As precious as life itself is our heritage of individual freedom, for man's free agency is a God-given gift.
David O. MckayRead
That which a man continually thinks about determines his actions in times of opportunity and stress. I will know what you are if you tell me what you think about when you don't have to think.
Interpretation
Our thoughts shape our actions and reveal our true selves, especially under pressure.
This quote emphasizes the profound influence of our thoughts on our behavior, particularly during moments of challenges or opportunities. David O. McKay suggests that an individual's underlying values and beliefs are reflected in the thoughts they hold when they are not preoccupied or distracted, indicating that our true character emerges in times of stress.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-improvement and resilience.
As precious as life itself is our heritage of individual freedom, for man's free agency is a God-given gift.
The rising sun can dispel the darkness of night, but it cannot banish the blackness of malice, hatred, bigotry, and selfishness from the hearts of humanity.
Motherhood is the one thing in all the world which most truly exemplifies the God-given virtues of creating and sacrificing. Though it carries the woman close to the brink of death, motherhood also leads her into the very realm of the fountains of life and makes her co-partner with the Creator in bestowing upon eternal spirits mortal life.
It is possible to make home a bit of heaven; indeed, I picture heaven to be a continuation of the ideal home
Happiness and peace will come to earth only as the light of love and human compassion enter the souls of men.
Out of the homes of America will come the future citizens of America, and only as those homes are what they should be will this nation be what it should be.
Is it better to be extremely ambitious, or rather modest? Probably the latter is safer; but I hate safety, and would rather fail gloriously than dingily succeed.
Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health.
Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject; no one can draw much consolation from it when he has lost the power or the desire to create; and that is apt to happen to a mathematician rather soon. It is a pity, but in that case he does not matter a great deal anyhow, and it would be silly to bother about him.
Socrates said, our only knowledge was_x000D_ _x000D_ "To know that nothing could be known;" a pleasant_x000D_ _x000D_ Science enough, which levels to an ass_x000D_ _x000D_ Each Man of Wisdom, future, past, or present._x000D_ _x000D_ Newton, (that Proverb of the Mind,) alas!_x000D_ _x000D_ Declared, with all his grand discoveries recent,_x000D_ _x000D_ That he himself felt only "like a youth_x000D_ _x000D_ Picking up shells by the great Ocean-Truth."
We suffer pain, we hang tight to hope, we nurture expectations, we are plagued occasionally by fears, we are haunted by defeats and unrealized hopes . . . The hoplessness of which I speak is not limited.
Hurry ruins saints as well as artists. They want quick success, and they are in such a hurry to get it that they cannot take time to be true to themselves. And when the madness is upon them, they argue that their very haste is a species of integrity.
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