Brian > Brian's Quotes

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.”
― Orson F. Whitney

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable.”
― Orson F. Whitney

“Knowledge is power," and all things are to be known in due season. But premature knowledge--knowing at the wrong time--is fatal both to progress and to happiness.”
― Orson F. Whitney

“The redemption of Zion is more than the purchase or recovery of lands, the building of cities, or even the founding of nations. It is the conquest of the heart, the subjugation of the soul, the sanctifying of the flesh, the purifying and ennobling of the passions.”
― Orson F. Whitney

“They sighed: "This leadeth to captivity--
Perchance destruction, ending dark and dire.
Yet must we yield to human liberty
Its own, e'en though a brand from freedom's fire
Kindle for freedom's self the fatal pyre."
So saying, they anointed one their king
Who craved the crown, by patriot son and sire
Put by in pure denial, lest it bring
First care, then crime, and waken woes then slumbering.
For though a king see duty's pathway plain,
And walk therein, as he who now arose;
What monarch from misrule can all refrain,
When privilege lifts power o'er friends and foes?
Rare is the reign untarnished to the close,
And rarer still the blameless dynasty.
Ofttimes as princes the unkingliest pose,
Because, forsooth, they come of some tall tree,
Whose root and trunk were sound, while branches blasted be.
True kingliness--what else proves man a king?
A slave, though throned and sceptered, bides a slave;
Nor pride, nor pelf, nor all that power may bring,
Can make the serf a sovereign, or yet save
The dust of either from the common grave.
Royal the soul must be, or comes to end
All royalty. Spirit, then blood, God gave;
And each at last its separate way doth wend
Home to the parent source, to meet no more, nor blend.”
― Orson F. Whitney, Elias: An Epic of the Ages

“Perhaps the Lord needs such men on the outside of his Church, to help it along. They are among its auxiliaries, and can do more good for the cause where the Lord has placed them, than anywhere else. And the same is true of the priesthood and its auxiliaries inside the Church. Hence, some are drawn into the fold and receive a testimony of the Truth; while others remain unconverted—for the present; the beauties and glories of the gospel being veiled temporarily from their view, for a wise purpose. The Lord will open their eyes in his own due time.
God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of his great and marvelous work. The Latter-day Saints cannot do it all. It is too vast, too arduous, for any one people. Our part in it is the greatest. We have the gospel and the priesthood, with a mission to gather Israel, build the New Jerusalem, and prepare the way for the advent of the King of kings. And this duty has been laid upon us because we belong to the house of Israel. It is the God of Israel who is coming to reign and we are the right people to prepare the way before him.”
― Elder Orson F. Whitney