“It is in vain for man to endeavor to instruct man in those things which the Holy Spirit alone can teach.”

“This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.”

“The Nephite prophets stressed that charity is not a man-made quality in those who possess it, but an endowment of the Holy Spirit, bestowed in some measure upon those who are born into the kingdom of God and thereafter increased in man by the influence of the Holy Ghost, as he grows in grace and in the knowledge of God.”

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”

“Whosoever will list himself under the banner of Christ, must, in the first place and above all things, make war upon his own lusts and vices. It is in vain for any man to usurp the name of Christian, without holiness of life, purity of manners, benignity and meekness of spirit.”

“It is an absolutely vain endeavor to attempt to reconstruct or even comprehend the nature of a human being by simply knowing the forces which have acted upon him. However deeply we should like to penetrate, however close we seem to be drawing to truth, one unknown quantity eludes us: man's primordial energy, his original self, that personality which was given him with the gift of life itself. On it rests man's true freedom; it alone determines his real character.”