Brigham Young Quotes - 317 quotes

Brigham Young (1801-1877) was a significant figure in American religious history and the development of the American West. Born in Whitingham, Vermont, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1832. After the assassination of Joseph Smith, the church’s founder, Youn... show more

 Every true philosopher, so far as he understands the principles of truth, has so much of the Gospel, and so far he is a Latter-day Saint, whether he knows it or not...
- Brigham Young
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 This people have embraced the philosophy of eternal lives, and in view of this we should cease to be children and become philosophers, understanding our own existence, its purpose and ultimate design...
- Brigham Young
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 I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. … Let every man and woman know, by the whisperings of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.

- Brigham Young

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 There is no such thing as confusion, division, strife, animosity, hatred, malice, or two sides to the question in the house of God; there is but one side to the question there. ... On a certain occasion there was a little confusion in heaven. … What was the result? One-third part of the hosts of heaven walked out. I do not think the election lasted a great while, if they had two candidates, and it appears they had.

- Brigham Young

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 ...falsehood and corruption and error of every description are from beneath—are of the enemy; and the Lord Almighty suffered this schism in heaven to see what his subjects would do preparatory to their coming to this earth, which we need not talk about to-day. But the division did not take place in those who were redeemed from the earth and exalted and brought up into the presence of the Father and the Son, to live in their presence and in their glory, and be partakers of their power. But it was among another class, and we are now in the midst of them.

- Brigham Young

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 What think ye? Is there a heaven? … Is there a dwelling place for the Gods and the angels? Do you think they have their political quarrels there? Do you think they get up different ones whom they will run for their king, governor, or president? Do you think there is an opposition ticket there? What do the political, financial and Christian world think about these things? Do you think that a few capitalists lock up all the means there and make hard times, so that the people cannot get a dollar? Do you think there is any backbiting and false swearing there? Do you think they have courts with unjust judges and packed juries there? No, every person who believes in the Old and New Testaments, will say that it is a place of perfection, a place where all have their rights; a place where there is perfect peace and happiness, and all join with one heart and voice in ascribing honor, praise and glory to him who sits on the throne, and the Lamb. This is the effect of God's rule and government.

- Brigham Young

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 There is no miracle to any being in the heavens or on the earth, only to the ignorant. To a man who understands the philosophy of all the phenomena that transpire, there is no such thing as a miracle.

- Brigham Young

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 This earthly ball, this little [opaque] substance thrown off into space, is only a speck in the great universe; and when it is celestialized it will go back into the presence of God, where it was first framed.

- Brigham Young

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 “Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God, though but few acknowledge it. It has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and Satan. We should take advantage of all these great discoveries, the accumulated wisdom of ages, and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work.”

- Brigham Young

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 Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.

- Brigham Young

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 God never bestows upon his people, or upon an individual, superior blessings without a severe trial to prove them, to prove that individual, or that people, to see whether they will keep their covenants with him, and keep in remembrance what he has shown them.

- Brigham Young

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 When we talk about mystery, we talk about eternal obscurity; for that which is known, ceases to be a mystery; and all that is known, we may know as we progress in the scale of intelligence.

- Brigham Young

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 When I have gold and silver in my possession, which a thief may steal, or friends borrow, and never pay me back again, or which may take the wings of the morning, and I behold it no more, I only possess the negative of the true riches.

- Brigham Young

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 This is the place where every man commences to acquire the germ of the independence that is enjoyed in the heavens.

- Brigham Young

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 A miracle is supposed to be a result without a cause, but there is no such thing. There is a cause for every result we see; and if we see a result without understanding the cause we call it a miracle.

- Brigham Young

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 Our religion measures, weighs, and circumscribes all the wisdom in the world - all that God has ever revealed to man. God has revealed all the truth that is now in the possession of the world, whether it be scientific or religious.

- Brigham Young

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 You must not believe all that is told you, but think for yourself.

- Brigham Young

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 Now let me ask you, if you trust to my faith, to my word and teachings, counsel and advice, and do not seek after the Lord to have His Spirit to guide and direct you, can I not deceive you, can I not lead you into error? Look at this and see to what mischief it would lead, and what an amount of evil could be done to a people if they did not live so that the Spirit of the Lord would dwell with them that they might know these things for themselves.

- Brigham Young

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 I was led to reflect that there is no act, no principle, no power belonging to the Deity that is not purely philosophical...

- Brigham Young

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 There is no true philosophy in existence which is not embraced in the Gospel, it belongs to the Gospel, it is a part of the Gospel...

- Brigham Young

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 We believe that God is round about all things, above all things, in all things, and throughout all things. To tell about empty space is to tell of a space where God is not, and where the wicked might safely hide from his presence. There is no such thing as empty space.

- Brigham Young

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 We are placed on this earth to prove whether we are worthy to go into the celestial world, the terrestrial, or the telestial, or to hell, or to any other kingdom or place, and we have enough of life given us to do this.

- Brigham Young

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 The Gospel of life and salvation which God has revealed to us, incorporates all the systems there are. Every true principle and every true science and every truth there is, are incorporated within the faith of the Latter-day Saints.

- Brigham Young

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 Teach the people truth, teach them correct principle; show them what is for their greatest good and don't you think they will follow in that truth?

- Brigham Young

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 We do not expect to cease learning while we live on earth; and when we pass through the veil, we expect still to continue to learn...[W]e are not capacitated to receive all knowledge at once. We must therefore receive a little here and a little there.

- Brigham Young

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 President Brigham Young: “God…has endowed us with glorious faculties, with Godlike attributes like those which are incorporated in his own nature, and he has placed us upon this earth to honor them, and to sanctify ourselves and the earth preparatory to enjoying it in its celestial state. “…man possesses the germ of all the attributes and power that are possessed by God his Heavenly Father.“

- Brigham Young

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 We consider that the men in the Revolution were inspired, by the Almighty, to throw off the shackles of the mother government, with her established religion. For this cause were Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and a host of others inspired to deeds of resistance to the acts of the King of Great Britain, who might also have been led to those aggressive acts, for aught we know, to bring to pass the purposes of God, in thus establishing a new government upon a principle of greater freedom, a basis of self-government allowing the free exercise of religious worship. It was the voice of the Lord inspiring all those worthy men who bore influence in those trying times, not only to go forth in battle, but to exercise wisdom in council, fortitude, courage, and endurance in the tented field, as well as subsequently to form and adopt those wise and efficient measures which secured to themselves and succeeding generations, the blessing of a free and independent government. This government, so formed, has been blessed by the Almighty until she spreads her sails in every sea, and her power is felt in every land.

- Brigham Young

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 If this congregation could comprehend that the intelligence that is in them is eternal in its nature and existence.

- Brigham Young

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 “My policy is to keep every man, woman, and child busily employed, that they may have no idle time for hatching mischief in the night, and for making plans to accomplish their own ruin.”

- Brigham Young

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 “He does not want to slay His children who love and serve him, He is not a hard master, nor a severe Father, but when He chastens, it is because He wishes to bring His children to understanding, that they may know where the true riches are, and what are the true riches of eternity, and rejoice with Him in His presence, being made equal with Him.”

- Brigham Young

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 Our bodies are composed of visible tangible matter...What is commonly called death does not destroy the body, it only causes a separation of spirit and body, but the principle of life, inherent in the native elements, of which the body is composed, still continues.

- Brigham Young

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 We are striving for eternal life, and are opposed to those who love and have the power of death. We have the influence and the power of life and that necessarily brings us in opposition to those who prefer the principles of death.

- Brigham Young

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 Have we not brought Babylon with us? Are we not promoting Babylon here in our midst? Are we not fostering the spirit of Babylon that is now abroad on the face of the whole earth? I ask myself this question, and I answer, Yes, yes, to some extent, and there is not a Latter-day Saint but what feels that we have too much of Babylon in our midst. The spirit of Babylon is too prevalent here. What is it? Confusion, discord, strife, animosity, vexation, pride, arrogance, self will and the spirit of the world. Are these things in the midst of those called Latter-day Saints? Yes, and we feel this.

- Brigham Young

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 That [which we] call eternal philosophy, God’s philosophy, the philosophy of angels—natural philosophy, reason-able philosophy … commends itself to the human mind, to the intelligence that man possesses...

- Brigham Young

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 Man is created for a glorious purpose—for a life that is eternal. A great deal is comprehended in the two words “eternal life;” they entirely exclude death. We have no death to preach, for we should never practice the principles of death, but pursue the path that leads to the continuation of the lives.

- Brigham Young

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 This is a day of days, and a time of times; this is the fulness of times, in which all things that are in Christ are to be gathered in one. This is a momentous period … The powers of earth and hell have striven to destroy this Kingdom from the earth. The wicked have succeeded in doing so in former ages; but this Kingdom they cannot destroy, because it is the last dispensation—because it is the fulness of times. It is the dispensation of all dispensations, and will excel in magnificence and glory every dispensation that has ever been committed to the children of men upon the earth. The Lord will bring again Zion, redeem his Israel, plant his standard upon the earth, and establish the laws of his Kingdom, and those laws will prevail.

- Brigham Young

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 The truth always stands upon its own foundation, and speaks for itself.

- Brigham Young

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 If you love the truth you can remember it.

- Brigham Young

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 I will not say, as do many, that the more I learn the more I am satisfied that I know nothing; for the more I learn the more I discern an eternity of knowledge to improve upon.

- Brigham Young

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 The ordinances of the house of God are expressly for the Church of the Firstborn.

- Brigham Young

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 It is your privilege to do as you please. Just please yourselves; but when you do so, will you please bear the results and not whine over them. It is the way with thousands and thousands, when they burn their fingers they will turn around and complain of somebody else, when they themselves are the only ones to blame. How natural is it for some to endeavor to blame others for the troubles their own follies have induced!

- Brigham Young

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 Yes, we will lay down these bodies in the grave. What for? That the dust, our mother earth, that composes the house of the spirit, may be purified by passing through this ordeal, and be prepared to be called up and united with the intelligent heavenly body that God has prepared. This is nothing but a change. It is not the dissolution of the creature; it is merely putting off the flesh that pertains to this world. The particles of this earth that now compose this body will be rearranged, and the spirit will be clothed with an immortal tabernacle.

- Brigham Young

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 “I collect means around me, the poor must have it, and I make them work and pay for it; that makes me wealthy, and I cannot help it.”

- Brigham Young

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 When the elements in an organized form do not fill the end of their creation, they are thrown back again, like brother Kimball's old pottery ware, to be ground up and made over again. All I have to say about it is what Jesus says – I will destroy death, and him that hath the power of it, which is the devil. And if he ever makes "a full end of the wicked," what else can he do than entirely disorganize them, and reduce them to their native element?

- Brigham Young

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 President Brigham Young: “Many men and women who have obeyed the Gospel, and have not received from the Lord these striking testimonies, will say, ‘Well, I really do not know that I can tell whether the Gospel is true or not.’ To all such I say, then you are no philosopher at all, for upon the rational principles of common philosophy you can tell whether it is true or not. Does it contain the seeds of life? Does it promote the plants and yield the fruits of life, or does it produce the plants and yield the fruits of death? You can ask these questions and readily answer them for yourselves.”

- Brigham Young

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 I would rather be chopped to pieces at night; and resurrected in the morning, each day throughout a period of three-score years and ten, than be deprived of speaking freely, or be afraid of doing so. I will speak for my rights.

- Brigham Young

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 We have the meanest devils on the earth in our midst, and we intend to keep them, for we have use for them; and if the devil does not look sharp, we will cheat him out of them at the last, for they will reform and go to heaven with us.

- Brigham Young

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 “[All] Matter is capacitated to receive intelligence … matter can be organized and brought forth into intelligence, and to continue to increase in that intelligence.”

- Brigham Young

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 “As for the multitude of words, they are but of little consequence, the ideas are of far the greatest importance.”

- Brigham Young

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 It may appear strange to Jew and Gentile, to Saint and sinner, to high and low, to bond and free, but with all our weaknesses and imperfections we, the Latter-day Saints, are the hope of the whole world.

- Brigham Young

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 “I could give you, thus saith the Lord; but the faith we have embraced is so reasonable, rational and consistent, and so easily proved, that I am not under the necessity of saying, thus saith the Lord. If I wanted you to believe a mass of folly and nonsense, such as others wish you to believe, then it would be necessary to say, thus saith the Lord, to operate upon the fears of the more ignorant and superstitious of mankind. The truth always stands upon its own foundation, and speaks for itself.”

- Brigham Young

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 “God has made His children like Himself to stand erect, and has endowed them with intelligence and power and dominion over all His works, and given them the same attributes which He himself possesses.”

- Brigham Young

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 In short, what would you sacrifice? The Saints sacrifice everything; but, strictly speaking, there is no sacrifice about it. If you give a penny for a million of gold! A handful of earth for a planet! A temporary worn out tenement for one glorified, that will exist, abide, and continue to increase throughout a never ending eternity, what a sacrifice to be sure!

- Brigham Young

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 “The intelligence we possess is from our Father and our God. Every attribute that is in His character is in His children in embryo. It is their duty to improve and develop those attributes.”

- Brigham Young

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 When I have gold and silver in my possession, which a thief may steal, or friends borrow, And never pay me back again, or which may take the wings of the morning, and I behold it no more, I only possess the negative of true riches.

- Brigham Young

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 Improvement belongs to the spirit and plan of the heavens ... [therefore] ... Cultivate the earth and cultivate your minds.

- Brigham Young

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 It is true I gather a great deal of substance around me; I am obliged to do it. I cannot shun it. I must feed the poor, I must clothe them and take care of them.

- Brigham Young

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 The work of building up Zion is in every sense a practical work; it is not a mere theory. A theoretical religion amounts to very little real good or advantage to any person.

- Brigham Young

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 It has also been decreed by the Almighty that spirits, upon taking bodies, shall forget all they had known previously, or they could not have a day of trial—could not have an opportunity for proving themselves in darkness and temptation, in unbelief and wickedness, to prove themselves worthy of eternal existence.

- Brigham Young

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 My mission to the people is to teach them with regard to their every-day lives…

- Brigham Young

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 The skill of building up and establishing the Zion of our God on the earth is to take the people and teach them how to take care of themselves.

- Brigham Young

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 That makes me think of a great many Christians in the world; when they are sick and in trouble they will pray; if they are in fear of starving to death for want of food, of freezing through lack of raiment or fuel, then they will call upon the Lord. I know the old Prophet said, “In the day of trouble they draw nigh unto me.” Get out, say I, in my feelings, in regard to such a religion. When I am starving to death it is time for me to be diligent in getting something to eat; when the ship is in a storm, it is then time to look out for the rigging. One may say, “Are you not going down below to pray, in this dreadful storm?” “No, I have no time to pray now, I must take care of the ship.” So it should be with every Latter-day Saint. By and by the storm is over, then let us go down into the cabin and do up our praying in fair weather. That is what “Mormonism” teaches me

- Brigham Young

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 We are to be like the good physician; and if we see the sick—those afflicted with pain and distress in the head, eyes, teeth, or in any of the limbs or other portion of the body, it is our duty to have the medicine—the remedy to administer to that pain, to heal, to cure, to rebuke the disease and save the sick like a good physician, and not kill them by dosing down the medicine as do some of our doctors. Administer the medicine in all mildness, and with good judgment and discretion. Seek until you learn the medicine to administer to each patient, and how much to give to each.

- Brigham Young

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 When a man who is called and ordained of God goes forth he preaches the ordinances, faith in Christ and obedience to him as our Savior. He declares that the first step to be taken, after believing in the Father and the Son, is to go down into the waters of baptism and there be immersed in the water, and come up out of the water as Jesus did. Some may inquire why the Latter-day Saints are so strenuous on this point? We do it for the remission of sins; Jesus did this to fulfil all righteousness.

- Brigham Young

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 I will not say, as do many, that the more I learn the more I am satisfied that I know nothing; for the more I learn the more I discern an eternity of knowledge to improve upon.

- Brigham Young

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 Though we have it in history that our father Adam was made of the dust of this earth, and that he knew nothing about his God previous to being made here, yet it is not so; and when we learn the truth we shall see and understand that he helped to make this world, and was the chief manager in that operation. He was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world, and brought a wife with him and stayed here. You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle.

- Brigham Young

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 Let us sustain ourselves, for by and by Babylon will fall. What will be the result? The merchants will stand and look at one another worse than they do in this city. No man will buy their merchandise; and they will look here and there for a customer; but there will be no one to buy their merchandise, and the cry will be, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!” Is this day coming? Yes; just as sure as we are now living. We are hastening it with all possible speed, as fast as time and circumstances will admit, when it will be said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!”

- Brigham Young

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 Moses held the keys and authority above all the rest upon the earth. He holds the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which is the Priesthood of the Son of God, which holds the keys of all these Priesthoods, dispensing the blessings and privileges of both Priesthoods to the people, as he did in the days of the Children of Israel when he led them out of Egypt.

- Brigham Young

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 “The mind would ask at once, what is truth? It is anything, principle, or fact that actually has an existence.”

- Brigham Young

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 There is a variety of blessings; a different blessing being probably given to one, two, three or four of this congregation. Thus, one will have faith to lay hands upon the sick and rebuke disease, and drive it from the person afflicted. Many may receive this blessing of faith, the gift of healing. Some may receive faith to the discerning of spirits; they can discern the spirit of a person, whether it is good or evil. They have such power that when a person enters this congregation they can tell the spirit of such person; then they have received the gift of discerning of spirits … When a person opens his mouth, no matter what he talks about, to a person of quick discernment he will disclose more or less of his true sentiments. You cannot hide the heart, when the mouth is open. If you want to keep your heart secret, keep your mouth shut.

- Brigham Young

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 "Mormonism" embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical. It comprehends all true science known by man, angels, and the gods. There is one true system and science of life; all else tends to death. That system emanates from the Fountain of life.

- Brigham Young

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 When the earth was framed and brought into existence and man was placed upon it, it was near the throne of our Father in Heaven …This is the glory the earth came from, and when it is glorified it will return again unto the presence of the father, and it will dwell there, and these intelligent beings that I am looking at, if they live worthy of it, will dwell upon this earth.

- Brigham Young

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 How far does our agency extend? There are certain bounds to it. What we have witnessed in thirty years experience teaches us that man can appoint, but God can disappoint. Man can load his gun to shoot his neighbor, but he cannot make the ball hit him, if the Lord Almighty sees fit to turn it away. He can draw the sword to hew down his fellow-man; but instead of that, he may fall upon it himself.

- Brigham Young

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 Our father, the great God, is the author of the sciences, he is the great mechanic, he is the systemizer of all things, he plans and devises all things, and every particle of knowledge which man has in his possession is the gift of God, whether they consider it divine, or whether it is the wisdom of man; it belongs to God, and he has bestowed it upon us, his children, dwelling here on earth. A fact is a fact, all truth issues forth from the fountain of truth, and the sciences are facts as far as men have proved them.

- Brigham Young

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 According as people are willing to receive the things of God, so the heavens send forth their blessings.

- Brigham Young

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 We do not allow ourselves to go into a field to plough without taking our religion with us; we do not go into an office, behind the counter to deal out goods, into a counting house with the books, or anywhere to attend to or transact any business without taking our religion with us. If we are railroading, or on a pleasure trip our God and our religion must be with us.

- Brigham Young

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 Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind has been given by direct revelation from God, though but few acknowledge it. It has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and satan. We should take advantage of all these great discoveries, the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step foreward and efficiently do their part in the great work.

- Brigham Young

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 I am a witness that ‘Mormonism’ is true upon philosophical principles. Every particle of sense I have, proves it to be sound natural reason...

- Brigham Young

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 The Saints sacrifice everything; but, strictly speaking, there is no [self] sacrifice about it. If you give a penny for a million of gold! a handful of earth for a planet! a temporary worn out tenement for one glorified, that will exist, abide, and continue to increase throughout a never ending eternity, what a sacrifice to be sure!

- Brigham Young

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 You read about a first resurrection. If there is a first, there is a second. And if a second, may there not be a third, and a fourth, and so on? Yes; and happy are they who have a part in the first resurrection. Yes, more blessed are they than any others. But blessed also are they that will have part in the second resurrection, for they will be brought forth to enjoy a kingdom that is more glorious than the sectarian world ever dreamed of.

- Brigham Young

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 I was led to reflect that there is no act, no principle, no power belonging to the Deity that is not purely philosophical...

- Brigham Young

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 When we consider the condition of the Latter-day Saints, and see how many there are who seem to have their eyes fixed upon the things of this world, things that are not lasting, but that perish in the handling, and how anxious they are to obtain them, how do you think I feel about it? We see many of the Elders of Israel desirous of becoming wealthy, and they adopt any course that they think will bring them riches, which to me is as unwise as anything can be-to see men of wisdom, men that seem to have an understanding of the world and of the things of God, searching after minerals throughout these mountains; they traverse the hills, and they dig here and there, and keep digging and picking, and rolling the rocks from morning till night. This chain of mountains has been followed from the north to the south, and its various spurs have been prospected, and what do they find? Just enough to allure them, and to finally lead them from the faith, and at last to make them miserable and poor. Ask the brethren why they do this, and the ready reply will be, "Is it not my privilege to find a gold mine, or a silver mine, as well as others?" As far as I am concerned I would say, "Yes, certainly it is your privilege, if you can find one." But do you know how to find such a mine? No, you do not. These treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched, they can be removed from place to place according to the good pleasure of Him who made them and owns them. He has his messengers at his service, and it is just as easy for an angel to remove the minerals from any part of one of these mountains to another, as it is for you and me to walk up and down this hall.

- Brigham Young

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 Can we realize how this Providence governs and controls the nations of the earth, and marks out the destinies of individual man? If we have not learned these lessons they are before us, and we have them yet to learn. If we have not yet learned that poverty, sickness, pain, want, disappointment, losses, crosses, or even death, should not move us one hair's breadth from the service of God, or separate us from the principles of eternal life, it is a lesson we have to learn. If we have not learned how to handle the things of this world in the light of salvation, we have it yet to learn. Though we have mountains of gold and silver, and stores of precious things heaped up, and could control the elements, and command the cattle on a thousand hills, if we have not learned that every iota of it should be devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on earth, it is a lesson yet to learn.

- Brigham Young

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 If a woman is sealed to me and she wants to be divorced, she has a right to and I am under no obligation. Is not that agency all round? We have the privilege of being sealed or released.

- Brigham Young

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 We also understand the earth, and the nature of the earth, and why God permitted Mother Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit. We should not have been here today if she had not; we could never have possessed wisdom and intelligence if she had not done it. It was all in the economy of heaven, and we need not talk about it; it is all right. We should never blame Mother Eve, not the least. I am thankful to God that I know good from evil, the bitter from the sweet, the things of God from the things not of God … His great wisdom and condescension in suffering the children of men to fall into the very sin into which they have fallen, for He did it that they, like Jesus, might descend below all things and then press forward and rise above all. Our spirits once dwelt in the heavens and were as pure and holy as the angels; but angels have tabernacles and spirits have none, and they are anxious to take tabernacles and they come to the meanest, lowest and humblest of the human race to obtain one rather than run any risk of not doing so.

- Brigham Young

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 If we were prepared to gaze upon the mysteries of the kingdom, as they are with God, we should then know that only a very small portion of them has been handed out here and there.

- Brigham Young

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 He does not want to slay His children who love and serve him, He is not a hard master, nor a severe Father, but when He chastens, it is because He wishes to bring His children to understanding, that they may know where the true riches are, and what are the true riches of eternity, and rejoice with Him in His presence, being made equal with Him.

- Brigham Young

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 When the elements in an organized form do not fill the end of their creation, they are thrown back again, like brother Kimball's old pottery ware, to be ground up, and made over again. All I have to say about it is what Jesus says — I will destroy Death, and him that hath the power of it, which is the devil. And if he ever makes “a full end of the wicked,” what else can he do than entirely disorganize them, and reduce them to their native element? Here are some of the mysteries of the kingdom.

- Brigham Young

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 This is the place where every man commences to acquire the germ of the independence that is enjoyed in the heavens.

- Brigham Young

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 It is easier to defend the truth than to defend error. It is necessary that the religions and creeds of the Christian world be defended by the most able and learned students, in order to make them popular and to appear as true. But after these Christian students have been through academies and colleges, and the most famed seminaries in the world, and after they have studied and studied, spending a life-time in the acquisition of a theological education, it takes but one of our boys, with the aid of the Bible and the little Catechism, to wind them up as you would an old clock. This has been the experience of many of our boys, and when they started out from their homes to preach the Gospel, they did not know that they could say anything at all about its principles; but when they have come in contact with those who have professed much and who have undertaken to disprove the Gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints, their minds have become enlightened and passages of Scripture have come to them, and they have discomfited their opponents, so that they have had nothing to say. I have done so many times myself, and that too with a few words; and the conversation would be turned to something else. With all their study and learning, and with all the philosophy and science there is brought to the aid of false theories, how easy it is to believe the truth! It is much easier than to disbelieve it. Truth commends itself to every honest person, it matters not how simply it is told, and when it is received it seems as though we had been acquainted with it all our lives.

- Brigham Young

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 If you were in the Temples of God working for the living and the dead, your eyes and hearts would not be after the fashions of the world, nor the wealth of the world. Yet the whole of this world's wealth belongs to the Lord, and he can give to whomsoever he pleases.

- Brigham Young

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 Do not let our minds run after gold and silver, nor upon houses and lands; what the Lord gives us take the very best care of, putting the same to a wise and proper use, or our hearts cannot be for the kingdom.

- Brigham Young

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 Then the greater the vision, the greater the display of the power of the enemy. So when individuals are blessed with visions, revelations, and great manifestations, look out, then the Devil is nigh you, and you will be tempted in proportion to the visions, revelation, or manifestation you have received.

- Brigham Young

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 Look at ourselves - run over our own experience, and we shall discover that ourselves, our neighbors, our friends, our acquaintances, and all people do not always know when they are happy. In other words, if you could crowd an individual or a community into heaven without experience, it would be no enjoyment to them.

- Brigham Young

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 I collect means around me, the poor must have it, and I make them work and pay for it; that makes me wealthy, and I cannot help it.

- Brigham Young

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 The Lord has revealed certain principles from the heavens by which we are to live. The principles which He has revealed I have taught to the people and they control themselves. This is the great secret now in controlling the people. It is thought that I control them, but it is not so.

- Brigham Young

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 “Well, I will say that our religion is nothing more nor less than the true order of heaven—the system of laws by which the Gods and the angels are governed. Are they governed by law? Certainly. There is no being in all the eternities but what is governed by law.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Man is prone to wander as the sparks are to fly upwards. The spirit is warring with the flesh continually, and the flesh against the spirit. Which will come off victorious? This will decide the destiny of all the inhabitants of the earth. If the spirit reigns triumphant and overcomes the body and its passions, that character will receive glory; but if the passions and sin, within the flesh, overcome the spirit and subdue it, that character will be lost.”

- Brigham Young

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 My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give, out and out, to man or woman, money, food, clothing, or anything else, if they are able-bodied, and can work and earn what they need, when there is anything on the earth for them to do. This is my principle, and I try to act upon it. To purse a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers.

- Brigham Young

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 Now, should you go prospecting for gold or silver, you will find just enough to allure you and to destroy you. But it might be said, "Are not the earth and the treasures the property of the Lord who created them, and will he not, according to the promise, give them to his faithful disciples?" O yes, this is strictly correct; but you mark this-the man who is faithful to his calling and to this holy Priesthood, never goes hunting for gold or silver, unless he is sent. Such men are found following their legitimate pursuits, working in their fields, in their workshops and gardens, making beautiful their habitations; in other words, engaged building up and assisting to establish the Zion of God on the earth, with their minds centered on the true riches and not upon the things of this world. People do not know it, but I know there is a seal set upon the treasures of earth; men are allowed to go so far and no farther. I have known places where there were treasures in abundance; but could men get them? No. You can read in the Book of Mormon of the ancient Nephites holding their treasures, and of their becoming slippery; so that after they had privately hid their money, on going to the place again, lo and behold it was not there, but was somewhere else, but they knew not where. The people do not understand this; I wish they did, for they would then do as I do, pay attention to the legitimate business that God has given them to perform. Do I run after mines or digging holes in the ground? No, not at all. It is like the will-o'-the wisp, a jack o'-lantern. You ask our business men, or go to California, and enquire there whether it pays to hunt for gold. I will venture to say there never was a dollar taken from the mountains of California, neither from these mountains west, nor from out of this Territory, but what cost from ten to one hundred dollars. Do you believe that? It is said a great deal of money has been made here and there. Who has made it? Considerable lead has been taken from here, and a little silver; but when you count the time that has been spent, and after putting a fair valuation upon it, you will find what I say to be a fact, to say nothing of the lives and property that are lost. A little town directly west of here, some fifteen months ago, contained a certain number of men, who followed mining. We calculated their time at the rate of what was paid for common labor; and then we ascertained the amount realized from the treasure taken out of the earth, which was well known; and it was shown that they spent in the neighborhood of seven hundred dollars a day, and got in return about thirty. What they did get was just sufficient to allure them.

- Brigham Young

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 The mothers are the moving instruments in the hands of Providence to guide the destinies of nations. Let the mothers of any nation teach their children not to make war, the children would grow up and never enter into it. . . . Consequently, you see at once what I wish to impress upon your minds is, that the mothers are the machinery that gives zest to the whole man, and guide the destinies and lives of men upon the earth

- Brigham Young

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 Abraham was faithful to the true God; he overthrew the idols of his father and obtained the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of God, and a promise that of the increase of his seed there should be no end; when you obtain the holy Priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek, sealed upon you, and the promise that your seed shall be numerous as the stars in the firmament, or as the sands upon the seashore, and of your increase there shall be no end, you have then got the promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the blessings that were conferred upon them.

- Brigham Young

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 It is written that God knows all things and has all power. He has the rule and command of this earth, and is the Father of all the human beings that have lived, do live and will live upon it. If any of his children become heirs to all things, they in their turn can say, by-and-by, that they know all things, and they will be called Supreme, Almighty, King of kings, Lord of lords. All this and more that cannot enter into our hearts to conceive is promised to the faithful, and are but so many stages in that ceaseless progression of eternal lives. This will not detract anything from the glory and might of our Heavenly Father. For he will still remain our Father, and we shall still be subject to him, and as we progress in glory and power, the more it enhances the glory and power of our Heavenly Father. This principle holds good in either state, whether mortal or immortal.

- Brigham Young

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 If we were prepared to gaze upon the mysteries of the kingdom, as they are with God, we should then know that only a very small portion of them has been handed out here and there.

- Brigham Young

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 “We are not in opposition to anything in earth or hell, except the principle of death. God has introduced life, and it is the principle of life that we are after.”

- Brigham Young

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 [Riches] They are like a thing of naught to those who understand the things of the kingdom of God. They are to be used, but not abused. They are to be handled with discretion, and looked upon in their true light, without any lustful desires, as the means to feed, clothe, and make us comfortable, that we may be prepared to secure to ourselves eternal riches.

- Brigham Young

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 The only true riches in existence are for you and I to secure for ourselves a holy resurrection; then we have command of the gold end the silver, and can place it where we please, and in whose hands we please.

- Brigham Young

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 There can be no such thing as power to annihilate element. There is one eternity of element, which can be organized or disorganized, composed or decomposed;

- Brigham Young

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 If, while a missionary to the nations of the earth, you should be shipwrecked on a desolate island and starve to death, die like a man.

- Brigham Young

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 We consider that the men in the Revolution were inspired, by the Almighty, to throw off the shackles of the mother government, with her established religion. For this cause were Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and a host of others inspired to deeds of resistance to the acts of the King of Great Britain, who might also have been led to those aggressive acts, for aught we know, to bring to pass the purposes of God, in thus establishing a new government upon a principle of greater freedom, a basis of self-government allowing the free exercise of religious worship. It was the voice of the Lord inspiring all those worthy men who bore influence in those trying times, not only to go forth in battle, but to exercise wisdom in council, fortitude, courage, and endurance in the tented field, as well as subsequently to form and adopt those wise and efficient measures which secured to themselves and succeeding generations, the blessing of a free and independent government. This government, so formed, has been blessed by the Almighty until she spreads her sails in every sea, and her power is felt in every land.

- Brigham Young

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 Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. 2 Peter 1:17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Timothy 3:16 ...God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Alma 26:16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? 1 Peter 5:11 To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

- Brigham Young

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 All we are prepared to receive, the Lord gives us; all that the nations of the earth are prepared to receive he imparts unto them.

- Brigham Young

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 If members of all these various organizations were to obey the Gospel and gather together, the religion of heaven would clear their hearts of all political rubbish and make them one in voting for principles and measures, instead of men, and I think that any religion that will not do this is very feeble in its effects.

- Brigham Young

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 Remember, that true riches – life, happiness, and salvation, is to secure for ourselves a part in the first resurrection, where we are out of the reach of death and him that hath the power of it; then we are exalted to thrones, and have power to organize element. Yes, they that are faithful, and that overcome, shall be crowned with crowns of eternal glory. They shall see the time when their cities shall be paved with gold; for there is no end to the precious metals, they are in the native element, and there is an eternity of it. If you want a world of the most precious substance, you will have nothing to do but say the word and it is done.

- Brigham Young

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 Why do the children of men set their hearts on earthly things? They are to be used, but not to the abusing of yourselves. They are to be used to make us comfortable. Suppose all the good things of this world should be given to us, the gold and the silver, the cattle and the horses, and all the flocks of thousand Hills; it would be for the express purpose of building mansions and temples, of feeding the poor that cannot be themselves, of succoring the tried and the tempted, of sending Elders to preach the gospel from nation to nation, from island to island, and of gathering Israel from the four corners of the globe. But that moment that men seek to build up themselves, in preference to the kingdom of God, and seek to hoard up riches, while the widow and the fatherless, the sick and afflicted around them are in poverty and want, it proves that their hearts are weaned from their God; and their riches will perish in their fingers, and they with them.

- Brigham Young

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 The Lord being my helper, I will never give up the ship; I will never leave it, as long as there is an inch of plank left; and it will live in wilder seas than have yet assailed it, and come out unharmed; in short, it will endure fore ever.

- Brigham Young

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 We understand that we are to be made kings and priests unto God; now if I be made the king and lawgiver to my family, and if I have many sons, I shall become the father of many fathers, for they will have sons, and their sons will have sons, and so on, from generation to generation, and, in this way, I may become the father of many fathers, or the king of many kings. This will constitute every man a prince, king, lord, or whatever the Father sees fit to confer upon us. In this way we can become king of kings, and lord of lords, or father of fathers, or prince of princes, and this is the only course, for another man is not going to raise up a kingdom for you.

- Brigham Young

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 Let the Elders of Israel manfully man the old ship Zion - let every man faithfully stand to his post, and they will ultimately be worthy to enter into celestial glory.

- Brigham Young

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 “There is no miracle to any being in the heavens or on the earth, only to the ignorant. To a man who understands the philosophy of all the phenomena that transpire, there is no such thing as a miracle.”

- Brigham Young

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 “I am a witness that ‘Mormonism’ is true upon philosophical principles. Every particle of sense I have, proves it to be sound natural reason...”

- Brigham Young

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 Though we have it in history that our father Adam was made of the dust of this earth, and that he knew nothing about his God previous to being made here, yet it is not so; and when we learn the truth we shall see and understand that he helped to make this world, and was the chief manager in that operation.

- Brigham Young

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 Every time you kick 'Mormonism', you kick it upstairs: you never kick it downstairs.  The Lord Almighty so orders it.

- Brigham Young

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 I do not wish any Latter Day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ,—the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied. I wish them to know for themselves and understand for themselves.

- Brigham Young

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 Do I say Love your enemies? Yes, upon certain principles. But you are not required to love their wickedness: you are only required to love them so far as concerns a desire and effort to turn them from their evil ways, that they may be saved through obedience to the Gospel.

- Brigham Young

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 I saw that this people would have to flee into the mountains, and into a climate and country that the Gentiles would not desire. If we are not in such a place, I do not know where we will find one more undesirable than this. Do the Saints delight in this locality? No, it is repugnant to their feelings, if they could have their choice. Did I come here by choice, or was it not because I had to come? I like this country, and if it is not bare enough, cold and disagreeable enough, to those who wish to live in ease, we will find another location a little farther off.

- Brigham Young

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 He [Adam] was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world, and brought a wife with him and stayed here. You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle.

- Brigham Young

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 God never bestows upon His people, or upon an individual, superior blessings without a severe trial to prove them, to prove that individual, or that people, to see whether they will keep their covenants with Him, and keep in remembrance what He has shown them. Then the greater the vision, the greater the display of the power of the enemy. And when such individuals are off their guard they are left to themselves, as Jesus was. For this express purpose the Father withdrew His spirit from His Son, at the time he was to be crucified.

- Brigham Young

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 You believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe, though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not, to my understanding. You can write that information to the States, if you please—that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Christian world do. I never did, and I never want to. What is the reason I do not? Because I have come to understanding, and banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a child.

- Brigham Young

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 The purpose of the creation of this earth was to provide a place where opposites not only exist but are experienced. Brigham Young observed: “Facts are made apparent to the human mind by their opposites. We find ourselves surrounded in this mortality by an almost endless combination of opposites, through which we must pass to gain experience and information to fit us for an eternal progression.”

- Brigham Young

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 What does man's power on the earth consist of? Of the influence he possesses. If a man have influence with God he has power with Him. Again, if he has influence with the people he has power with them; that is all the legitimate or righteous power man has. We have influence; God has given it to us, and the Latter day Saints delight to place that confidence in us that is deserving, and the wicked world cannot help it.

- Brigham Young

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 You hear much said by some about their sacrifices. As they use the term it is without meaning to me … Where, then, is the [self] sacrifice this people have ever made? There is no such thing—they have only exchanged a worse condition for a better one.

- Brigham Young

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 “I have not much love for them, only in the Gospel. I would cause them to repent, if I could, and make them good men and a good community. I have no fellowship for their avarice, blindness, and ungodly actions. To be great, is to be good before the Heavens and before all good men. I will not fellowship the wicked in their sins, so help me God.”

- Brigham Young

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 The religion that the Lord has revealed from heaven unites the hearts of the people, and when they gather together, no matter where they are from, they are of one heart and one mind. Those who have no idea of the effects of the Gospel attribute the oneness it produces to the influence of individuals now living on the earth, instead of giving God the glory, praise and honor.

- Brigham Young

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 When God speaks to the people, he does it in a manner to suit their circumstances and capacities. . . . Should the Lord Almighty send an angel to rewrite the Bible, it would in many places be very different from what it now is. And I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be rewritten, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation.

- Brigham Young

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 As Brigham Young taught: “There never has been a time when there have not been worlds like this, and … there never will be a time when there will not be worlds organized and prepared for intelligent beings to dwell upon” (in Journal of Discourses, 8:81). “And they are continually coming into existence, and undergoing changes and passing through the same experience we are passing through. … and every earth, and the people thereof, in their turn and time, receive all that we receive, and pass through all the ordeals that we are passing through”

- Brigham Young

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 Civilization is simply the spirit of improvement, in learning and civil manners ... The laboring man, the ingenious, industrious and prudent man, the man who lays himself out to advance the human family in every saving principle for happiness, for beauty and excellency, for wisdom, power, greatness and glory is the true benefactor of this race; he is the gentleman, the honorable, high- minded citizen of the world, and is worthy of the society and admiration of the great and wise among all nations...

- Brigham Young

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 The mothers are the moving instruments in the hands of Providence to guide the destinies of nations. Let the mothers of any nation teach their children not to make war, the children would grow up and never enter into it. . . . Consequently, you see at once what I wish to impress upon your minds is, that the mothers are the machinery that gives zest to the whole man, and guide the destinies and lives of men upon the earth.

- Brigham Young

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 "The Holy Ghost, we believe, is one of the characters that form the Trinity, or the Godhead. Not one person in three, nor three persons in one; but the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in essence, as the hearts of three men who are united in all things. He is one of the three characters we believe in, whose office it is to administer to those of the human family who love the truth.”

- Brigham Young

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 Let the Latter-day Saints neglect their labor and they will soon find that they are declining in their feelings, tastes and judgments for improving the elements of the earth; hence we say, improve, be industrious, prudent, faithful, make good farms, gardens and orchards, good public and private buildings, have the best schools, &c. The world gives us the credit of being the most industrious people on the face of the earth.

- Brigham Young

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 Seek for that which will endure.

- Brigham Young

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 There is only one thing which the people lack on this point, in order that their traditions and former education may do them good, and that is to know how to sever the good from the bad, how to assimilate to themselves every good trait of character they have seen in their fathers and mothers, teachers and neighbors, and every good thing that has been taught them from their youth, and how to gather to themselves every good principle they have been traditionated in, and store that up as their individual property, and then dispense with every erroneous idea and every inconsistency.

- Brigham Young

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 Many things which have been taught us in our childhood, or in our early lives, are truly inconsistent; lay them aside and cleave to the traditions which actually tend to virtue, holiness, chastity, loveliness, kindness, honesty, and truthfulness in every respect, and gather all the good into our own storehouse, and let each one say, that belongs to me. Some imagine that they must begin and unlearn the whole of their former education, but I say, cling to all the good that you have learned, and discard the bad.

- Brigham Young

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 When misuse of power has reached a certain stage, the divinity that is within the people asserts its right and they free themselves from the power of despotism.

- Brigham Young

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 They are just as busy in the spirit world as you and I are here. They can see us, but we cannot see them unless our eyes were opened. What are they doing there? They are preaching, preaching all the time, and preparing the way for us to hasten our work in building temples here and elsewhere, and to go back to Jackson County and build the great temple of the Lord. They are hurrying to get ready by the time we are ready, and we are all hurrying to get ready by the time our Elder Brother is ready.

- Brigham Young

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 “Where is Zion? Where the organization of the Church of God is.”

- Brigham Young

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 “We have improved as fast as the church of Enoch. I trust we improve faster, for we have not as much time as they had.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Millions will come and live in Zion when the laws of Zion reign predominant over creation; but will all be prepared to be crowned kings and priests unto God? No.”

- Brigham Young

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 Look for instance at Adam. Listen, ye Latter-day Saints! Supposing that Adam was formed actually out of clay, out of the same kind of material from which bricks are formed; that with this matter God made the pattern of a man, and breathed into it the breath of life, and left it there, in that state of supposed perfection, he would have been an adobe to this day. He would not have known anything.

- Brigham Young

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 they hold that God is an imaginary being. They cannot tell where nor how he lives, nor anything concerning his character, whether he is material or immaterial; but, like many of the most eminent divines, who have spread it through their pages for the people to read, they have come to the conclusion that the center of God is everywhere and his circumference nowhere—one of the most vain ideas that could be conceived by any intelligent being. Then what is their idea of the soul of man? That it is an immaterial substance. Who ever heard of such a thing? Ask any true philosopher if he can explain the meaning of an “immaterial substance.” It is like the center of a being everywhere and his circumference nowhere, or like being seated on the top of a topless throne. These are self-confounding expressions, and there is no meaning to any of them.’

- Brigham Young

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 “What does opposition bring? It certainly brings anger and strife; and of what use are they? They serve no good purpose. Then let us all vote one way, and think and act one way, and keep the commandments of God and build up His kingdom on the earth in peace and righteousness.”

- Brigham Young

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 Though we have it in history that our father Adam was made of the dust of this earth, and that he knew nothing about his God previous to being made here, yet it is not so; and when we learn the truth we shall see and understand that he helped to make this world, and was the chief manager in that operation.

- Brigham Young

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 “When I have gold and silver in my possession, which a thief may steal, or friends borrow, and never pay me back again, or which may take the wings of the morning, and I behold it no more, I only possess the negative of the true riches.” (True and False Riches, JD 1:264)

- Brigham Young

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 He [Adam] was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world, and brought a wife with him and stayed here. You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle.

- Brigham Young

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 I was in the stone quarry the other day, and saw the men breaking a large granite rock. They first drilled the holes so as to break the rock in a direct line. I saw one man take up his hammer and give a blow. It was too hard. Said I, “My father taught me in my youth that light knocks would split great blocks. Tap light next time.” The quarryman did this and pretty soon the rock divided almost as evenly as though it had been jointed. I wish to make an application of this to this people assembled here. ... But to do it in one day would be like driving the wedges so fast that you would split the rock where you would not want it split.

- Brigham Young

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 “Before we arrived in Winter Quarters we held obligations and accounts, against the poor Saints we had emigrated to America, to the amount of about thirty-five thousand dollars, and that too out of our own individual pockets — it was not Church money. But while we were in Winter Quarters, I do not think there could have been ten persons counted, old and young, who were brought from England by our liberality. Is this fact encouraging or discouraging? The honest poor are still suffering, I mean the Lord's poor. But you may take the devil's poor and the poor devils, and they will plead a thousand times harder to be brought out of England, to have their feet placed upon American soil, than the Lord's poor, or the honest poor. The devil's poor and the poor devils will manage to get here, while very many of the Lord's poor stay there and suffer, and continue to suffer until they lay down their bodies and sleep in the tomb. Thousands and thousands of them will do this, while that portion who call so loudly for help are those who will come here and then go to the devil.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Remember, that true riches — life, happiness, and salvation, is to secure for ourselves a part in the first resurrection, where we are out of the reach of death, and him that hath the power of it; then we are exalted to thrones, and have power to organize element. Yes, they that are faithful, and that overcome, shall be crowned with crowns of eternal glory. They shall see the time when their cities shall be paved with gold; for there is no end to the precious metals, they are in the native element, and there is an eternity of it. If you want a world of the most precious substance, you will have nothing to do but say the word, and it is done. … I presume we do not draw a single breath that there are not particles of these things mingled in it. But we have not the knowledge now to organize them at our pleasure. Until we have that power we are not fully in possession of the true riches…”

- Brigham Young

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 “Dare any of you come and buy property? I can furnish as much as you can buy…Walk up and buy my beautiful situation on the hill and I will put the proceeds into the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, if you will pay me the money, and gather the Saints, the Lord's poor, and the devil's poor, and the poor devils, and when we have got them here we will make Saints of them, if we can, and if we cannot, we will cast them out of the kingdom.”

- Brigham Young

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 The Kingdom of heaven is first and foremost with us.

- Brigham Young

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 It  will be a pleasure to know that we have saved all the Father gave into our power. Jesus said that he lost none except the sons of perdition. He will lose none of his brethren, except sons of perdition. Let us save all the Father puts in our power.

- Brigham Young

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 Love your enemies! What, love hell? When people do that, they get where devils are. If it had been written, 'Love the spirits God has placed in tabernacles, and try to reclaim them and do them good, and pray for those who despitefully use you,' I would feed and clothe them, take peculiar care of them, and place them where they would not hurt anybody. You may think that I am disputing the Bible. If you understood what the Lord means when he talks about loving His children, you would understand that he does not love them as they are now; for he hates and is angry with the wicked. He dislikes their wicked acts, but he loves His children, because he has organized them, and he wishes to see them obedient.

- Brigham Young

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 Knowledge and Intelligence—Education is a good thing, and blessed is the man who has it, and can use it for the dissemination of the Gospel without being puffed up with pride … When we speak upon education, it is not to be understood that it alone consists in a man’s learning the letters of the alphabet, in being trained in every branch of scholastic lore, in becoming a proficient in the knowledge of the sciences, and a classical scholar, but also in learning to classify himself and others.

- Brigham Young

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 “Light, intelligence, good, that which is of God, creates, fashions, forms, builds up, brings into existence, beautifies, makes excellent, glorifies, extends and increases. But that is not the easy road to power; it is easier to doubt than to believe, to tear down … to set a fire than to put one out, so that ‘that which is not of God burns, destroys, cuts down, ruins … Light and intelligence lead people to the fountain of truth; while the opposite principle says, ‘Don’t believe a word, don’t do a thing; burn up and destroy.’”

- Brigham Young

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 We hold that there can be no true Christian Church without a priesthood directly commissioned by and in immediate communication with the Son of God and Savior of mankind. Such a church is that of the Latter-Day Saints, called by their enemies Mormons; we know no other that even pretends to have present and direct revelations of God’s will.

- Brigham Young

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 When he has denied the Lord, defied Him and committed the sin that in the Bible is termed the unpardonable sin—the sin against the Holy Ghost. That is the time when a person will cease to learn, and from that time forth, will descend in ignorance, forgetting that which they formerly knew, and decreasing until they return to the native element, whether it be one thousand or in one million years, or during as many eternities as you can count. They will cease to increase, but must decrease, until they return to the native element. These are the only characters who will ever cease to learn, both in time and eternity.

- Brigham Young

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 “I used to tell the people, and I tell them the same now, I do not go in for a few millions, I go in for the pile, and I calculate to have it. ‘How are you going to get it?’ By serving God with all my heart and being a Saint indeed, and when the earth and its fullness are given into the hands of the Saints, I shall go in for my share—the whole pile. I used to say, ‘Why, brother Joseph is the greatest speculator I have heard of in modern times—he is going to have the whole earth.’”

- Brigham Young

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 If you are industrious and faithful scholars in the school you have entered into, you shall get lessons one after another, and continue on until you can see and understand the spirit of prophecy and revelation, which can be understood according to a systematic principle…

- Brigham Young

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 “People have reason to fear the bogus or spurious theocracy.”

- Brigham Young

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 I will tell you who the real fanatics are: they are they who adopt false principles and ideas as facts, and try to establish a superstructure upon a false foundation. They are the fanatics; and however ardent and zealous they may be, they may reason or argue on false premises till doomsday, and the result will be false.

- Brigham Young

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 “You see mankind running to and fro, like ants upon an ant-hill,—now forward, now wheeling and taking the back track; then to the right and to the left, seemingly in a perfect state of excitement and confusion. They are seeking they know not what. They possess the foundation for eternal intelligence, and they do not know how to obtain that which will satisfy their minds. Nothing can satisfy, except being perfectly subject to the law that will preserve them in their identity to all eternity, and that is the holy Priesthood.”

- Brigham Young

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 “The Priesthood is given to the people and the keys thereof, and when properly understood, they may actually unlock the treasury of the Lord, and receive to their fullest satisfaction.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Until a selfish, individual interest is banished from our minds, and we become interested in the general welfare, we shall never be able to magnify our Holy Priesthood as we should.”

- Brigham Young

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 There is one principle that I wish the people would understand and lay to heart. Just as fast as you will prove before your God that you are worthy to receive the mysteries, if you please to call them so, of the kingdom of heaven - that you are full of confidence in God - that you will never betray a thing that God tells you - that you will never reveal to your neighbor that which ought not to be revealed, as quick as you prepare to be entrusted with the things of God, there is an eternity of them to bestow upon you.

- Brigham Young

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 He is one of the three characters we believe in, whose office it is to administer to those of the human family who love the truth.

- Brigham Young

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 The Spirit of God: God is here; his influence fills immensity. He has his messengers throughout all the works of his hands. He watches every one of his creatures; their acts, their affections, and thoughts are all known to him: for his intelligence and power fill immensity. Not that his person does, but his Spirit does; and he is here teaching guiding and directing the nations of the earth.

- Brigham Young

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 You need the Spirit of the Almighty to look through a man and discern what is in his heart, while his face smiles upon you and his words flow as smoothly as oil. (3:225) Thrust a man into prison and bind him with chains, and then let him be filled with the comfort and with the glory of eternity, and that prison is a palace to him. Again, let a man be seated upon a throne with power and domin- ion in this world, ruling his millions and millions and with- out that peace which flows from the Lord of Hosts-with- out that contentment and joy that come from heaven, his palace is ap rison; his life is a burden to him; he lives in fear, in dread, and in sorrow. But when a person is filled with the peace and power of God, all is right with him.

- Brigham Young

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 Is it not also your ex- perience that, when you meet persons in the streets, in your houses, in your offices. or in your workshops, more or less of an influence attend them which conveys more than words can? By this the Father knows his children. Jesus knows his brethren, and the angels are acquainted with those who delight to associate with them and with those who hate them. This knowledge is obtained through that invisible influence which attends intelligent beings, and be- trays the atmosphere in which they delight to live. (8:57) Without the light of the Spirit of Christ, no person can truly enjoy life. (8:66)

- Brigham Young

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 You hearken to that still small voice that whispers eternal truth, that opens the visions of eternity to you that you can discern, understand and follow, and the foul spirits that throng the air, and that fill our houses if we let them in, will not have power over you. (15:7) Every individual that lives according to the laws that the Lord has given to his people, and has received the bless- ings that he has in store for the faithful, should be able to know the things of God from the things which are not of God, the light from the darkness, that which comes from heaven and that which comes from somewhere else. This is the satisfaction and the consolation that the Latter-day Saints enjoy by living their religion; this is the knowledge which every one who thus lives possesses. (16:163) Discourses of Brigham Young, pp. 30-35. Compiled by Elder John A. Widtsoe

- Brigham Young

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 The Whole Earth (President Brigham Young): “When Joseph first revealed the land where the Saints should gather, a woman in Canada asked if we thought that Jackson County would be large enough to gather all the people that would want to go to Zion. I will answer the question really as it is. Zion will extend, eventually, all over this earth. There will be no nook or corner upon the earth but what will be in Zion. It will all be Zion.”

- Brigham Young

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 “It has been told me from my youth up that opposition is the life of business, especially in the political arena. It is opposition that has ruined our nation, and has been, is and will be the ruin of all nations.”

- Brigham Young

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 “The Lord Almighty will not suffer His Priesthood to be again driven from the earth.”

- Brigham Young

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 Is it necessary that we should know good from evil? I can answer this to suit myself by saying it is absolutely necessary, for the simple reason that if we had never realized darkness we never could have comprehended the light; if we never tasted anything bitter, but were to eat sweets, the honey and the honeycomb, from the time we come into this world until the time we go out of it, what knowledge could we have of the bitter? This leads me to the decision that every fact that exists in this world is demonstrated by its opposite. If this is the fact—and all true philosophy proves it—it leads me to the conclusion that the transgression of our first parents was absolutely necessary, that we might be brought in contact with sin and have the opportunity of knowing good and evil.

- Brigham Young

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 “And where is the land of Zion? It is wherever the finger of the Lord has pointed out for His people to gather to. That is the place to go to. ”

- Brigham Young

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 “We are not going to wait for angels, or for Enoch and his company to come and build up Zion, but we are going to build it.”

- Brigham Young

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 “If we are to build up the kingdom of God, or establish Zion upon the earth, we have to labor with our hands, plan with our minds, and devise ways and means to accomplish that object.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Do we realize that if we enjoy a Zion in time or in eternity, we must make it for ourselves? That all who have a Zion in the eternities of the gods organized, framed, consolidated, and perfected it themselves, and consequently are entitled to enjoy it.”

- Brigham Young

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 “The angels that now walk in their golden streets, and they have the tree of life within their paradise, had to obtain that gold and put it there. When we have streets paved with gold, we will have placed it there ourselves. When we enjoy a Zion in its beauty and glory, it will be when we have built it. If we live in the city of the New Jerusalem, it will be because we lay the foundation and build it.”

- Brigham Young

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 The Kingdom of heaven is first and foremost with us.

- Brigham Young

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 “As individuals, we enjoy Zion at present, but not as a community; there is so much sin, darkness, and ignorance, and the veil of the covering which is over the nations of the earth is measurably over the Latter-day Saints. The same unrighteous principles, which becloud the minds of men universally, more or less becloud the minds of the Latter-day Saints.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Who, then, has the greatest power? Those who best do the will of God.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Are the Latter-day Saints ready to receive Zion from above? Have they wisdom and knowledge to receive and conduct themselves properly in the society of angels? I think not.”

- Brigham Young

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 “The skill of building up and establishing the Zion of our God on the earth is to take the people and teach them how to take care of themselves.”

- Brigham Young

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 “When eternity comes I will be prepared to enter on the things of eternity. But I would not be prepared for that sphere of action, unless I could manage the things that are now within my reach. You must all learn to do this.”

- Brigham Young

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 “No man is going to inherit a celestial glory, who trifles with the principles thereof. The man who does not labor from day to day and from hour to hour for building up this Kingdom and bringing forth the fulness of the Kingdom of God on the earth, and the establishment of Zion, will sooner or latter, fall and go out of the Church.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Then we shall begin to rapidly collect the intelligence that is bestowed upon the nations, for all this intelligence belongs to Zion. All the knowledge, wisdom, power, and glory that have been bestowed upon the nations of the earth, from the days of Adam till now, must be gathered home to Zion.”

- Brigham Young

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 “We will have a nation that understands all things pertaining to the earth that it is possible for man to grasp. … So that all the world can say there is a pattern for us, not only in our business and worship, but in our knowledge of things that are, things that have been and of things that are yet to come, until the knowledge of Zion shall reach the uttermost parts of the earth, and the kings and great men shall say, ‘Let us go up to Zion and learn wisdom’. Will they come here to learn how to govern? Yes.”

- Brigham Young

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 He is our Heavenly Father; He is also our God, and the Maker and upholder of all things in heaven and on earth. He sends forth His counsels and extends His providences to all living. He is the Supreme Controller of the universe. At His rebuke the sea is dried up, and the rivers become a wilderness.

- Brigham Young

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 Well, then, we ought, in the first place, to train ourselves to believe correctly, to think correctly, and to practice correctly, and instill correct principles into the minds of the rising generation.

- Brigham Young

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 … ‘think, brethren, think,’ but do not think so far that you cannot think back again…

- Brigham Young

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 “The earth is here, and the fullness thereof is here. It was made for man; and one man was not made to trample his fellow man under his feet, and enjoy all his heart desires, while the thousands suffer. We will take a moral view, a political view, and we see the inequality that exists in the human family. ... The Latter-day Saints will never accomplish their mission until this inequality shall cease on the earth.”

- Brigham Young

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 ‘I was in the stone quarry the other day, and saw the men breaking a large granite rock. They first drilled the holes so as to break the rock in a direct line. I saw one man take up his hammer and give a blow. It was too hard. Said I, “My father taught me in my youth that light knocks would split great blocks. Tap light next time.” The quarryman did this and pretty soon the rock divided almost as evenly as though it had been jointed. I wish to make an application of this to this people assembled here. … to [make large changes] in one day would be like driving the wedges so fast that you would split the rock where you would not want it split.’

- Brigham Young

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 “Every good that man performs is, firstly, for his own benefit and eternal welfare, if he continues in well doing, and secondly, for the common good of others. … First and foremost is to secure our own salvation and do right pertaining to ourselves, and then extend the hand of right to save others.

- Brigham Young

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 “It is written, ‘Love your enemies’ … I do not think the term was any more misapplied than when the Apostles wrote, ‘Love your enemies;’ for I do not believe a word of that.”

- Brigham Young

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 “‘Love your enemies!’ What, love hell? When people do that, they get where devils are. If it had been written, ‘Love the spirits God has placed in tabernacles, and try to reclaim them and do them good, and pray for those who despitefully use you,’ I would feed and clothe them, take peculiar care of them, and place them where they would not hurt any body. You may think that I am disputing the Bible. If you understood what the Lord means when he talks about loving his children, you would understand that he does not love them as they are now; for he hates and is angry with the wicked.”

- Brigham Young

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 We believe in doctrines that they do not believe in, and we disbelieve in some fanciful ideas that they profess to hold as doctrine. For instance they hold that God is an imaginary being. They cannot tell where nor how he lives, nor anything concerning his character, whether he is material or immaterial; but, like many of the most eminent divines, who have spread it through their pages for the people to read, they have come to the conclusion that the center of God is everywhere and his circumference nowhere—one of the most vain ideas that could be conceived by any intelligent being. Then what is their idea of the soul of man? That it is an immaterial substance. Who ever heard of such a thing? Ask any true philosopher if he can explain the meaning of an “immaterial substance.” It is like the center of a being everywhere and his circumference nowhere, or like being seated on the top of a topless throne. These are self-confounding expressions, and there is no meaning to any of them.

- Brigham Young

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 If I should see men and women going blindfolded to an awful precipice, and not hail them and warn them of their danger, I should be guilty, and perhaps their blood would be found on my skirts.

- Brigham Young

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 “When I labor in the kingdom of God, I labor for my own dear self, I have self continually before me; the object of my pursuit is to benefit my individual person; and this is the case with every person who ever was or ever will be exalted.”

- Brigham Young

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 “For whose benefit are we laboring? For our own. All my preaching, laboring, and toils in this kingdom have been for myself, to get into the Celestial Kingdom of God. I have been laboring for that and nothing else.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Where are the true riches—the pearl of great price? They are here. How can we secure them? By being obedient, for the willing and obedient will eat the good of the land by and by; … The power which belongs to the true riches is gained by pursuing a righteous course, by maintaining an upright deportment towards all men…”

- Brigham Young

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 “God, our Heavenly Father, in his religion, does not require men and women to suffer as false religions do. Take the religions of the heathen, and false systems of religion generally and they require sacrifices that the Lord does not require.”

- Brigham Young

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 “The Saints sacrifice everything; but, strictly speaking, there is no [self] sacrifice about it. If you give a penny for a million of gold! A handful of earth for a planet! A temporary worn out tenement for one glorified, that will exist, abide, and continue to increase throughout a never ending eternity, what a [self] sacrifice for sure!”

- Brigham Young

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 “You hear much said by some about their sacrifices. As they use the term it is without meaning to me … Where, then, is the [self] sacrifice this people have ever made? There is no such thing—they have only exchanged a worse condition for a better one.”

- Brigham Young

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 “But it seems that there are many drones in the hive, who are determined to tie up the hands of those who rule the affairs of this kingdom, and the quicker they are thrown out the better.”

- Brigham Young

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 “The Lord's poor do not forget their covenants, while the devil's poor pay no regard to their promises.”

- Brigham Young

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 The origin of life whether human or inferior, must be lodged in some character whom I have not seen! Follow it back, no matter whether it be for six thousand years, six millions, six million millions, or billions of years, the figures and numbers are immaterial, I must have come from some source, my natural philosophy teaches me this. But, leaving the natural philosophy of the child free from false tradition, let us inquire. What does the philosophy of the Christian sects, or many of them, not all, teach? “God made the world in six days, out of nothing!” This is very wrong; no child should be taught any such dogma. God never did make a world out of nothing; He never will, He never can!

- Brigham Young

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 Yes, if there is a truth among the ungodly and wicked it belongs to us, and if there is a truth in hell it is ours.

- Brigham Young

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 ‘How much of [‘Mormonism’] is true?’ All of it. ‘How much does it embrace?’ All the truth that there is in the heavens, on the earth, under the earth, and if there is any truth in hell, this doctrine claims it…

- Brigham Young

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 You hear many talk about having made sacrifices; if I had that word [self-sacrifice] in my vocabulary I would blot it out.

- Brigham Young

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 “…the whole world are gone after the false riches; after that which is not life, after decomposition, after that which perishes, and passes away like the twilight of evening. … there is no such thing as a man being truly rich until he has power over death, hell, the grave, and him that hath the power of death, which is the devil.”

- Brigham Young

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 The Lord's poor do not forget their covenants, while the devil's poor pay no regard to their promises.

- Brigham Young

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 President Brigham Young: “The idea that the religion of Christ is one thing, and science is another, is a mistaken idea, for there is no true religion without true science, and consequently there is no true science without true religion.

- Brigham Young

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 Instead of pleading with the Lord to bestow more upon you, plead with yourselves to have confidence in yourselves, to have integrity in yourselves, and to know when to speak and what to speak, what to reveal, and how to carry yourselves and walk before the Lord. And just as fast as you prove to him that you will preserve everything secret that ought to be - that you will deal out to your neighbors all which you ought, and no more, and learn how to dispense your knowledge to your families, friends, neighbors, and brethren, the Lord will bestow upon you, until finally he will say to you, "You shall never fall; your salvation is sealed unto you; you are sealed up unto eternal life and salvation through your integrity.

- Brigham Young

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 It is the spirit and power of evil in opposition to the power of good that has forever existed, and ever will exist, and here is the warfare … Will evil all be destroyed? Yes, the evil which pertains to this earth; but still the same principle of evil will exist elsewhere.

- Brigham Young

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 You will find some portions of a community diligently studying the sciences of the day, others cultivating the arts, &c., each according to their tastes, means, or circumstances, while others seem to be under no cultivation of the mind: yet in all the various classes each wants his neighbor to be precisely like himself.

- Brigham Young

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 It is wisdom for the Elders of Israel to know how to treat others according to the ability they possess, and to treat their families according to the ability they possess. In visiting neighborhoods, you will find persons intelligent upon some points, and upon other points they may be ignorant. They may be very well informed upon certain principles per taining to divinity, and upon others be ignorant. Their dispositions are also different from yours and others you associate with. What will you make of them? Good people—Saints, so far as in your power.

- Brigham Young

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 I wish the people to learn to have influence over themselves, and then learn to have influence with your fellow beings, that you may be able to attract the spirits in the intelligent beings around you, so that these spirits will follow you to be taught of you, and learn of you doctrine to lead them to life everlasting.

- Brigham Young

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 It is our mission to save the people, not to destroy them. The least, the most inferior spirit now upon the earth, in our capacity, is worth worlds.

- Brigham Young

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 Then let us take a course to understand men as they are, and not endeavor to make them precisely as we are, for this you cannot do. I am myself; you are yourselves. Let us learn how to approach each other, and how to get an influence over that intelligent portion that is within.

- Brigham Young

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 I am not going to drive a man or a woman to heaven. A great many think that they will be able to flog people into heaven, but this can never be done, for the intelligence in us is as independent as the Gods.

- Brigham Young

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 If you are ever called upon to chasten a person, never chasten beyond the balm you have within you to bind up.

- Brigham Young

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 Would I compel a person to be saved in the kingdom of God that chose to go to hell? No. If I had all the power of the Gods in the eternities, I would not save one soul in the kingdom of God that chose to stay out, neither will the Gods.

- Brigham Young

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 What am I? Who am I? And for what was I made? Who is the author of my existence? Who laid the foundation of and planned this singular structure?

- Brigham Young

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 Do I love murderers and mobocrats as I do good men? No. Do I pray for them? Yes, that the Lord would judge them out of their own mouths, and that speedily.

- Brigham Young

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 'Love your enemies!' What, love hell? When people do that, they get where devils are…I would feed and clothe them, take peculiar care of them, and place them where they would not hurt anybody.

- Brigham Young

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 I have not much love for them, only in the Gospel. I would cause them to repent, if I could, and make them good men and a good community. I have no fellowship for their avarice, blindness, and ungodly actions. To be great, is to be good before the Heavens and before all good men. I will not fellowship the wicked in their sins, so help me God.

- Brigham Young

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 Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. He was once a brilliant and influential character in heaven, and we will know more about him hereafter.

- Brigham Young

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 I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our heavenly Father, or the great Elohim. You are all well acquainted with Him, for there is not a soul of you but what has lived in His house and dwelt with Him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with Him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what you did know. I told you a little last Sabbath about forgetting things. There is not a person here to-day but what is a son or a daughter of that Being. In the spirit world their spirits were first begotten and brought forth, and they lived there with their parents for ages before they came here. This, perhaps, is hard for many to believe, but it is the greatest nonsense in the world not to believe it. If you do not believe it, cease to call Him Father; and when you pray, pray to some other character.

- Brigham Young

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 If we do not impart knowledge to others and do good, we will become contracted in [our] views and feelings.

- Brigham Young

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 Do you expect that every person will be destroyed from the face of the earth, but the Latter-day Saints? If you do, you will be mistaken... there will be every sort of sect and party, and every individual following what he supposes to be the best in religion, and in everything else, similar to what it is now. Will there be wickedness then as now? No.

- Brigham Young

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 Have we a will? Yes. It is an endowment, a trait of the character of the Gods, with which all intelligence is endowed, in heaven and on earth—the power to accept or reject.

- Brigham Young

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 Supposing that the property of the whole community were divided today equally amongst all, what might we expect? Why a year from today we should need another division, for some would waste and squander it away, while others would add to their portion.

- Brigham Young

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 The advantage of this Priesthood is that when persons yield obedience to it, they secure to themselves the sanction of him who is its author, and who has bestowed it upon the children of men. His power is around them and defends them; and when they pass into the spirit world they are out of the reach of the power of Satan. Where the pure in heart are the wicked cannot come. This is the state of the spirit world.

- Brigham Young

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 “I have told you many times,” President Brigham Young said, “the property which we inherit from our Heavenly Father is our time, and the power to choose in the disposition of the same. This is the real capital that is bequeathed unto us by our Heavenly Father.” (In Journal of Discourses, 18:354; italics added.)

- Brigham Young

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 If the Latter-day Saints think, when the kingdom of God is established on the earth, that all the inhabitants of the earth will join the church called Latter-day Saints, they are egregiously mistaken. I presume there will be as many sects and parties then as now. Still, when the kingdom of God triumphs, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, to the glory of the father. Even the Jews will do it then; but will the Jews and Gentiles be obliged to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? No; not by any means.

- Brigham Young

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 My mission to the people is to teach them with regard to their every-day lives. I presume there are many here who have heard me say, years and years ago, that I cared very little about what will take place after the millennium. Elders may preach long discourses concerning what took place in the days of Adam, what occurred before the creation, and what will take place thousands of years from now, talking of things which have occurred or that will occur yet, of which they are ignorant, feeding the people on wind; but that in not my method of teaching. My desire is to teach the people what they should do now, and let the millennium take care of itself.

- Brigham Young

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 "Teach the people true knowledge, and they will govern themselves. Men marvel that I possess the influence I do over this people, no matter where on the earth they are located. If we had fifty thousand members of the Church in China, though they never saw me, they would obey my counsel, because I send true knowledge to them and teach them the principles that tend to their own good and happiness. Their eyes are open to see this, and they willingly obey my counsel. Men think the power and influence I possess are obtained by necromancy or some other evil power. The power of the Devil is great upon the earth, but it is fast playing out, and the inhabitants of the earth must have true knowledge."

- Brigham Young

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 Do I say love your enemies? Yes, upon certain principles. But you are not required to love their wickedness: you are only required to love them so far as concerns a desire and effort to turn them from their evil ways, that they may be saved through obedience to the gospel.

- Brigham Young

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 I will tell you when you and I may consider ourselves truly rich—When we can speak to the earth—to the native elements in boundless space, and say to them—“Be ye organized, and planted here, or there, and stay until I command you hence;” when at our command the gold is hid so that no man can find it, any more than they could in California until within a few years back.

- Brigham Young

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 We want every branch of science taught in this place that is taught in the world. But our favorite study is that branch which particularly belongs to the Elders of Israel—namely, theology. Every Elder should become a profound theologian—should understand this branch better than all the world.

- Brigham Young

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 " Joseph, also, goes there, but has the devil power over him? No, because he held the keys and power of the eternal Priesthood here, and got the victory while here in the flesh.... When the faithful Elders, holding this Priesthood, go into the spirit world they carry with them the same power and Priesthood that they had while in the mortal tabernacle. They have got the victory over the power of the enemy here, consequently when they leave this world they have perfect control over those evil spirits, and they cannot be buffeted by Satan... Joseph and those who have died in the faith of the Gospel are free from this; if a mob should come upon Joseph now, he has power to disperse them with the motion of his hand, and to drive them where he pleases."

- Brigham Young

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 It is true this is Zion—North and South America are Zion, and the land where the Lord commenced His work; and where He commenced He will finish. This is the land of Zion; but we are not yet prepared to go and establish the Centre Stake of Zion. The Lord tried this in the first place. He called the people together to the place where the New Jerusalem and the great temple will be built, and where He will prepare for the City of Enoch.

- Brigham Young

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 We read in the Bible that there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. In the book of Doctrine and Covenants these glories are called telestial, terrestrial, and celestial, which is the highest. These are worlds, different departments, or mansions, in our Father’s house.

- Brigham Young

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 We receive the Gospel, not that we may have our names written in the Lamb’s book of life, but that our names may not be blotted out of that book. “For,” saith the Lord, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.” Why? Because he had overcome through his faithfulness. My doctrine is—that there never was a son and daughter of Adam and Eve born on this earth whose names were not already written in the Lamb’s book of life, and there they will remain until their conduct is such that the angel who keeps the record is authorized to blot them out and record them elsewhere.

- Brigham Young

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 And If you see any young, middle-aged or old ladies in need find them something to do that will enable them to sustain themselves; but don’t relieve the idle, for relieving those who are able but unwilling to work is ruinous to any community.

- Brigham Young

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 “All truth is for the salvation of the children of men—for their benefit and learning—for their furtherance in the principles of divine knowledge; and divine knowledge is any matter of fact—truth; and all truth pertains to divinity.”

- Brigham Young

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 If anybody wants to know what the priesthood of the Son of God is, it is the law by which the worlds are, were, and will continue for ever and ever. It is that system which brings worlds into existence and peoples them, gives them their revolutions—their days, weeks, months, years, their seasons and times and by which they are rolled up as a scroll, as it were, and go into a higher state of existence.

- Brigham Young

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 “The world is wrong and we have to right it under the direction of Heaven. For this purpose are we located upon the land of Zion, and the land of Zion is North and South America—the land where our heavenly Father made his appearance and planted the Garden of Eden. This land is choice above all other lands upon the face of the earth.”

- Brigham Young

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 "It is for my own benefit, it is for your benefit; it is for my own wealth and happiness, and for your wealth and happiness that we pay Tithing and render obedience to any requirement of Heaven … I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for the man who feels that he is making sacrifices for God. We are doing this for our own happiness, welfare and exaltation, and for nobody else’s.“

- Brigham Young

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 “I will tell you when you and I may consider ourselves truly rich—When we can speak to the earth—to the native elements in boundless space, and say to them—“Be ye organized, and planted here, or there, and stay until I command you hence;” … The only true riches in existence are for you and I to secure for ourselves a holy resurrection; then we have command of the gold and the silver, and can place it where we please, and in whose hands we please.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Some have gone so far as to say that a man or woman who wishes to be saved in the kingdom of God—who wishes to be a servant or handmaid of the Almighty, must feel that deep contrition of heart, that sound repentance, and such a sense of his or her unworthiness and nothingness, and of the supremacy, glory, and exaltation of that Deity they believe in, as to exclaim before God and their brethren and sisters that they are willing to be damned. To me that is one the heights of nonsense; for if a person is willing to be damned, he cares not to make the efforts necessary to secure salvation.”

- Brigham Young

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 “And If you see any young, middle-aged or old ladies in need find them something to do that will enable them to sustain themselves; but don’t relieve the idle, for relieving those who are able but unwilling to work is ruinous to any community.”

- Brigham Young

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 I wish the Elders of Israel to understand mankind as they are—to go to the people and take them as they are.

- Brigham Young

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 “As to the word annihilate, as we understand it, there is no such principle as to put a thing which exists, entirely out of existence, so that it does not exist in any form, shape, or place whatever.”

- Brigham Young

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 If any of you feel that there is no life in your meetings, as I occasionally hear some of the brethren say, then it becomes your duty to go and instill life into that meeting, and do your part to produce an increase of the Spirit and power of God in the meetings in your locality.

- Brigham Young

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 'Mormonism' embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical.

- Brigham Young

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 Now it is a pleasant thing to think of and to know where the Garden of Eden was. Did you ever think of it? I do not think many do, for in Jackson County was the Garden of Eden. Joseph has declared this, and I am as much bound to believe that as to believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

- Brigham Young

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 Sister Susa Young Gates..once asked her father (Brigham Young) how it would ever be possible to accomplish the great amount of temple work that must be done, if all are given a full opportunity for exaltation. He told her there would be many inventors of labor saving devices, so that our daily duties could be performed in a short time, leaving us more and more time for temple work. The inventions have come, and are still coming, but many simply divert the time gained to other channels, and not for the purpose intended by the Lord.

- Brigham Young

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 The principle of falsehood and wickedness, the power of the devil and the power of death are also from eternity to eternity…When truth comes, error comes also.

- Brigham Young

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 Keep your dish right side up, so that when the shower of porridge does come, you can catch your dish full.

- Brigham Young

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 When you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobes from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale. When you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle words devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell. Mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power was given them to propagate their species, and they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth.

- Brigham Young

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 I will tell you when you and I may consider ourselves truly rich - when we can speak to the earth - to the native elements in boundless space, and say to them Be ye organized, and planted here, or there, and stay until I command you hence;

- Brigham Young

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 “Eternity is without bounds, and is filled with matter; and there is no such place as empty space.”

- Brigham Young

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 This people have embraced the philosophy of eternal lives, and in view of this we should cease to be children and become philosophers, understanding our own existence, its purpose and ultimate design.

- Brigham Young

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 “I wish you to understand that sin is not an attribute in the nature of man, but it is an inversion of the attributes God has placed in him.”

- Brigham Young

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 If we were prepared to gaze upon the mysteries of the kingdom, as they are with God, we should then know that only a very small portion of them has been handed out here and there.

- Brigham Young

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 It is true I gather a great deal of substance around me; I am obliged to do it. I cannot shun it. I must feed the poor, I must clothe them and take care of them.

- Brigham Young

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 A good sailor is always found at his post, both in calm and storm ... The time of storm, and trouble is the time to prove ourselves to God and to one another.

- Brigham Young

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 It has been told me from my youth up that opposition is the life of business, especially in the political arena. It is opposition that has ruined our nation, and has been, is and will be the ruin of all nations.

- Brigham Young

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 When I labor in the kingdom of God, I labor for my own dear self, I have self continually before me; the object of my pursuit is to benefit my individual person; and this is the case with every person who ever was or ever will be exalted.

- Brigham Young

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 If there were not a true coin in existence, how could there be a bogus produced?

- Brigham Young

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 Study to apply your labor to advantage, and you will accomplish much more, without wearing yourselves out so fast. If you have to roll a log, cut down a tree, etc., study how to take advantage of the work. Contrive to accomplish your work with the least expenditure of strength.

- Brigham Young

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 The philosophy of the heavens and the earth, of the worlds that are, that were, and that are yet to come into existence, is all in the Gospel that we have embraced.

- Brigham Young

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 ...there is no such thing as a man being truly rich until he has power over death, hell, the grave, and him that hath the power of death, which is the devil.

- Brigham Young

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 the whole world are gone after the false riches; after that which is not life, after decomposition, after that which perishes, and passes away like the twilight of evening.

- Brigham Young

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 “A great many think there are results without causes; there is no such thing in existence; there is a cause for every result that ever was or ever will be, and they are all in the providences and in the work of the Lord.”

- Brigham Young

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 I collect means around me, the poor must have it, and I make them work and pay for it; that makes me wealthy, and I cannot help it.

- Brigham Young

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 We will turn the world right side up, for it is now wrong side up, and we want to turn it over, prepare it, and present it to Him who owns it, in a more goodly form and attitude than it has been for many centuries.

- Brigham Young

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 The principles of eternity and eternal exaltation are of no use to us, unless they are brought down to our capacities so that we practice them in our lives.

- Brigham Young

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 We can hardly associate with some persons, for we have to walk in their midst like walking upon eggs.

- Brigham Young

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 The Saints sacrifice everything; but, strictly speaking, there is no [self] sacrifice about it. If you give a penny for a million of gold! A handful of earth for a planet! A temporary worn out tenement for one glorified, that will exist, abide, and continue to increase throughout a never ending eternity, what a [self] sacrifice for sure!

- Brigham Young

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 The Lord's poor do not forget their covenants, while the devil's poor pay no regard to their promises.

- Brigham Young

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 What does opposition bring? It certainly brings anger and strife; and of what use are they? They serve no good purpose. Then let us all vote one way, and think and act one way, and keep the commandments of God and build up His kingdom on the earth in peace and righteousness.

- Brigham Young

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 “The idea that the religion of Christ is one thing, and science is another, is a mistaken idea, for there is no true religion without true science, and consequently there is no true science without true religion.”

- Brigham Young

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 When we talk about mystery, we talk about eternal obscurity; for that which is known, ceases to be a mystery; and all that is known, we may know as we progress in the scale of intelligence.

- Brigham Young

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 "Here the inquiry will naturally arise, when our spirits leave our bodies where do they go to? I will tell you. Will I locate them? Yes, if you wish me to. They do not pass out of the organization of this earth on which we live.... It reads that the spirit goes to God who gave it. Let me render this Scripture a little plainer; when the spirits leave their bodies they are in the presence of our Father and God, they are prepared then to see, hear and understand spiritual things. But where is the spirit world? It is incorporated within this celestial system. Can you see it with your natural eyes? No. Can you see spirits in this room? No. Suppose the Lord should touch your eyes that you might see, could you then see the spirits? Yes, as plainly as you now see bodies, as did the servant of Elijah."

- Brigham Young

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 A certain portion of the human family have to be looked after and taken care of. [“For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good,” Mark 14:7]

- Brigham Young

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 “God is here; his influence fills immensity. He has his messengers throughout all the works of his hands. He watches every one of his creatures: their acts, their affections, and thoughts are all known to him; for his intelligence and power fill immensity. Not that his person does, but his Spirit does.”

- Brigham Young

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 My policy is to keep every man, woman, and child busily employed, that they may have no idle time for hatching mischief in the night, and for making plans to accomplish their own ruin … But when we spend our time in idleness and folly it will be placed against us.

- Brigham Young

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 What a pity it would be if we were lead by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are lead by him. … Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves whether their leaders are walking in the path the lord dictates or not.[5]

- Brigham Young

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 “The Priesthood of the Son of God, which we have in our midst, is a perfect order and system of government, and this alone can deliver the human family from all the evils which now afflict its members and insure them happiness and felicity hereafter.”

- Brigham Young

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 Brigham Young: “Again, we call up the question of riches, wealth…” “Suppose we could heap to ourselves the treasures of the earth … would it prove we are actually rich? It would not … The possession of these things is not wealth to me. Not that I would cast them away as a thing of naught, or look upon the good things of this earth, and the riches of the world, as things of naught, but they are not the true riches. … They are to be used, but not abused. They are to be handled with discretion, and looked upon in their true light, without any lustful desires, as the means to feed, clothe, and make us comfortable, that we may be prepared to secure to ourselves eternal riches.”

- Brigham Young

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 “This monarch reigns for a day, a month, a year, or for half a century, according to the will of Him by whom kings sway the scepter of power; and the world say he is a rich man, a powerful and wealthy man. But this is not riches according to the saying of the Savior in the New Testament.”

- Brigham Young

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 “Do I love murderers and mobocrats as I do good men? No. Do I pray for them? Yes, that the Lord would judge them out of their own mouths, and that speedily.”

- Brigham Young

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 “You hear many talk about having made sacrifices; if I had that word [self-sacrifice] in my vocabulary I would blot it out.”

- Brigham Young

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 There is a certain trait in the Elders of Israel that I really want them to get rid of, for they are better off without than with it. Not that they are so very much to blame, or that I would condemn them; but, according to their traditions and nature, they think everybody ought to be like themselves.

- Brigham Young

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 We are very apt, through our traditions, former associations, and notion of things and ideas, to attribute every act of man and every manifestation of mankind to an invisible source—the good or the evil. God is the author of all good; and yet, if you rightly understood yourselves, you would not directly attribute every good act you perform to our Father in heaven, nor to his Son Jesus Christ, nor to the Holy Ghost; neither would you attribute every evil act of a man or woman to the Devil or his spirits or influences; for man is organized by his Creator to act perfectly independently of all influences there are above or beneath.

- Brigham Young

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 “All the acts we perform should be governed by the guidance of the Priesthood.”

- Brigham Young

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 “When misuse of power has reached a certain stage, the divinity that is within the people asserts its right and they free themselves from the power of despotism.”

- Brigham Young

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 God never bestows upon His people, or upon an individual, superior blessings without a severe trial to prove them, to prove that individual, or that people, to see whether they will keep their covenants with Him, and keep in remembrance what He has shown them. Then the greater the vision, the greater the display of the power of the enemy. And when such individuals are off their guard they are left to themselves, as Jesus was.

- Brigham Young

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 He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool.

- Brigham Young

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 We ought not to speak lightly of and undervalue the life we now enjoy, but so dispose of each passing day that the hours and minutes are spent in doing good, or at least doing no harm, in making ourselves useful, in improving our talents and abilities to do more good, cultivating the principle of kindness to every being pertaining to our earthly sphere, learning their uses and how to apply them to produce the greatest possible amount of good; learning to conduct ourselves towards our families and friends in a way to win the love and confidence of the good, and overcome every ungovernable passion by a constant practice of cool judgment and deliberate thoughts

- Brigham Young

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 If you are ever called upon to chasten a person, never chasten beyond the balm you have within you to bind up.

- Brigham Young

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 “There is no such thing as confusion, division, strife, animosity, hatred, malice, or two sides to the question in the house of God; there is but one side to the question there. ... On a certain occasion there was a little confusion in heaven. … What was the result? One-third part of the hosts of heaven walked out. I do not think the election lasted a great while, if they had two candidates, and it appears they had.” (JD 13, p219)

- Brigham Young

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 "We might ask, when shall we cease to learn? I will give you my opinion about it; never, never. If we continue to learn all that we can, pertaining to the salvation which is purchased and presented to us through the Son of God, is there a time when a person will cease to learn? Yes, when he has sinned against God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Ghost—God's minister; when he has denied the Lord, defied Him and committed the sin that in the Bible is termed the unpardonable sin—the sin against the Holy Ghost. That is the time when a person will cease to learn, and from that time forth, will descend in ignorance, forgetting that which they formerly knew, and decreasing until they return to the native element, whether it be one thousand or in one million years, or during as many eternities as you can count. They will cease to increase, but must decrease, until they return to the native element. These are the only characters who will ever cease to learn, both in time and eternity."

- Brigham Young

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 Let us make ourselves capable of doing at least a little good, and this will occupy our minds upon something that is indeed profitable to others, and will somewhat divert our attention from worshiping ourselves and blaming everybody that does not do the same.

- Brigham Young

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 There is only one thing which the people lack on this point, in order that their traditions and former education may do them good, and that is to know how to sever the good from the bad, how to assimilate to themselves every good trait of character they have seen in their fathers and mothers, teachers and neighbors, and every good thing that has been taught them from their youth, and how to gather to themselves every good principle they have been traditionated in, and store that up as their individual property, and then dispense with every erroneous idea and every inconsistency. Many things which have been taught us in our childhood, or in our early lives, are truly inconsistent; lay them aside and cleave to the traditions which actually tend to virtue, holiness, chastity, loveliness, kindness, honesty, and truthfulness in every respect, and gather all the good into our own storehouse, and let each one say, that belongs to me.Some imagine that they must begin and unlearn the whole of their former education, but I say, cling to all the good that you have learned, and discard the bad.

- Brigham Young

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 That makes me think of a great many Christians in the world; when they are sick and in trouble they will pray; if they are in fear of starving to death for want of food, of freezing through lack of raiment or fuel, then they will call upon the Lord. I know the old Prophet said, “In the day of trouble they draw nigh unto me.” Get out, say I, in my feelings, in regard to such a religion. When I am starving to death it is time for me to be diligent in getting something to eat; when the ship is in a storm, it is then time to look out for the rigging. One may say, “Are you not going down below to pray, in this dreadful storm?” “No, I have no time to pray now, I must take care of the ship.” So it should be with every Latter-day Saint. By and by the storm is over, then let us go down into the cabin and do up our praying in fair weather. That is what “Mormonism” teaches me;

- Brigham Young

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 Brigham Young: “Where shall we direct our course to find true riches?”

- Brigham Young

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