Quotes From the Prophets About Education

When I was visiting BYU last week, I found some great quotes that I wanted to share here.

JOHN TAYLOR
..We ought to foster educationand intelligence of every kind, cultivate literary tastes, and men of literary and scientific talent should improve that talent; and all should magnify the gifts which God has given unto them...If there is anything good and praiseworthy in morals, religion, science, or anything calculated to exalt and ennoble man, we are after it. But with all our getting, we want to get understanding, and that understanding which flows from God.

JOSEPH F. SMITH

The mere stuffing of the mind with a knowledge of facts is not education. The mind must not only possess a knowledge of the truth, but the soul must revere it, cherish it, love it as a priceless gem; and this human life must be guided and shaped by it in order to fulfill its destiny. The mind should not only be charged with intelligence, but the soul should be filled with admiration and desire for pure intelligence which comes of a knowledge of the truth. The truth can only make him free who hath it and will continue in it. And the word of God is truth, and it will endure forever.

GEORGE ALBERT SMITH

I want to say that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts all that is true in the world from whatever source it may come, with the knowledge that it originated with the greatest of all scientists, our Father in Heaven.
And so I congratulate the students of this great institution [BYU]to think that you have all advantages that the people of the world have, plus the advantages of faith in God, a belief in the power of our Heavenly Father and His inspiration....

DAVID O. MCKAY

But gaining knowledge is one thing, and applying it [is[ quite another. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge, and true education--the education for which the Church stands--is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and Godlike character.

HAROLD B LEE

We are sending you out as artists, scientists, teachers, and philosophers. Will you never forget the theme of the lesson we are talking about, that you are but branches of a divine tree and that you of yourself, you can do nothing? All truths whether called science or religion, or philosophy, come from a divine source.
You, then, I plead with y ou, do not in your search for truth, allow yourselves to become severed from the "vine". In all your learning, measure it and test it by the white light of truth revealed to the prophet of God and you will never be led astray.

SPENCER W. KIMBALL

Many in the secular world are often sdrift and anchorless. Only an education which educates for eternity has the wholeness which humans need. When we separate learning from divine moral truth, it deteriorates into a restless, roving search for meaning and often drifts into a sensual selfishness.

HOWARD W. HUNTER

The scientific approach to proof is by experimentation in the laboratory...We cannot overlook the great good this approach by science has upon the lives of persons, but how about those things which lie outside of the realm of positive, tangible proof? This question brings us to the higher law. It is through the assurance that comes from fiath....Thomas had said, "To see is to believe," but Christ answered, "To believe is to see."

GORDON B. HINCKLEY

We live in a world where knowledge is developing at an ever-accelerating rate. Drink deeply from this ever-springing well of wisdom and human experience. If you should stop now, you will only stunt your intellectual and spiritual grwoth. Keep everlastingly at it. Read. Read, REad. REad the word of God in sacred books of scripture. Read from the great literature of the ages. Read what is being said in our day and time and what will be said in the future.