"A man is
literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his
thoughts."
(Pres. Kimball)
"I will know
what you are if you tell me what you think about when you don't have to
think."
(Pres. McKay)
"The thought
in your mind at this moment is contributing, however infinitesimally,
almost
imperceptibly to the shaping of your soul.... even passing and idle thoughts
leave their
impression. (Pres. McKay)
"How could a
person possibly become what he is not thinking? Nor is any thought,
when persistently
entertained, too small to have its effect. The "divinity that shapes our
ends" is
indeed in ourselves." (Pres. Kimball)
"If a man be
pure in thought, he will be correspondingly pure in action; but if he allows
his mind to roam
in unrestricted freedom through the various avenues of evil or to dwell
unchecked upon
the contemplation of forbidden indulgences, it will not be long before
his feet tread
those paths and his hand plucks the tempting but deceitful fruit. When
once the tempter
gains the citadel of the heart, his power is very great, and there is no
knowing to what
excesses of folly and crime he may incite his unhappy victim." (George
Q. Cannon)
"It [the
mind] is the agent of the Almighty clothed with mortal tabernacles, and we must
learn to
discipline it, and bring it to bear on one point, and not allow the Devil to
interfere and
confuse it, nor divert it from the great object we have in view... If we could
control our own
minds, we could control our children and our families and the kingdom
of God, and see
that everything went right, and with much more ease than we do now."
(Orson Hyde)
"The
greatest mystery a man ever learned, is to know how to control the human mind,
and bring every
faculty and power of the same in subjection to Jesus Christ; this is the
greatest mystery
we have to learn while in these tabernacles of clay." (Brigham Young)
