James E. Talmage Quotes

The world's greatest champion of woman and womanhood is Jesus the Christ.

The man who cannot listen to an argument which opposes his views either has a weak position or is a weak defender of it. No opinion that cannot stand discussion or criticism is worth holding. And it has been wisely said that the man who knows only half of any question is worse off than the man who knows nothing of it. He is not only one-sided but his partisanship soon turns him into an intolerant and a fanatic. In general it is true that nothing which cannot stand up under discussion or criticism is worth defending.

Belief is in a sense passive, an agreement or acceptance only; faith is active and positive, embracing such reliance and confidence as will lead to works. Faith in Christ comprises belief in Him, combined with trust in Him. One cannot have faith without belief; yet he may believe and still lack faith. Faith is vivified, vitalized, living belief.

Prayer is the Lord's great sterilizer against the germs of spiritual disease.

The Lord's hand in in our lives; if we will but feel for it, in the darkness, we can grasp it and be lifted thereby.

Man cannot measure the bounds nor fathom the depths of divine forgiveness.

No man will be kept in hell loner than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better. When he reaches that stage the prison doors will open and there will be rejoicing among the hosts who welcome him into a better state.

Our Lord's descent from the holy heights of the Mount of Transfiguration was more than a physical return from greater to lesser altitudes; it was a passing from sunshine into shadow, from the effulgent glory of heaven to the mists of worldly passions and human unbelief; it was the beginning of His rapid descent into the valley of humiliation.

Within the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is room and place for every truth thus far learned by man or yet to be made known.

We have been told . . . that this life is a necessary part in the course of progression designed by our Father. We have been taught . . . to look upon these bodies of ours as gifts from God. . . . It has been declared in the solemn word of revelation, that the spirit and the body constitute the soul of man; and, therefore, we should look upon this body as something that shall endure in the resurrected state, beyond the grave, something to be kept pure and holy.

Gratitude is twin sister to humility; Pride is foe to both.

No jot, iota, or tittle of the temple rites is otherwise than uplifting and sanctifying. In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high ideals, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God.

Physical exercise is indispensable to the development of body, and quite as certainly is spiritual activity requisite to the healthful and normal development of the soul.

No pang that is suffered by man or woman upon the earth will be without its compensating effect . . . if it be met with patience.

We hear much nowadays as to the speculative ideas of men concerning the condition beyond the grave; but the admission that there is an individual existence beyond the grave, is a declaration that there must have been an individual, intelligent creation before we came here in the flesh. Life beyond the grave postulates a pre-existent state.

Belief, in one of its accepted senses, may consist in a merely intellectual assent, while faith implies such confidence and conviction as will impel to action.

Mere pleasure is at best but fleeting; happiness is abiding, for in the recollection thereof is renewed.

No opinion that cannot stand discussion or criticism is worth holding.

Mortal birth is a boon to which only those spirits who kept their first estate are eligible.