Quotes

“Get out of debt and rid yourself of the terrible bondage that debt brings.”

–President Gordon B. Hinckley,  To Men of the Priesthood

 

“May I add this to Amulek’s counsel: Pray to the Lord over your debts that they may be paid. Pray to him for faith to get out of debt, to live within your means, and to pay as you go.”

–Ezra Taft Benson, Pay Thy Debt, and Live

 

“The Lord desires his Saints to be free and independent in the critical days ahead. But no man is truly free who is in financial bondage.”

–President Ezra Taft Benson,  Prepare Ye

 

“President Faust would not tell you this himself.  Perhaps I can tell it, and he can take it out on me afterward.  He had a mortgage on his home drawing 4 percent interest.  Many people would have told him he was foolish to pay off that mortgage when it carried so low a rate of interest.  But the first opportunity he had to acquire some means, he and his wife determined they would pay off their mortgage.  He has been free of debt since that day.  That’s why he wears a smile on his face, and that’s why he whistles while he works.” 

–President Gordon B. Hinckley, To the Boys and to the Men

 

“If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means.” 

–President Heber J. Grant, quoted by Pres. Hinkley, To the Boys and to the Men

   

“The American Bar Association recently indicated that 89 percent of all divorces could be traced to quarrels and accusations over money.  Others have estimated that 75 percent of all divorces result from clashes over finances.” 

–Elder Marvin J. Ashton, One for the Money

 

“Now, brethren, I want to make it clear that I am not prophesying, that I am not predicting years of famine in the future.  But I am suggesting that the time has come to get our houses in order.” 

– President Gordon B. Hinckley, To the Boys and to the Men

 

“Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you”

– President J. Reuben Clark, as quoted by President Hinckley in To the Boys and to the Men

 

“Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.” 

–Benjamin Franklin, quoted by President Ezra Taft Benson in Pay Thy Debt, and Live

 

“”We must never give up, regardless of temptations, frustrations, disappointments, or discouragements.  I believe that perseverance is vital to success in any endeavor, whether spiritual or temporal, large or small, public or personal.  Think seriously of how important perseverance, or the lack of it, has been in your own endeavors, such as Church callings, schooling, or employment.  I believe that essentially all significant achievement results largely from perseverance.”

–Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, Never Give Up

 

“Many years ago, on an assignment to the beautiful islands of Tonga, I was privileged to visit our Church school, the Liahona High School, where our youth are taught by teachers with a common bond of faith—providing training for the mind and preparation for life. On that occasion, entering one classroom, I noticed the rapt attention the children gave their native instructor. His textbook and theirs lay closed upon the desks. In his hand he held a strange-appearing fishing lure fashioned from a round stone and large seashells. This, I learned, was a maka-feke, an octopus lure. In Tonga, octopus meat is a delicacy.
The teacher explained that Tongan fishermen glide over a reef, paddling their outrigger canoes with one hand and dangling the maka-feke over the side with the other. An octopus dashes out from its rocky lair and seizes the lure, mistaking it for a much-desired meal. So tenacious is the grasp of the octopus and so firm is its instinct not to relinquish the precious prize that fishermen can flip it right into the canoe.
It was an easy transition for the teacher to point out to the eager and wide-eyed youth that the evil one—even Satan—has fashioned so-called maka-fekes with which to ensnare unsuspecting persons and take possession of their destinies.
Today we are surrounded by the maka-fekes which the evil one dangles before us and with which he attempts to entice us and then to ensnare us. Once grasped, such maka-fekes are ever so difficult—and sometimes nearly impossible—to relinquish. To be safe, we must recognize them for what they are and then be unwavering in our determination to avoid them. . . .
The final maka-feke I wish to mention today is one which can crush our self-esteem, ruin relationships, and leave us in desperate circumstances. It is the maka-feke of excessive debt. It is a human tendency to want the things which will give us prominence and prestige. We live in a time when borrowing is easy. We can purchase almost anything we could ever want just by using a credit card or obtaining a loan. Extremely popular are home equity loans, where one can borrow an amount of money equal to the equity he has in his home. What we may not realize is that a home equity loan is equivalent to a second mortgage. The day of reckoning will come if we have continually lived beyond our means.
My brothers and sisters, avoid the philosophy that yesterday’s luxuries have become today’s necessities. They aren’t necessities unless we make them so. Many enter into long-term debt only to find that changes occur: people become ill or incapacitated, companies fail or downsize, jobs are lost, natural disasters befall us. For many reasons, payments on large amounts of debt can no longer be made. Our debt becomes as a Damocles sword hanging over our heads and threatening to destroy us.
I urge you to live within your means. One cannot spend more than one earns and remain solvent. I promise you that you will then be happier than you would be if you were constantly worrying about how to make the next payment on nonessential debt. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read: “Pay the debt thou hast contracted. … Release thyself from bondage.”
–Thomas S. Monson (2006), True to the Faith

 

“If the people known as Latterday Saints had listened to the advice given from this stand by my predecessor, under the inspiration of the Lord, calling and urging upon the Latter-day Saints not to run in debt, this great depression would have hurt the Latter-day Saints very little. . . . To my mind, the main reason for the depression in the United States as a whole, is the bondage of debt and the spirit of speculation among the people.”
–Heber J. Grant (in 1932), Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Heber J. Grant

 

“Now, I believe sincerely that one of the principal causes of the distress that exists among us–and I believe the same thing will apply almost universally through the land–is that people have gone beyond their means. They have borrowed largely, mortgaged their homes, their farms, and nearly everything they possess, to keep pace with their neighbors, competing one with another in putting on appearances and in carrying on their business on the credit bases that is so much in vogue in the world. . . .
. . . Many of us that have borrowed means . . . that we might put on an appearance at least equal to that of our neighbor, if we had not done so, but had lived within our means, and in addition had laid a little aside for a rainy day, today we would be the most independent people upon this continent. . . . So far as I am concerned, I would like to see . . . that whenever we buy a dollar’s worth of goods we wither pay a dollar for it or something that represents a dollar, and that we do it without criplling ourselves at home or placing a mortgage upon us and upon our children. Every man that lives by credit is placing shackles upon himself and his family. . . .
Did you ever see anybody who went in debt and mortgaged and bonded that which he possessed, as free, as independent, as happy as the man who paid for what he had as he went along? We should live according to our means, and lay a foundation upon which we can build, and upon which our children can build after us, without paying interest on bonded debts incurred by us.”
–Joseph F. Smith (1898), Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Joseph F. Smith

 

I urge you with all the capacity that I have to reach out in a duty that stands beyond the requirements of our everyday lives; that is, to stand strong, even to become a leader in speaking up in behalf of those causes that make our civilization shine and that give comfort and peace to our lives. You can be a leader. You must be a leader, as a member of this Church, in those causes for which this Church stands.”  

–President Gordon B. Hinckley, Stand Up for Truth

 

A sterling virtue which builds manliness and independence is frugality of thrift. “Waste not, want not” has long been the clarion call. In more recent years, however, this maxim has given way to so-called “deficit spending.” Many have been teaching that we must spend our way into prosperity. How do you regard this philosophy? Have you stopped to analyze its effect upon the independence, self-reliance, and character of the individual? And what of its possible effect upon the very existence of this nation as a haven for freedom-loving men and women

–Ezra Taft Benson, So Shall Ye Reap, p. 165.

Do you know of a great quote that should be up here?  Please send it to me at debtfreesaints@gmail.com