Choices Quotes
"Make certain decisions only once . . . We can make a single decision about certain things that we will incorporate in our lives and then make them ours - without having to brood and re-decide a hundred times what it is we will do and what we will not do."
President Spencer W. Kimball (Ensign, May 1976, page 46) "Boys Need Heroes Close By"
"Decisions determine Destiny."
"We are like children walking a path in the rain. We can walk in or around the mud of life as we desire, but with our choices come the consequences. And we are rapidly becoming what we are choosing to be for all eternity."
Elaine Cannon (Ensign, November 1983, page 88)
"The course of our lives is not determined by great, awesome decisions. Our direction is set by the little day-to-day choices which chart the track on which we run."
Gordon B. Hinckley (October 1973 General Conference Report, page 106)
"Whether we realize or acknowledge it, each of our daily mortal acts 'has a tendency...either for good or evil.' Life is incremental. What we do in seemingly small moments or at particular points on the path, in process of time brings large consequences—good and bad.
"'In a given moment,' Brigham Young said '...there is but a hair's breadth between the depths of infidelity and the heights of...faith.' Small moments and small decisions tilt the soul."
Neal A. Maxwell (book: Lord, Increase Our Faith)
"I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."
"A dozen times a day we come to a fork in the road and must decide which way we will go... It is important to get our ultimate objectives clearly in mind so that we do not become distracted at each fork in the road by the irrelevant questions: Which is the easier or more pleasant way? Or, which way are others going?"
(President Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 164)
Joshua didn't say: "Choose ye next year whom ye will serve."
"Private choices are not private; they all have public consequences...Our society is the sum total of what millions of individuals do in their private lives."
James E. Faust, "Will I Be Happy" (Ensign, May 1987, page 80)
"Through obedience to gospel principles, the enticements of the world lessen in our lives. With each right choice we make, we spiritually empower ourselves. The accumulation of right choices builds inner spiritual strength and divine character. We should expect temptation, for without temptations there would be little education and little character improvement."
Rulon G. Craven, "Temptation", April 1996 Gen. Conf.
"The small day-to-day decisions will determine the course of your lives."
"There is good reason to make our decision now to serve the Lord. On this Sunday morning, when the complications and temptations of life are somewhat removed, and when we have the time and more of an inclination to take an eternal perspective, we can more clearly evaluate what will bring us the greatest happiness in life. We should decide now, in the light of the morning, how we will act when the darkness of night and when the storms of temptation arrive."
Howard W. Hunter "Commitment to God" - Oct. 1982 Gen. Conf.
"We may find it convenient to live with the illusion that circumstances or other people are responsible for the quality of our lives, but the reality is that we are responsible—response-able—for our choices."
Stephen R. Covey Book: First Things First, p. 169
"Our success or failure, peace or discontent, happiness or misery, depend on the choices we make each day."
N. Eldon Tanner, "Thou Mayest Choose for Thyself," Ensign, July 1973, 7
"It has been said that "every day is election day, for throughout every hour of every day we each exercise our right of choice. We don't have to have a local or national election in order to elect or vote. … A man's election can determine the deciding vote for or against his own success. … You elect to gain a thorough knowledge of your business or you don't. You elect to be honest or you don't. You elect to save a part of what you earn or you don't. You elect to always do your best or you don't. And by your own election you will be defeated or you will succeed."
(Jim Love, R&R Magazine, Research and Review Service of America, Inc., vol. 10, p. 64.) Quoted by John H. Vandenberg - "The Agency of Man" - April 1973 Gen. Conf.
"It is our choices that show what we are...far more than our abilities."
Book: Harry Potter
President James E. Faust quoting Spencer W. Kimball:
"Develop discipline of self so that . . . you do not have to decide and re-decide what you will do when you are confronted with the same temptation time and time again. You need only decide some things once."
Topic: Joshua 24:15
"Joshua reminds us of the importance of making decisions promptly:
'Choose you this day whom ye will serve;... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' (Joshua 24:15)
Not tomorrow, not when we get ready, not when it is convenient--but 'this day,' straightway, choose whom you will serve.
He who invites us to follow will always be out in front of us with His Spirit and influence setting the pace. He has charted and marked the course, opened the gates, and shown the way.
He has invited us to come unto Him, and the best time to enjoy His companionship is straightway.
We can best get on the course and stay on the course by doing as Jesus did-make a total commitment to do the will of His Father."
Marvin J. Ashton, "Be of Good Cheer," [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1987], p. 56
"A moment of choice is a moment of truth."
Stephen R. Covey – Book: First Things First, p. 169
"Once we know a spiritual truth we must choose whether we will conform our lives to it."
Elder Henry B. Eyring - Ensign, Nov. 1998, 34
"Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds."
George Elliot
"Like Mary, I hunger to feast at the Savior's feet, while, like Martha,I need to somehow find the laundry room floor, empty my in-box, and serve my husband something other than cold pizza.
I have 15 grandchildren whose tender little spirits and daily challenges I want to better understand, yet I also have a slightly demanding Church calling! I don't have lots of time.
Like all of you, I have to choose. We all are trying to choose the good part which cannot be taken from us, to balance the spiritual and the temporal in our lives.
Wouldn't it be easy if we were choosing between visiting teaching or robbing a bank? Instead, our choices are often more subtle. We must choose between many worthy options."
Bonnie D. Parkin, "Choosing Charity: That Good Part," Ensign, Nov. 2003, 104
"Deciding not to choose is still making a choice."
"Make choices today you can live with tomorrow."
"It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.
Roy Disney
"In this life we have to make many choices. Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices."
James E. Faust, "Choices," Ensign, May 2004, 5
"If we live in such a way that the considerations of eternity press upon us, we will make better decisions. Perhaps this is why President Brigham Young once said that if he could do but one thing to bless the Saints, he believed it would be to give them "eyes with which to see things as they are."
(Journal of Discourses, 3:221.)" Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Jan. 1977
"Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless."
Goethe
A Simple Formula for Life's Choices:
"May I leave with you today a simple yet far-reaching formula to guide you in the choices of life:
Fill your minds with truth.
Fill your hearts with love.
Fill your lives with service.
By doing so, may we one day hear the plaudit from our Lord and Savior, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord' (Matthew 25:23)."
President Thomas S. Monson, "Choose You This Day," Ensign, Nov. 2004, 70