 

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

- Christina Rossetti, In the bleak midwinter

To Love at All Is To Be Vulnerable

C.S. Lewis

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." 

- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future

One of the many excellent features of the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that it includes all of the talks from the general conferences of the Church from April 1971 to the present. 

I have always been impressed by how seamlessly the voice of living prophets confirms the truths that were taught by ancient prophets.  This seamlessness is also discernible in the living prophets' witness in relation to their more immediate predecessors.  In other words, the voice of the living prophets takes precedence over any previous prophets, but there is a seamlessness to the message that they proclaim, because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.

To illustrate the truth that the living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works, President Ezra Taft Benson remembered that President Wilford Woodruff once told of an interesting incident that occurred in the days of Joseph Smith:

"I will refer to a certain meeting I attended in the town of Kirtland in my early days. At that meeting some remarks were made that have been made here today, with regard to the living prophets and with regard to the written word of God. The same principle was presented, although not as extensively as it has been here, when a leading man in the Church got up and talked upon the subject, and said: ‘You have got the word of God before you here in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants; you have the written word of God, and you who give revelations should give revelations according to those books, as what is written in those books is the word of God. We should confine ourselves to them.’

"When he concluded, Brother Joseph turned to Brother Brigham Young and said, ‘Brother Brigham I want you to go to the podium and tell us your views with regard to the living oracles and the written word of God.’ Brother Brigham took the stand, and he took the Bible, and laid it down; he took the Book of Mormon, and laid it down; and he took the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and laid it down before him, and he said: ‘There is the written word of God to us, concerning the work of God from the beginning of the world, almost, to our day. And now,’ said he, ‘when compared with the living oracles those books are nothing to me; those books do not convey the word of God direct to us now, as do the words of a Prophet or a man bearing the Holy Priesthood in our day and generation. I would rather have the living oracles than all the writing in the books.’ That was the course he pursued. When he was through, Brother Joseph said to the congregation; ‘Brother Brigham has told you the word of the Lord, and he has told you the truth.’ (Conference Report, October 1897, pp. 18–19.)"

The same principle applies to the living oracles today.  One thing that is clear, however, is that there is a continuity and a consistency between ancient and modern scripture, and between past and present prophets.  It is a continuity worth paying attention to.

During the Saturday morning session of the General Conference of April 1971, President Spencer W. Kimball delivered an address entitled "Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future."  This talk is a perfect example of the seamless continuity and consistency in the voice of the Lord as revealed through ancient, modern, and living prophets.  In fact, President Kimball begins his talk with the following observation: 

"History repeats itself, and we need only return to the past to learn the solutions for the present and the future. The Corinthians seem to have been troubled by the same conflicting messages we hear in our own time. Paul told them:

'For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?'"

During the most recent General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy declared:

"The Apostle Paul taught us about comparing communication to musical instruments when he wrote to the Corinthians:

'And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?

'For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?'2"

Elder Schwitzer, like President Kimball, and like the Apostle Paul, helps us to discern the voice of the Lord amidst the cacophony of different voices in the world.  (Elder Oaks has also spoken eloquently on a similar topic).  

Like Paul before him, and like living prophets after him, President Kimball does not mince words. He reminds his audience of Paul's prophecy that some would depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1).  He warns of the variety of voices that promote hedonism, sensuality and sin.  He warns against violations of God's law of chastity and punctuates his warning with a memorable punchline: "Strange, the proponents of depopulating the world seem never to have thought of continence!"

Although President Kimball spoke with a raspy voice, his message could not have been clearer: "Why do we speak in this vein? Why do we call to repentance when there are such pleasant subjects? It is because someone must warn the world of its doom if life does not change directions."

President Kimball then recalled to mind the classic lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man:

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

I cannot count on one hand, or two for that matter, the number of times that I have heard our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, recite these same lines (click here for just one example).

Just as his warning and rebuke of sin is firm, President Kimball's love and kindness is deep in the invitation that he extends at the conclusion of his talk:

"We extend to every listener a cordial invitation to come to the watered garden, to the shade of pleasant trees, to the unchangeable truth.

Come with us to sureness, security, consistency. Here the cooling waters flow. The spring does not go dry.

Come listen to a prophet’s voice and hear the word of God.

The Lord does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His church stands firm and unchangeable. Sin will not be tolerated, but sincere repentance will be rewarded with forgiveness."

The words of the living prophets, those whom Brigham Young called the "living oracles," take precedence over previous prophets and scripture, but there is a seamless continuity and a consistency of truth that commands our attention, and persuades us to sincere repentance and obedience.

To read more about the general conference talks from 1971, see the following blog posts:

• Beginnings and Endings (by Nathaniel Givens at Difficult Run)
• The Voices of the Prophets (G at Junior Ganymede)
• LDS Conference April 1971- Hippies, Drugs, and Failure in the Home (J. Max Wilson at Sixteen Small Stones)
• Custodian and Dispenser of Saving Truth (Daniel Ortner at Symphony of Dissent)
• April 1971: Nothing New Here – Just Same Ol’ Mormonism (Ralph Hancock at Soul and City)
• Our individual battles to overcome our worlds (Michelle L at Mormon Women)
• The General Conference Project: The End of the World, the End of Death, and the End of Shame (Walker Wright here at Difficult Run)

The Greatest Power the World Has Ever Known

Leo Tolstoy

This morning in sacrament meeting one of the speakers made an interesting reference to Leo Tolstoy. The story that was shared probably contains folkloric elements, but it is still a good story. Even if the account isn't entirely and historically accurate, the observation is nonetheless true (for more detailed explanations, see here and here):

"Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian author and statesman, in conversation with Andrew D. White, United States foreign minister to Russia, in 1892 said, “I wish you would tell me about your American religion.”

“We have no state church in America,” replied Dr. White.

“I know that, but what about your American religion?”

Dr. White explained to Tolstoy that in America each person is free to belong to the particular church in which he is interested.

Tolstoy impatiently replied: “I know all of this, but I want to know about the American religion. … The church to which I refer originated in America and is commonly known as the Mormon Church. What can you tell me of the teachings of the Mormons?”

Dr. White said, “I know very little concerning them.”

Then Count Leo Tolstoy rebuked the ambassador. “Dr. White, I am greatly surprised and disappointed that a man of your great learning and position should be so ignorant on this important subject. Their principles teach the people not only of heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this church, nothing can stop their progress—it will be limitless.”

Tolstoy continued, “There have been great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reached maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.”

One Gleam of the Glory

Dante Alighieri

"O somma luce che tanto ti levi

da concetti mortali, a la mia mente
ripresta un poco di quel che parevi
e fa la lingua mia tanto possente,
che una favilla sol de la tua gloria
possa lasciare a la futura gente;
ché, per tornare alquanto a mia memoria
e per sonare un poco in questi versi,
più si conceperà di tua vittoria."

- Dante, La Divina Commedia, Paradiso XXXIII, 67-75

"O Highest Light, You, raised so far above
the minds of mortals, to my memory
give back something of Your epiphany,

and make my tongue so powerful that I
may leave to people of the future one
gleam of the glory that is Yours, for by

returning somewhat to my memory
and echoing awhile within these lines,
Your victory will be more understood." 

- Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradise XXXIII, 67-75 (translated by Allen Mandelbaum)

A Prayer Before Study

St. Thomas Aquinas

A Prayer Before Study

Ineffable Creator,
Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom,
have established three hierarchies of angels,
have arrayed them in marvelous order
above the fiery heavens,
and have marshaled the regions
of the universe with such artful skill,

You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin
raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born:
sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
The goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning,
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.

May You
guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.

You Who are true God and true Man,
who live and reign, world without end.

Amen.

Ante Studium

Creator ineffabilis,
qui de thesauris sapientiae tuae
tres Angelorum hierarchias designasti,
et eas super caelum empyreum
miro ordine collocasti,
atque universi partes elegantissime disposuisti,

tu inquam qui
verus fons
luminis et sapientiae diceris
ac supereminens principium

infundere digneris
super intellectus mei tenebras
tuae radium claritatis,
duplices in quibus natus sum
a me removens tenebras,
peccatum scilicet et ignorantiam.

Tu, qui linguas infantium facis disertas,
linguam meam erudias
atque in labiis meis gratiam
tuae benedictionis infundas.

Da mihi
intelligendi acumen,
retinendi capacitatem,
addiscendi modum et facilitatem,
interpretandi subtilitatem,
loquendi gratiam copiosam.

Ingressum instruas,
progressum dirigas,
egressum compleas.

Tu, qui es verus Deus et homo,
qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.

The Pure in Heart

C.S. Lewis

"It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to."

- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

The Character of God

The Prophet Joseph Smith

"Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. … God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but … the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs." 

- Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 257, 240–41.

Man Approaches God

C.S. Lewis

"Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?" - C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

A Great Secret

“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

On Children

C.S. Lewis

"In fact, because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are 'good,' it does not matter being a fool. But that is a misunderstanding. In the first place, most children show plenty of 'prudence' about doing the things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly. In the second place, as St, Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary, He told us to be not only 'as harmless as doves,' but also 'as wise as serpents.' He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

G.K. Chesterton

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we." - G.K. Chesteron, Orthodoxy

Jesus the Christ

Good news.  Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage, is available online.  (see also here, and here for an audio version)

A Potent Antidepressant

"Here is the answer to one of life’s great questions, 'Who am I?' I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a young person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life." 

- Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Powerful Ideas

Lamps

"I met a stranger in the night

Whose lamp had ceased to shine.
I paused and let him light
His lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on
And shook the world about.
And when the wind was gone
My lamp was out!

But back to me the stranger came—
His lamp was glowing fine!
He held the precious flame
And lighted mine!" 

- Lon Woodrum, "Lamps," The Lighted Pathway, Oct. 1940, 17

From President Thomas S. Monson's General Conference Talk, Be an Example and a Light

The Real History of Mankind

"When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time."

- Elder Neal A. Maxwell

The Standard of Truth

"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated
every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

- The Prophet Joseph Smith

Two Powerful Modern Witnesses of the Truth of the Book of Mormon

President Ezra Taft Benson - The Keystone of Our Religion

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - Safety for the Soul

Small-Scale Sufferings

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

"When we take Jesus’ yoke upon us, this admits us eventually to what Paul called the 'fellowship of [Christ’s] sufferings' (Philip. 3:10). Whether illness or aloneness, injustice or rejection, etc., our comparatively small-scale sufferings, if we are meek, will sink into the very marrow of the soul. We then better appreciate not only Jesus’ sufferings for us, but also His matchless character, moving us to greater adoration and even emulation." - Elder Neal A. Maxwell, From Whom All Blessings Flow

Three Prophetic Statements on America

President Ezra Taft Benson

1. President Ezra Taft Benson: A Plea for America

"The facts speak for themselves: No nation on earth eats as well as our nation. No country is so well clothed. No people are so well housed. No individuals on this earth have so many of the conveniences as we do in terms of heating, lighting, plumbing, and other comforts. These are not luxuries enjoyed by the rich alone; these are the comforts of us, the common people—comforts of which mighty monarchs of bygone ages never dreamed." 

- President Ezra Taft Benson

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

2. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: A Promised Land

"It is good that the historical celebration of the United States bicentennial allows us to focus on a land in which God has done so much of his work. It has not always looked the same geographically nor has it always been governed the same politically. But that all seems appropriate since the meaning of America, in its most theological sense, is something more than borders and boundaries, something above nativism and nationalism. It is an ideal, a thing of the spirit. Benjamin Franklin told his colleagues, 'Our cause is the cause of all mankind,' and Patrick Henry spoke much more than he knew when he said America had 'lighted a candle to all the world.'" 

- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

President Gordon B. Hinckley

3. President Gordon B. Hinckley: The Secularization of America

"If we are to continue to have the freedoms that evolved within the structure that was the inspiration of the Almighty to our Founding Fathers, we must return to the God who is their true Author. We need to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We need to acknowledge His all-powerful hand. We need to humble ourselves before Him and seek His guidance. If we would individually and collectively resolve to stand for something, to lift our voices for truth and goodness and offer our supplications to our Eternal Father, those supplications would be heard, and the result would be remarkable." 

- President Gordon B. Hinckley

Joy and Peace Unspotted, Unalloyed

The Prophet Joseph Smith

"In obedience there is joy and peace unspotted, unalloyed; and as God has designed our happiness … He never will institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which He has designed, and which will not end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of his law and ordinances." 

- the Prophet Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5:135

"The great plan of salvation is a theme which ought to occupy our strict attention, and be regarded as one of heaven's best gifts to mankind. No consideration whatever ought to deter us from showing ourselves approved in the sight of God, according to His divine requirement. Men not infrequently forget that they are dependent upon heaven for every blessing which they are permitted to enjoy, and that for every opportunity granted them they are to give an account. You know, brethren, that when the master in the Savior's parable of the stewards called his servants before him he gave them several talents to improve on while he should tarry abroad for a little season, and when he returned he called for an accounting. So it is now. Our Master is absent only for a little season, and at the end of it he will call each to render an account; and where five talents were bestowed, ten will be required; and he that has made no improvement will be cast out as an unprofitable servant, while the faithful will enjoy everlasting honors. Therefore, we earnestly implore the grace of our Father to rest upon you through Jesus Christ his Son that you may not faint in the hour of temptation, nor be overcome in the time of persecution."

 

- the Prophet Joseph Smith, DHC 2:23-24.

Fired with Heavenly and Joyful Anticipations

The Prophet Joseph Smith

"The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live; and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations they have sung and written and prophesied of this our day; but they died without the sight; we are the favored people that God has made choice of to bring about the Latter-day glory" 

- the Prophet Joseph Smith

"Tell the people to be humble and faithful and sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach [you what] to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom. Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it. They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits. It will whisper peace and joy to their souls, and it will take malice, hatred, envying, strife, and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness, and build up the kingdom of God. Tell the brethren if they will follow the Spirit of the Lord they will go right." 

- the Prophet​ Joseph Smith

Surviving the Angel of Death

For those who have an interest in Holocaust literature, I recommend Eva Moses Kor's Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz.  Her story reminds us of the remarkable resilience of the human spirit in the face of the most terrible evil.  It is a lesson from the past with great relevance in the present.

The Special Chemistry of Contemplation: Glorifying Christ

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

"Jesus was at His perfect best when things were at their worst in Gethsemane and Calvary. There could have been no Atonement without the character of Christ! None of the precious lines I am going to share with you now and what occurred in connection with them could have occurred without Jesus’ perfect character. He entered Gethsemane, and the agony by then was so intense, so overwhelming that, at least initially, He “fell on His face” (Matt. 26:39). And then we read of Him that He let His will be “swallowed up in the will of the Father” (Mosiah 15:7), and He “poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12; Mosiah 14:12). Think of the imagery—pouring out His soul unto death and being swallowed up in the will of the Father!

He confides in us, in my opinion, what perhaps concerned Him most when He said, “Would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (D&C 19:18). In that connection, He felt “the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God” (D&C 76:107). I never recite or read that line without some inner tremulation—“the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty God,” during which He stood in our stead and paid for our sins. If we will let the foregoing imagery rest upon our minds and in our hearts more often, it will bring the special chemistry of contemplation, evoking an even deeper love for Christ and the Father and greater gratitude for what took place. Remember King Benjamin’s words about knowing Christ in our hearts and minds (see Mosiah 5:12–13). Remember, too, one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost is that He glorifies Christ." 

- Elder Neal A. Maxwell, The Holy Ghost: Glorifying Christ

A Time to Choose

A Few Choice Gospel Gems from Elder Neal A. Maxwell's Book A Time to Choose

• "The paths of Christ and the world have always been divergent. Yet this divergence is more pronounced now than fifty or one hundred years ago when there was some kind of loose Christian consensus about man’s identity, immortality, the resurrection, the Lordship of Jesus, and the literalness of his second coming. So far as contemporary American and most western societies are concerned, it is difficult to conceive of any issues around which there could be such profound separation as now exists."

• "Adults would do well to distinguish between our secular accomplishments and our spiritual commitments.  The former is subject to question- as a possibly atrophying 'arm of the flesh' while the latter is both what we most cherish and what gives us certitude.  A simultaneous defense of the American economic system and the reality of modern revelation is unwise even when we believe in both, because the one is changing and managed by frail mortals while the other is unchanging and managed by God."

• "We are going to have to do a better job in helping the young to see that there is a connection between the Gospel and the problems of the real world, and that the Gospel does contain the solutions to human problems."

• "LDS youth can, of course, do what some adults in the Church do, and that is to become modern Jonahs, to prophesy disasters for today's Ninevehs and then run up on the hill, build a shelter, and wait for the cataclysm.  The Lord chided Jonah, lovingly and yet firmly, for having too great an investment in disaster.  We must all work in the Ninevehs of our lives, doing all we can, even though we may have a sense of impending disaster.  We should not desert our post nor can we indulge ourselves in the luxury of wanting disaster, for our goal is salvation, not vindication!"

• "The doctrines of Jesus Christ by themselves are dangerous, as G.K. Chesterton observed.  Any principle of the Gospel, isolated, spun off, and practiced in solitude, can go wild.  The incomplete insight is not insight at all!  Seeing the landscape of life illuminated briefly by lightning can be helpful, but we walk through a mortal minefield which requires the full steady light of the Gospel in order to survive.  Just as the people of the Church need each other 'that all may be edified together,' the doctrines of the Church need each other."

• "It is important to understand that obedience is not simply a requirement of a capricious God who wants us to jump hurdles for the entertainment of a royal court.  It is really the pleading of a loving Father for you and me to discover, as quickly as we can, that there are key concepts and principles that will bring happiness in a planned but otherwise cold universe.  We simply have to rely on faith and obedience to carry us forward when our personal experience and knowledge are inadequate."

• "We must remember that tomorrow exists prenatally in today; the fetus of tomorrow is being formed now, and this is true of nations and individuals."

• "Although the sincerity of the prescriptions the world offers for mankind's problems are impressive, one can still question some of the secular diagnoses.  The world's approach sometimes fails to diagnose the problem and, therefore, to provide any real and lasting cure.  Wringing one's hands and looking for miracle medicines connotes anguish, but it is not the same as competency.  And being concerned does not necessarily produce insights.  The perceptions necessary for the ultimate diagnosis of human ills are, in my judgment, contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some secular prescriptions, ironically, would amount to giving mankind an aspirin when surgery is required.  What the world often prescribes falls short of real reform simply because the root causes of human misery are not examined."

• "Discipleship in our day, as in all eras, has as a goal not our being different from other men, but our need to be more like God.  He does not seek to arbitrarily anoint a chosen few; rather, only a few men choose to walk in his path.  A saint is not given power until, among other things, he is full of love towards all men and his motives and thoughts are unceasingly virtuous.  It is then that the disciple receives 'an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth' and 'an everlasting dominion" ... 'without compulsory means.'  How we use our time on earth, therefore, makes all the difference in the world- and in worlds to come."

• "We cannot help others towards salvation unless we ourselves are on the straight path."

• "The Gospel is the counsel of a Super Intelligence as to how we can progress in a cold universe which responds only to law.  Man did not get to the moon with random trajectories and with each astronaut 'doing his own thing.'  The price for reaching the moon was obedience to universal law.  In many ways, God has paid man the supreme compliment by believing in him enough to change his behavior, slowly but lastingly, rather than holding man in condescending, cosmic contempt; the disciple can do no less."

• "Imperfections in predecessors should be expected, but their faults should be seen as an opportunity for improvement- not as damaging evidence."

• "It is a useful perception in the quietude of our own ponderings to remember that the straight and narrow is a heroic path to travel.  It challenges us to love, and to forgive, to be chaste, to render service, and to focus on basic things.  It isn't heavily populated because most people prefer the foothills; it is not crowded on the west side of Everest.  Many need assistance, and we can help them best by not abandoning our role as guides along the way."

• "Quiet Christianity is a necessary counterpoint to the rumble of the kettle drums and the crash of cymbals of those Christian acts which are, by their very nature, visible and hard to ignore.  We also need the behavioral equivalent of the flute and the violin in order to have the kind of symphony that can make a difference in mortality."

• "The barbed questions of the faithless do not deserve answers any more than the taunts which Christ himself suffered while on the cross.  The inquiring probes of some nonbelievers are not really questions at all, but simply a reconnaissance aimed at discovering any breeches in the defenses of the believer who holds the fortress of faith."

• "The true disciple is described as 'good ground' and as being 'fruitful.'  One cannot help but wonder if the key to this member's success is that he gives himself so fully in service to the Lord that his beliefs are reinforced simply as a function of how he lives and by repeatedly witnessing the gospel at work in the lives of others."

• "Dr. Gregory Zilboorg pointed out that a society which is too absorbed in scientism can develop severe narcissism and an unjustified worship of the human mind.  Worshiping even the idol of the intellect inevitably  will lead to the fall of that idol simply because our finite reason and experience are not adequate to help us function in an infinite universe."

• "Suffering is the sweat of salvation."

• "Khalil Gibran observed that the cavity carved out of our soul by suffering will also be the receptacle of our joy.  In this sense, those who have suffered most, and for the right reasons, will have stretched their capacity for joy and happiness."

• Jesus Christ was "the least appreciated but most beneficial individual in human history."

• "If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do, just as Jesus challenged the wealthy young man to 'sell all that thou hast and give it to the poor.'  Christ focuses his challenges because he loves us and because real growth is no more random than it is easy."

• "God is a loving Father who wants us to have the happiness that results from proven righteousness, not from mere innocence.  At times, he will not deflect life's harsh learning experiences that may come to each of us, even though he will help us cope with them.  God is neither a silent, indifferent monarch in the sky, nor is he an indulgent grandfather figure who will give his children the incomplete therapy of partial truth."

• "The Gospel also permits us to bring knowledge and love together. Gandhi worried about what he called the coldness of some intellectuals- their lack of heart, lack of warmth, and lack of love for the people whom they wanted to help. Commitment to the principle of love would mean, in effect, that our knowledge- as we seek to transmit it and share our insights- is encapsulated in love. This love underlies a kind of brotherhood that can transcend not only nationalism but also the problems of differential economic status. Knowledge is power, but it is a dangerous kind of power without love. We should not seek knowledge to control, to manipulate, or merely to exhibit."

• "The doctrines which excite us least may be the very ones we most need to incorporate into our lives!"

• "The repetition of a truth may make it harder to bear, but never makes it false."

• "We often see those who no longer find pleasure in sin, but who cannot sorrow unto full repentance.  As Thomas Merton observed, it is not enough just to leave Egypt; one must also travel to the promised land.  Too many of us simply leave our 'Egypts,' thinking that is enough, only to find ourselves in a vast uncharted wilderness."

• "The effectiveness of our communications can be increased by a lifestyle which reflects and openly acknowledges God's goodness to us, rather than resignation or resentment about the injustices of life."

• "The harsh realities that attach themselves to growth include a willingness to stretch our souls in new adventures which are consistent with the principles of the Gospel.  It is a mistake to assume that the disciple must merely be filled with anxiety for mankind or with holy- but abstract- compassion.  He must increase his competency as well as his concern."

• "Our best opportunity to develop discipleship is in the home, including the skills needed for communication.  The family is the institution about which few people talk, and about which little is done in America.  Yet we continue to use compensatory educational, economic, governmental, and political programs to solve or treat problems that are actually rooted in the home.  Even though these efforts are sincere and needed, they will never deal fully with the problem of an unloved child who has not learned discipline or work, and the resulting tragedy which so often occurs."

• "Failure in the home clearly calls for compensatory institutions, but the home lies at the headwaters of the stream of civilization, and we must keep it happy and pure.  When the home fails or is polluted, we must, of course, support 'treatment' efforts downstream.  But we must not become so fascinated with the filtering operation that we ignore prevention and desert our post at the headwaters.  Building a happy home may not seem to have the immediate human impact of counseling in a juvenile detention center.  Both are necessary, but the emphasis should fall on the home if we wish to prevent massive misery."

• "What the Gospel does is to refuse the luxury of escaping from each other.  It insists that we really see if we have the capacity to grow and to develop; to see if we can do it under the real pressures of life and home, in a family and among friends.  Then, perhaps, we can do more elsewhere."

• "In the spirit of leveling, we must also learn that while the Lord's teachings are transferable to other individuals and cultures, the testimony which transforms these truths into action is not.  Gospel principles are portable, but the passion that underwrites them must be developed in each new host."

Mercy

"All the religious world is boasting of righteousness: It is the doctrine of the devil to retard the human mind, and hinder our progress, by filling us with self-righteousness. The nearer we get to our Heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs. … If you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another."

- Joseph Smith

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977, p. 241.)

"Ever keep in exercise the principle of mercy, and be ready to forgive our brother on the first intimations of repentance, and asking forgiveness; and should we even forgive our brother, or even our enemy, before he repent or ask forgiveness, our heavenly Father would be equally as merciful unto us."

- Joseph Smith

(History of the Church, 3:383; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on July 2, 1839, in Montrose, Iowa; reported by Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards.)

Platonic Morsels and Tidbits from The Republic

Plato, The Republic

"Well said, Cephalus, I replied; but as concerning justice, what is it?" - Book I

"Listen, then, he said; I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger. And now why do you not me? But of course you won't." - Book I

"Thrasymachus made all these admissions, not fluently, as I repeat them, but with extreme reluctance; it was a hot summer's day, and the perspiration poured from him in torrents; and then I saw what I had never seen before,Thrasymachus blushing." - Book I

"But whether the just have a better and happier life than the unjust is a further question which we also proposed to consider. I think that they have, and for the reasons which to have given; but still I should like to examine further, for no light matter is at stake, nothing less than the rule of human life." - Book I

"As an epicure snatches a taste of every dish which is successively brought to table, he not having allowed himself time to enjoy the one before, so have I gone from one subject to another without having discovered what I sought at first, the nature of justice. I left that enquiry and turned away to consider whether justice is virtue and wisdom or evil and folly; and when there arose a further question about the comparative advantages of justice and injustice, I could not refrain from passing on to that. And the result of the whole discussion has been that I know nothing at all. For I know not what justice is, and therefore I am not likely to know whether it is or is not a virtue, nor can I say whether the just man is happy or unhappy." - Book I

"Let me ask you now: --How would you arrange goods --are there not some which we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences, as, for example, harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them?" - Book II

"Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention." - Book II

"Now my belief is, --and this is a matter upon which I should like to have your opinion in confirmation of my own, but my own belief is, --not that the good body by any bodily excellence improves the soul, but, on the contrary, that the good soul, by her own excellence, improves the body as far as this may be possible. What do you say?" - Book III

"Then the good and wise judge whom we are seeking is not this man, but the other; for vice cannot know virtue too, but a virtuous nature, educated by time, will acquire a knowledge both of virtue and vice: the virtuous, and not the vicious, man has wisdom --in my opinion." - Book III

"Yes, we often said that one man should do one thing only. Further, we affirmed that justice was doing one's own business, and not being a busybody; we said so again and again, and many others have said the same to us." - Book IV

"The just man then, if we regard the idea of justice only, will be like the just State?" - Book IV

"And here comes the point: is not thirst the desire which the soul has of drink, and of drink only; not of drink qualified by anything else; for example, warm or cold, or much or little, or, in a word, drink of any particular sort: but if the thirst be accompanied by heat, then the desire is of cold drink; or, if accompanied by cold, then of warm drink; or, if the thirst be excessive, then the drink which is desired will be excessive; or, if not great, the quantity of drink will also be small: but thirst pure and simple will desire drink pure and simple, which is the natural satisfaction of thirst, as food is of hunger?" - Book IV

"Then clearly the next thing will be to make matrimony sacred in the highest degree, and what is most beneficial will be deemed sacred?" - Book V

"I said: Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils, --nor the human race, as I believe, --and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day. Such was the thought, my dear Glaucon, which I would fain have uttered if it had not seemed too extravagant; for to be convinced that in no other State can there be happiness private or public is indeed a hard thing." - Book V

"Whereas he who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and who is curious to learn and is never satisfied, may be justly termed a philosopher? Am I not right?" - Book V

"Inasmuch as philosophers only are able to grasp the eternal and unchangeable, and those who wander in the region of the many and variable are not philosophers, I must ask you which of the two classes should be the rulers of our State? " - Book VI

"And have we not a right to say in his defence, that the true lover of knowledge is always striving after being --that is his nature; he will not rest in the multiplicity of individuals which is an appearance only, but will go on --the keen edge will not be blunted, nor the force of his desire abate until he have attained the knowledge of the true nature of every essence by a sympathetic and kindred power in the soul, and by that power drawing near and mingling and becoming incorporate with very being, having begotten mind and truth, he will have knowledge and will live andgrow truly, and then, and not till then, will he cease from his travail." - Book VI

"The true lover of learning then must from his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth?" - Book VI

"And the philosopher holding converse with the divine order, becomes orderly and divine, as far as the nature of man allows; but like every one else, he will suffer from detraction." - Book VI

"Nay, I said, ask if you will; but I am certain that you have heard the answer many times, and now you either do not understand me or, as I rather think, you are disposed to be troublesome; for you have of been told that the idea of good is the highest knowledge, and that all other things become useful and advantageous only by their use of this. You can hardly be ignorant that of this I was about to speak, concerning which, as you have often heard me say, we know so little; and, without which, any other knowledge or possession of any kind will profit us nothing. Do you think that the possession of all other things is of any value if we do not possess the good? or the knowledge of all other things if we have no knowledge of beauty and goodness?" - Book VI

"And which, I said, of the gods in heaven would you say was the lord of this element? Whose is that light which makes the eye to see perfectly and the visible to appear?

You mean the sun, as you and all mankind say.

May not the relation of sight to this deity be described as follows?

How?

Neither sight nor the eye in which sight resides is the sun?

No.

Yet of all the organs of sense the eye is the most like the sun?

By far the most like.

And the power which the eye possesses is a sort of effluence which is dispensed from the sun?

Exactly.

Then the sun is not sight, but the author of sight who is recognised by sight. " - Book VI

"True, he said. And this is he whom I call the child of the good, whom the good begat in his own likeness, to be in the visible world, in relation to sight and the things of sight, what the good is in the intellectual world in relation to mind and the things of mind." - Book VI

"And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being shine, the soul perceives and understands and is radiant with intelligence; but when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then she has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and is first of one opinion and then of another, and seems to have no intelligence?" - Book VI

"Now, that which imparts truth to the known and the power of knowing to the knower is what I would have you term the idea of good, and this you will deem to be the cause of science, and of truth in so far as the latter becomes the subject of knowledge; beautiful too, as are both truth and knowledge, you will be right in esteeming this other nature as more beautiful than either; and, as in the previous instance, light and sight may be truly said to be like the sun, and yet not to be the sun, so in this other sphere, science and truth may be deemed to be like the good, but not the good; the good has a place of honour yet higher." - Book VI

"In like manner the good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all things known, but of their being and essence, and yet the good is not essence, but far exceeds essence in dignity and power. Glaucon said, with a ludicrous earnestness: By the light of heaven, how amazing!" - Book VI

"Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good." - Book VII

"The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oyster-shell, but the turning round of a soul passing from a day which is little better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy?" - Book VII

"I am amused, I said, at your fear of the world, which makes you guard against the appearance of insisting upon useless studies; and I quite admit the difficulty of believing that in every man there is an eye of the soul which, when by other pursuits lost and dimmed, is by these purified and re-illumined; and is more precious far than ten thousand bodily eyes, for by it alone is truth seen. Now there are two classes of persons: one class of those who will agree with you and will take your words as a revelation; another class to whom they will be utterly unmeaning, and who will naturally deem them to be idle tales, for they see no sort of profit which is to be obtained from them. And therefore you had better decide at once with which of the two you are proposing to argue. You will very likely say with neither, and that your chief aim in carrying on the argument is your own improvement; at the same time you do not grudge to others any benefit which they may receive." - Book VII

"These and other kindred characteristics are proper to democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike." - Book VIII

"On the other hand, every one sees that the principle of knowledge is wholly directed to the truth, and cares less than either of the others for gain or fame." - Book IX

"The philosopher, he replied, has greatly the advantage; for he has of necessity always known the taste of the other pleasures from his childhood upwards: but the lover of gain in all his experience has not of necessity tasted --or, I should rather say, even had he desired, could hardly have tasted --the sweetness of learning and knowing truth." - Book IX

"What classes of things have a greater share of pure existence in your judgment --those of which food and drink and condiments and all kinds of sustenance are examples, or the class which contains true opinion and knowledgeand mind and all the different kinds of virtue? Put the question in this way: --Which has a more pure being --that which is concerned with the invariable, the immortal, and the true, and is of such a nature, and is found in suchnatures; or that which is concerned with and found in the variable and mortal, and is itself variable and mortal?

Far purer, he replied, is the being of that which is concerned with the invariable." - Book IX

"In the next place, he will regulate his bodily habit and training, and so far will he be from yielding to brutal and irrational pleasures, that he will regard even health as quite a secondary matter; his first object will be not that he may be fair or strong or well, unless he is likely thereby to gain temperance, but he will always desire so to attemper the body as to preserve the harmony of the soul?" - Book IX

"In heaven, I replied, there is laid up a pattern of it, methinks, which he who desires may behold, and beholding, may set his own house in order. But whether such an one exists, or ever will exist in fact, is no matter; for he will live after the manner of that city, having nothing to do with any other." - Book IX

"Well, I will tell you, although I have always from my earliest youth had an awe and love of Homer, which even now makes the words falter on my lips, for he is the great captain and teacher of the whole of that charming tragic company; but a man is not to be reverenced more than the truth, and therefore I will speak out." - Book X

"At all events we are well aware that poetry being such as we have described is not to be regarded seriously as attaining to the truth; and he who listens to her, fearing for the safety of the city which is within him, should be on his guard against her seductions and make our words his law." - Book X

"At her love of wisdom. Let us see whom she affects, and what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine; also how different she would become if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth and rock which in wild variety spring up around her because she feeds upon earth, and is overgrown by the good things of this life as they are termed: then you would see her as she is, and know whether she has one shape only or many, or what her nature is. Of her affections and of the forms which she takes in this present life I think that we have now said enough." - Book X

"And here, my dear Glaucon, is the supreme peril of our human state; and therefore the utmost care should be taken.Let each one of us leave every other kind of knowledge and seek and follow one thing only, if peradventure he may be able to learn and may find some one who will make him able to learn and discern between good and evil, and so to choose always and everywhere the better life as he has opportunity. He should consider the bearing of all these things which have been mentioned severally and collectively upon virtue; he should know what the effect of beauty is when combined with poverty or wealth in a particular soul, and what are the good and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of private and public station, of strength and weakness, of cleverness and dullness, and of all the soul, and the operation of them when conjoined; he will then look at the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of all these qualities he will be able to determine which is the better and which is the worse; and so he will choose, giving the name of evil to the life which will make his soul more unjust, and good to the life which will make his soul more just; all else he will disregard. For we have seen and know that this is the best choice both in life and after death. A man must take with him into the world below an adamantine faith in truth and right, that there too he may be undazzled by the desire of wealth or the other allurements of evil, lest, coming upon tyrannies andsimilar villainies, he do irremediable wrongs to others and suffer yet worse himself; but let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible, not only in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is the way of happiness." - Book X

"And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved and has not perished, and will save us if we are obedient to the word spoken; and we shall pass safely over the river of Forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled. Wherefore my counsel is that we hold fast ever to the heavenly way and follow after justice and virtue always, considering that the soul is immortal and able to endure every sort of good and every sort of evil. Thus shall we live dear to one another and to the gods, both while remaining here and when, like conquerors in the games who go round to gather gifts, we receive our reward. And it shall be well with us both in this life and in the pilgrimage of a thousand years which we have been describing." - Book X