Good men make mistakes (Christofferson)

“Good men sometimes make mistakes. A man of integrity will honestly face and correct his mistakes, and that is an example we can respect.  Sometimes men try but fail. Not all worthy objectives are realized despite one’s honest and best efforts. True manhood is not always measured by the fruits of one’s labors but by the labors themselves–by one’s striving.”

-D. Todd Christofferson, “Let Us Be Men,” Ensign, Nov. 2006, 47-48.

dishonesty and lying; forming character here and now (Heber C. Kimball)

Now, there are a great many people, even to this day…who make a practice of telling lies…They make a practice of it. They cannot transact business except they must lie a little.

How long, do you suppose, it will take that man to get to heaven and to enter into celestial glory, where lies or anything that is impure cannot exist? It will take him as many millions of years as there will be millions of years to come.

Perhaps some people may think that if we do lie and are dishonest, and so forth and so on, when we die, the death that comes upon us and the change that comes upon us will change and take away those lies, and we shall find ourselves basking in truth. No such thing. I may tell a lie to you—I may be dishonest to my neighbors and ungodly, then I may get up and go out of doors; and I want to know what better am I when I go through that door than I was this side of it? Has it changed my nature? No—not one particle…Well, our change from this state of existence does not change our character. The character must be made and formed before it goes through the vail, if he is going to continue with the servants of God, the Prophets.

Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 6:30-31

honesty and integrity (Brigham Young)

“Simple truth, simplicity, honesty, uprightness, justice, mercy, love, kindness, do good to all and evil to none, how easy it is to live by such principles!  A thousand times easier than to practice deception!”


Brigham Young, J.D. 14:76

“A very simple person can tell the truth, but it takes a very smart person to tell a lie and make it appear like the truth.”

Brigham Young, J.D. 11:304

honesty

Complete honesty is necessary for our salvation. President Brigham Young said, “If we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deals, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives” 


(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 293).