What modern Feminism sounds like to me...

We want you to value individual autonomy above all else — except when we want you to reject certain choices you might make in favor of solidarity with other women.

We want you to see women as victims of everyone and everything — even though feminism is supposed to be empowering.

We want you to express your true nature as women — except we’d prefer you throw the men and children in your lives under the bus.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/04/scenes-from-the-feminist-implosion/

Laws

"Laws and rules may seem to limit rather than free us; but it is only because of the law of gravity that we can walk. Only by adhering to the laws of physics can we compose beautiful music and send up spaceships. Obedience is liberating, not confining." 

- Bruce C. Hafen

The desire to create

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty...

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.

~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Take action.

...the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

– William H Murray

Motto

"Because I love the Father, I want the minds of men to be lifted when they look at me.
Because I am His daughter, I want my devotion to Him to be what they see."

-lyrics from "Virtue" by Jenny Phillips

Vice

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

-Alexander Pope

Music of Life

To play a wrong note is insignificant;
To play without passion is inexcusable.

-Ludwig Van Beethoven

God Bless America

"Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the new Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all the world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won't fail. I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges. I plead with you NOT to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through."

President Harold B. Lee

What was that again?

"I quite agree with you," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is--'Be what you would seem to be';--or, if you'd like it put more simply--'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'"

"I think I should understand that better," Alice said very politely, "if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it."

"That's nothing to what I could say if I chose," the Duchess replied, in a pleased tone.

"Pray don't trouble yourself to say it any longer than that," said Alice.

"Oh, don't talk about trouble!" said the Duchess. "I make you a present of everything I've said as yet."

~Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

To know God

"Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us."

~Henry B. Eyring quoting Ezra Taft Benson

Modern day Chiasmus

I was reading a recent talk by David A. Bednar and was struck by his prose. As I analyzed it, I realized he was speaking in a chiastic structure! There were two chiasmi and both had the same central statement.

"As disciples of the Savior, we are not merely striving to know more; rather, we need to consistently do more of what we know is right and become better."

So true. Read it yourself. It's a great talk.

Write it down

"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience."

~Gordon B. Hinckley

Fully alive

"This body that we have, this very body that's sitting here right now in this room, this very body that perhaps aches, and this mind that we have at this very moment, are exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, and fully alive."

~Pema Chodron

Perfect.

"If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. ... No man ought to say, 'Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.' He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts, and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upon the face of the earth."

~President George Q. Cannon, quoted by Robert D. Hales