Boyd Packer Quotes & Sayings

A testimony is a testimony, and it should be respected, whether it is small or large. — Boyd K. Packer

The idea that life began with mortal birth is preposterous. There is no way to explain life if you believe that. — Boyd K. Packer

We could be like a father determined to provide everything for his family. He devotes every energy to that end and succeeds; only then does he discover that what they needed most, to be together as a family, has been neglected. And he reaps sorrow in place of contentment. — Boyd K. Packer

The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection. — Boyd K. Packer

The atonement of Christ is not just for those who sin. The mercy of Christ encompasses all pain. — Boyd K. Packer

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world. — Boyd K. Packer

There is little to be gained by seeking after the mysteries, for there is hardly time in a lifetime to master the plain and precious things. — Boyd K. Packer

Without a knowledge of the gospel plan, transgression seems natural, innocent, even justified. — Boyd K. Packer

Our competition in life is solely with our old self. — Boyd K. Packer

Addiction has the capacity to disconnect the human will and nullify moral agency. It can rob one of the power to decide. — Boyd K. Packer

Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds. — Boyd K. Packer

Moral standards cannot be changed by battle and cannot be changed by ballot. — Boyd K. Packer

An unusual thing happened after that great first vision. The Prophet Joseph received no additional communication for three years. However, he did not wonder, he did not question, he did not doubt the Lord. The Prophet Joseph patiently waited. The Prophet Joseph taught us the principle of patience-by example. — Boyd K. Packer

Happiness will depend on what each of us does with what each has, what we learn from what we do, and what we do thereafter. — Boyd K. Packer

The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all of our affairs. — Boyd K. Packer

We accept the responsibility to preach the gospel to every person on earth. And if the question is asked, you mean you are out to convert the entire world? The answer is, 'yes'. We will try to reach every living soul. — Boyd K. Packer

The spiritually starving hesitate to partake of the Spirit like a child's reaction to new and strange food. They must be offered a tiny bite on a spoon. — Boyd K. Packer

Happiness is inseparably connected with decent, clean behavior. — Boyd K. Packer

If you need a transfusion of spiritual strength then just ask for it. We call that Prayer. Prayer is powerful spiritual medicine. — Boyd K. Packer

True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior. Preoccupation with unworthy behavior can lead to unworthy behavior. That is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel. — Boyd K. Packer

Don't live so that your children go unled because of habits that leave you uninspired. — Boyd K. Packer

Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God ... We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see — Boyd K. Packer

One of the adversary's sharpest tools is to convince us that we are no longer worthy to pray. No matter who you are or what you may have done, you can always pray. — Boyd K. Packer

Everyone is tested. One might think it is unfair to be singled out and subjected to a particular temptation, but this is the purpose of mortal life - to be tested. And the answer is the same for everyone: we must, and we can, resist temptations of any kind. — Boyd K. Packer

Joseph's vision of the Father and the Son opened this dispensation. Then came the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the same organization that existed in the primitive Church, built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets. — Boyd K. Packer

Perhaps the greatest discovery of my life, without question the greatest commitment, came when finally I had the confidence in God that I would loan or yield my agency to him-without compulsion or pressure, without any duress, as a single individual alone, by myself, no counterfeiting, nothing expected other than the privilege. In a sense, speaking figuratively, to take one's agency, that precious gift which the scriptures make plain is essential to life itself, and say, "I will do as you direct," is afterward to learn that in so doing you possess it all the more. — Boyd K. Packer

A testimony of the hope of redemption is something which cannot be measured or counted. Jesus Christ is the source of that hope. — Boyd K. Packer

I do not think it pleases the Lord when we worry because we think we never do enough or that what we do is never good enough. — Boyd K. Packer

Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that key within our hands, and agency is ours to use it. — Boyd K. Packer

The study of doctrine and the teaching of doctrine will change behavior more than the study of behavior will change behavior. — Boyd K. Packer

Some worry endlessly over missions that were missed, or marriages that did not turn out, or babies that did not arrive, or children that seem lost, or dreams unfulfilled, or because age limits what they can do. I do not think it pleases the Lord when we worry because we think we never do enough or that what we do is never good enough ... Some needlessly carry a heavy burden of guilt which could be removed through confession and repentance. — Boyd K. Packer

The Restoration began with the prayer of a 14-year-old boy and a vision of the Father and the Son. The dispensation of the fulness of times was ushered in.The Restoration of the gospel brought knowledge of the premortal existence. From the scriptures, we know of the Council in Heaven and the decision to send the sons and daughters of God into mortality to receive a body and to be tested (see D&C 138:56; see also Romans 8:16). We are children of God. We have a spirit body housed, for now, in an earthly tabernacle of flesh. The scriptures say, 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' (1 Corinthians 3:16). — Boyd K. Packer

If you are burdened with depressing feelings of guilt or disappointment, of failure or shame, there is a cure. — Boyd K. Packer

Parents now are concerned about the moral and spiritual diseases. These can have terrible complications when standards and values are abandoned. We must all take protective measures. — Boyd K. Packer

Perhaps no other book has been denounced so vigorously by those who have never read it as has the Book of Mormon. — Boyd K. Packer

Tolerance is a virtue, but like all virtues, when exaggerated, it transforms itself into a vice. We need to be careful of the 'tolerance trap' so that we are not swallowed up in it. The permissiveness afforded by the weakening of the laws of the land to tolerate legalized acts of immorality does not reduce the serious spiritual consequence that is the result of the violation of God's law of chastity. — Boyd K. Packer

What a wonderful time to be young. You will see events in your lifetime that will test your courage and extend your faith. If you will face the sunlight of truth, the shadows of discouragement and sin and error will fall behind you. You must never give up! — Boyd K. Packer

Teach yourself and teach your families about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You will do no greater eternal work than within the walls of your own home. — Boyd K. Packer

The flow of revelation depends on your faith.
As you test gospel principles by believing
without knowing, the Spirit will begin to teach
you. Gradually your faith will be replaced with knowledge. — Boyd K. Packer

Prayer is your personal key to heaven. — Boyd K. Packer

We live in a noisy world. Revelation comes in the quiet times. It will come when the Lord can speak to our feelings. Go quietly. Go quietly into the world. Go quietly about your affairs, and learn that in the still, small hours of the morning the Lord will speak to you. He will never fail to answer your prayers.
--Boyd K. Packer — Carolyn J. Rasmus

The word discipline sometimes touches a slightly rebellious chord in our natures. Remember that it comes from the word disciple. — Boyd K. Packer

Every soul confined to a concentration camp of sin and guilt has a key to the gate. The adversary cannot hold them if they know how to use it. The key is labeled Repentance. — Boyd K. Packer

Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality. — Boyd K. Packer

Our whole social order could self-destruct over the obsession with freedom disconnected from responsibility; where choice is imagined to be somehow independent of consequences. — Boyd K. Packer

We are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly. — Boyd K. Packer

Obedience is a powerful spiritual medicine. It comes close to being a cure-all. — Boyd K. Packer

An organist who has the sensitivity to quietly play prelude music from the hymnbook tempers our feelings and causes us to go over in our minds the lyrics which teach the peaceable things of the kingdom. If we will listen, they are teaching the gospel, for the hymns of the Restoration are, in fact, a course in doctrine! — Boyd K. Packer

Your responsibility as a father and a husband transcends any other interest in life. — Boyd K. Packer

It is in the ordinances of the temple that we are placed under covenant to Him ... .[If] we will enter into our covenants without reservation or apology, the Lord will protect us. We will receive inspiration sufficient for the challenges of life. — Boyd K. Packer

I bear witness of the power of the priesthood given to the Church to protect us and guide us. And because we have that, we have no fear of the future. Fear is the opposite of faith. We move forward, certain that the Lord will watch over us, particularly in the family. — Boyd K. Packer

In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools, and its becoming almost generally true, it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies, pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face. — Boyd K. Packer

The ultimate end of all activity in the Church is to see a husband and his wife and their children happy at home, protected by the principles and laws of the gospel, sealed safely in the covenants of the everlasting priesthood. Husbands and wives should understand that their first calling-from which they will never be released-is to one another and then to their children. — Boyd K. Packer

Devotion to the family and devotion to the Church are not different and separate things. — Boyd K. Packer

Progression: you can start from where you are. — Boyd K. Packer

God bless you young women and young men who struggle through the worrisome teenage years. Some of you may not yet have found yourselves, but you are not lost, for Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer. — Boyd K. Packer

Go forward without fear. Do not fear the future. Do not fear whatever is ahead of you. Take hold of that supernal gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn to be taught by it. Learn to call upon it. Learn to live by it. And the Spirit of the Lord will attend you, and you will be blessed as it was intended that we should all be blessed by this gift. — Boyd K. Packer

Every soul confined in a prison of sin, guilt, or perversion has a key to the gate. The key is labeled "repentance." If you know how to use this key, the adversary cannot hold you. — Boyd K. Packer

Peace can be settled in the heart of each who turns to the scriptures and unlocks the promises of protection and redemption that are taught therein. — Boyd K. Packer

The gospel stands as true for those who reject it as for those who accept it - both will be judged by it. — Boyd K. Packer

Christ will step in and solve the problem you cannot solve, but you have to pay the price. It does not come without doing that. He is a very kind ruler in the sense that He will always pay the price necessary, but He wants you to do what you should, even if it is painful. — Boyd K. Packer

Family time is sacred time and should be protected and respected. — Boyd K. Packer

I hope to be judged as good a man as my father. Before I hear those words "well done" from my Heavenly Father, I hope to first hear them from my mortal father. — Boyd K. Packer

Take hold of your life and order yourself to be valiant. — Boyd K. Packer

Keep the fire of your testimony of the restored gospel and your witness of our Redeemer burning so brightly that our children can warm their hands by the fire of your faith. — Boyd K. Packer

The Spirit is a voice that one feels more than hears. — Boyd K. Packer

Most of what we acquire materially is found to not be worth what we must pay spiritually. — Boyd K. Packer

The gift of the Holy Ghost operates equally with men, women, and even little children. It is within this wondrous gift and power that the spiritual remedy to any problem can be found. — Boyd K. Packer

When music is presented which, however appropriate for other occasions, does not fit the Sabbath, much is lost ... The Spirit does not ratify speech nor confirm music which lacks spiritual substance. — Boyd K. Packer

Fear is the opposite of faith — Boyd K. Packer

Dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. — Boyd K. Packer

The power of procreation is not an incidental part of the plan; it is the plan of happiness. — Boyd K. Packer

The flak is always the heaviest closest to the target — Boyd K. Packer

Those who choose, conduct, present, and accompany the music may influence the spirit of reverence ... more than a speaker does. — Boyd K. Packer

One thing is very clear: the safest place and the best protection against the moral and spiritual diseases is a stable home and family. This has always been true; it will be true forever. We must keep that foremost in our minds. The scriptures speak of 'the shield of faith wherewith,' the Lord said, 'ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked' (D&C 27:17). This shield of faith is best fabricated in a cottage industry. While the shield can be polished in classes in the Church and in activities, it is meant to be handcrafted in the home and fitted to each individual. — Boyd K. Packer

His judgments are just; His mercy without limit; His power to compensate beyond any earthly comparison. — Boyd K. Packer

You always hold the key of repentance to unlock the prison door. If they throw the word diversity at you, grab hold of it and say, "I am already diverse, and I intend to stay diverse." If the word is tolerance, grab that one, too, saying, "I expect you to be tolerant of my lifestyle-obedience, integrity, abstinence, repentance." If the word is choice, tell them you choose good, old-fashioned morality. — Boyd K. Packer

Music can set an atmosphere of worship which invites [the] spirit of revelation, of testimony. — Boyd K. Packer

Inherent in the ordination to be bishop is both the right and the obligation to be directed by inspiration. — Boyd K. Packer

You ought to know that the Lord loves you. He will make that known to you, and it will be a very private and individual experience, something you cannot explain to anyone else. — Boyd K. Packer

The voice of the Spirit is described in the scriptures as being neither loud nor harsh, not a voice of thunder, neither a voice of great tumultuous noise, but rather as still and small, of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it can pierce even the very soul and cause the heart to burn. The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting. — Boyd K. Packer

The ultimate purpose of every teaching, every activity in the Church is that parents and their children are happy at home, sealed in an eternal marriage, and linked to their generations. — Boyd K. Packer

We are not free to break our covenants and escape the consequences. — Boyd K. Packer

There is a falsehood that some are born with an attraction to their own kind, with nothing they can do about it. They are just 'that way' and can only yield to those desires. That is a malicious and destructive lie. While it is a convincing idea to some, it is of the devil. No one is locked into that kind of life. From our premoral life we were directed into a physical body. There is no mismatching of bodies and spirits. Boys are to become men -masculine, manly men -ultimately to become husbands and fathers. No one is predestined to a perverted use of these powers. — Boyd K. Packer

I counsel our children to do their critical studying in the early hours of the morning when they're fresh and alert, rather than to fight physical weariness and mental exhaustion at night. I've learned the power of the dictum, "Early to bed, early to rise." When I'm under pressure, you won't find me burning the midnight oil. I'd much rather be in bed early and getting up in the wee hours of the morning ... — Boyd K. Packer

There are spiritual and physical laws to obey if we are to be happy. — Boyd K. Packer

That historian or scholar who delights in pointing out the weaknesses and frailties of present or past leaders destroys faith. A destroyer of faith - particularly one within the Church, and more particularly one who is employed specifically to build faith - places himself in great spiritual jeopardy. He is serving the wrong master, and unless he repents, he will not be among the faithful in the eternities. Do not spread disease germs! — Boyd K. Packer

Some suffer from real misfortunes. Sadly, others only imagine that they do. — Boyd K. Packer

No pain will last forever. It is not easy, but life was never meant to be either easy or fair. Repentance and the lasting hope that forgiveness brings will always be worth the effort. — Boyd K. Packer

The priesthood holds consummate power. It can protect you from the plague of pornography-and it is a plague-if you are succumbing to its influence. If one is obedient, the priesthood can show how to break a habit and even erase an addiction. Holders of the priesthood have that authority and should employ it to combat evil influences. — Boyd K. Packer

Largely because of television, instead of looking over into that spacious building, we are, in effect, living inside of it. That is your fate in this generation. You are living in that great and spacious building. — Boyd K. Packer

In recent years we might be compared to a team of doctors issuing prescriptions to cure or to immunize our members against spiritual diseases. Each time some moral or spiritual ailment was diagnosed, we have rushed to the pharmacy to concoct another remedy, encapsulate it as a program and send it out with pages of directions for use... Over medication, over-programming is a critically serious problem. — Boyd K. Packer

In the eternal scheme of things - not always in mortality - righteous yearning and longing will be fulfilled. — Boyd K. Packer

Life moves all too fast. When you feel weak, discouraged, depressed, or afraid, open the Book of Mormon and read. — Boyd K. Packer

Some are filled with a compelling urge, a temptation that recycles in the mind, perhaps to become a habit, then an addiction. We are prone to some transgression and sin and also a rationalization that we have no guilt because we were born that way. We become trapped, and hence comes the pain and torment that only the Savior can heal. You have the power to stop and to be redeemed. — Boyd K. Packer

With thoughtless and impatient hands We tangle up the plans The Lord hath wrought. And when we cry in pain He saith, "Be quiet, man, while I untie the knot." (Author unknown, in Jack M. Lyon et al., Best-Loved Poems of the LDS People [1996], 304) — Boyd K. Packer

There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful. — Boyd K. Packer

Thoughts, like water, will stay on course if we make a place for them to go. As you learn to control your thoughts, you can gain courage, conquer fear and have a happy life. — Boyd K. Packer

The Atonement has practical, personal, everyday value; apply it in your life. It can be activated with so simple a beginning as prayer. — Boyd K. Packer

Things we cannot solve, we must survive. — Boyd K. Packer