W. C. Brann

The place to take the true measure of a man is not in the darkest place or in the amen corner, nor the cornfield, but by his own fireside.  There he lays aside his mask and you may learn whether he is an imp or an angel, cur or king, hero or humbug.  I care not what the world says of him: whether it crowns him boss or pelts him with bad eggs. I care not a copper what his reputation or religion may be: if his babies dread his homecoming and his better half swallows her tongue every time she has to ask for a five-dollar bill, he is a fraud of the first water, even though he prays night and morning until he is black in the face... But if his children rush to meet him and love's sunshine illuminates the face of his wife every time she hears his footfall, you can take it for granted that he is pure, for his home is a heaven. ... I can forgive much in that fellow mortal who would rather make men swear than women weep; who would rather have the hate of the whole world than the contempt of his wife; who would rather call anger to the eyes of a king than fear to the face of a child.

W.C. Brann

Orson F. Whitney

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, as quoted from “Chapter 2: Tragedy or Destiny?,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, (2006),11–21"

Richard G. Scott

We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.


Richard G. Scott, “The Transforming Power of Faith and Character,” Ensign, Nov 2010, 43–46

Richard G. Scott

Faith in the power of obedience to the commandments of God will forge strength of character available to you in times of urgent need. Such character is not developed in moments of great challenge or temptation. That is when it is intended to be used. Your exercise of faith in true principles builds character; fortified character expands your capacity to exercise more faith. As a result, your capacity and confidence to conquer the trials of life is enhanced. The more your character is fortified, the more enabled you are to benefit from exercising the power of faith. You will discover how faith and character interact to strengthen one another. Character is woven patiently from threads of applied principle, doctrine, and obedience.

Richard G. Scott, “The Transforming Power of Faith and Character,” Ensign, Nov 2010, 43–46

Brigham Young

The gospel is of a character that a man may be benefitted by it if he will, but it has no help for the man who fails to take advantage of that which it offers. It is a perfect system of self-development. A man can rise to the most exalted heights, if he will; or he may loiter by the way, waste the day-light until he is overtaken in his darkness and thence must grope his way, because he failed to take advantage of the light.

Today is our day, brethren and sisters. We cannot hope, when the night comes, when the grave has demanded its own, for the development and progress that is available to us today. These bodies of ours God has given us for development. We are separated from them when we go into the grave. We are not ourselves, we are only partial when the body and the spirit are separated. Why will we loiter, instead of developing that which is perfect, the human soul. Separated, it is a divided thing; together, it may rise to the most exalted height. We preach to the world faith. Have we faith? We preach to the world repentance. Do we repent? Do we place our feet each day upon the mistakes of yesterday, using them as stepping stones to a higher life, to the new birth symbolized by the baptism of water? Have we taken to ourselves every day the new birth of the Spirit? Have we risen to more exalted heights? Are we in closer communion with God than we were yesterday? If not, we have failed to take advantage of opportunity offered in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Elder Brigham S. Young, Conference Report, April 1927, Afternoon Meeting 59