Quoty: quotes tagged with 'agency'

At the first organization in heaven we were all...

At the first organization in heaven we were all present and saw the Savior chosen and appointed and the plan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it.

Author: Joseph Smith, Source: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=da135f74db46c0...
Saved by mlsscaress in agency salvation savior decision plan premortal binding sanction

It should be obvious to you that the Lord is de...

It should be obvious to you that the Lord is describing a love here that deals with behavior on all 14 points. And behavior isn't something you fall into or out of. Behavior is very definitely something you control and decide. Agency is obviously involved here.

We also know that any commandment by God involves agency. We can obey or disobey, but there is always a choice. When the Lord uses the command form of the verb love in "Thou shalt love thy wife with all they heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else" (D&C 42:22), He is not leaving this love in Cupid's hands. His commandment is a directive, not to the heart, but with the heart, and to the mind with an expectation of thought, reasoning, decision making and obedience--you can't fall out of love if it's a commandment to stay in love.
Author: Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Source: http://www.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2002...
Saved by mlsscaress in agency behavior love commandment decision cleave directive

The person who obtains meekness and lowliness ...

The person who obtains meekness and lowliness of heart and who enjoys the company of the Holy Ghost will have no desire to offend or hurt others, nor will he feel affected by any offenses received from others. He will treat his spouse and children with love and respect and will have good relationships with everyone he associates with. In occupying positions of leadership in the Church, he will apply the same principles as he does in the home, showing that there is no difference between the person he is when within the walls of his own home and the person he is in his relationship with the members of the Church.

Principles like faith, repentance, love, forgiveness, and prayer, lived in the process I just described, become the best vaccine to combat the disease of sin, which can manifest itself in families in different ways, such as immorality, pride, envy, contention, abuse, and other practices that affect family relationships and that result in pain, deception, and the breakup of family ties.

The decision to incorporate them into our lives and the opportunity to begin the process whenever it may be necessary depends solely on our agency. It is a simple process that is within the reach of all. It is based on the fundamental principles of the gospel that have been and continue to be applied successfully by all those who put their trust in the Lord.

Author: Elder Francisco J. Vi�as , Source: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-439-15,00.h...
Saved by mlsscaress in agency faith trust process desires children love repentance home relationship marriage forgiveness holyghost prayer decision meekness affected vaccine combat

With free agency there comes responsibility. If...

With free agency there comes responsibility. If a man is to be rewarded for righteousness and punished for evil, then common justice demands that he be given the power of independent action. A knowledge of good and evil is essential to a man's progress on earth.�

If he were coerced to do right at all times, or were helplessly enticed to commit sin, he would, he would merit neither a blessing for the first nor a punishment for the second.

Man's responsibility is correspondingly operative with his free agency. Actions in harmony with divine laws and the laws of nature will bring happiness, and those in opposition to divine truth, misery. Man is responsible not only for every deed, but also for every idle word and thought.

Author: David O. McKay, Source: Free Agency...the Gift Divine. Improvement Era, Feb 1962, p.86
Saved by mlsscaress in truth agency happiness blessings responsibility thought word deed coercion merit entice

If you will here stop and ask yourselves why yo...

If you will here stop and ask yourselves why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you, that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.
Author: William Law, Source: Quoted in The Problem of Pain, p 66
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The freedom of a creature must mean the freedom...

The freedom of a creature must mean the freedom to choose: and choice implies the existence of things to choose between. A creature with no environment would have no choices to make: so that freedom, like self-consciousness (if they are not, indeed, the same thing) again demands the presence to the self of something other than the self.
Author: C. S. Lewis, Source: The Problem of Pain
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No government ever voluntarily reduces itself i...

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
Author: Ronald Reagan, Source: http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/rendezvous.asp
Saved by cboyack in government agency bureau department

Our freedom to choose our course of conduct doe...

Our freedom to choose our course of conduct does not provide personal freedom from the consequences of our performances. God�s love for us is constant and will not diminish, but he cannot rescue us from the painful results that are caused by wrong choices.
Author: Marvin J. Ashton, Source: Conference Report, Oct. 1990
Saved by cboyack in freedom agency action choice consequence result

That war, so bitter, so intense, has never ceas...

That war, so bitter, so intense, has never ceased. It is the war between truth and error, between agency and compulsion, between the followers of Christ and those who have denied Him. His enemies have used every stratagem in that conflict. They�ve indulged in lying and deceit. They�ve employed money and wealth. They�ve tricked the minds of men. They�ve murdered and destroyed and engaged in every kind of evil practice to thwart the work of Christ.
Author: Gordon B. Hinckley, Source: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010Vg...
Saved by cboyack in freedom satan truth agency war christ evil error good force compulsion warinheaven

With life comes agency and the chance and respo...

With life comes agency and the chance and responsibility to set our own individual course and to be accountable for it. Perhaps this is the greatest lesson we can learn from Lehi�s family�that we are individually able to choose a course of decency and integrity and wholesomeness; that �I, John (or Julie) will one day be a parent, and I am determined to be a �goodly� one. I am determined that my children will have goodly parents, and so I will prepare myself and choose friends (for friends may be as important as family) who will help me succeed in that effort, and that I will prepare to marry a husband or wife with whom I may share that sacred responsibility.�

Parents owe much to children, and children owe much to parents, and future parents owe much to those whom they will bring into the world. Remember that �all the rules will be fair� with �wonderful surprises.� Leave with your Heavenly Father the questions that may disturb you about parents and families who are not perfect and about �eternal families� and other matters which you cannot accomplish yourself. In God�s good time they will be answered on the basis of God�s love and man�s continuing eternal agency.
Author: Elder Marion D. Hanks, Source: Fitting into Your Family, New Era, Jun 1991, 4. http://www.lds...
Saved by mlsscaress in agency integrity children prepare parenting family family joy fair course futurehome wholesome imperfect surprises decency

In a world without causality and regularity of ...

In a world without causality and regularity of phenomena there would be no field for human reasoning and human action. Such a world would be a chaos in which man would be at a loss to find any orientation and guidance.
Author: Ludwig Von Mises, Source: Human Action, Vol. 1, p. 22
Saved by cboyack in agency action choice chaos causality

I am going to preach a hard doctrine to you now...

I am going to preach a hard doctrine to you now. The submission of one�s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God�s altar. It is a hard doctrine, but it is true. The many other things we give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually things He has already given us, and He has loaned them to us. But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our wills be swallowed up in God�s will, then we are really giving something to Him. And that hard doctrine lies at the center of discipleship. There is a part of us that is ultimately sovereign, the mind and heart, where we really do decide which way to go and what to do. And when we submit to His will, then we�ve really given Him the one final thing He asks of us. And the other things are not very, very important. It is the only possession we have that we can give, and there is no lessening of our agency as a result. Instead, what we see is a flowering of our talents and more and more surges of joy. Submission to Him is the only form of submission that is completely safe.
Author: Neal A. Maxwell, Source: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db0...
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Know this, that ev'ry soul is free To choose hi...

Know this, that ev'ry soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n:
That God will force no man to heav'n.
Author: Anonymous, Source: Know This, That Every Soul Is Free, Hymn #240
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Force, on the other hand, emanates from Lucifer...

Force, on the other hand, emanates from Lucifer himself. Even in man's pre-existent state, Satan sought power to compel the human family to do his will by suggesting that the free agency of man be inoperative. If his plan had been accepted, human beings would have become mere puppets in the hands of a dictator, and the purpose of man's coming to earth would have been frustrated. Satan's proposed system of government, therefore, was rejected, and the principle of free agency established in its place.
Author: David O. McKay, Source: Conference Report, April 1950, pp. 33-35
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Political thought has traditionally been polari...

Political thought has traditionally been polarized between competing theories, one position emphasizing man's communality and the other his individuality.

The theory of communality has been characterized by a belief in objective reality---a strand of classical Greek thought which held that because the good existed and could be discerned, force was justified in obtaining it; that is, the good is known and is embodied in the whole of the community, and the individual may therefore be coerced into conforming to that fact. Force is legitimated by the end to be achieved.

The theory of individuality was based upon a rejection of the premise that man can discern objective reality by reason and by intuition. Denying either (or both) the existence of universal principles or the ability of man to perceive them if they did exist, this form of liberalism asserts the subjectivity of knowledge and ethics, since both arise solely from man's sense experience and his individualistic desires. Freedom becomes simply the untrammeled accomplishment of individual desires. Coercion therefore has no moral base but is simply tolerated, at the lowest possible level, so that individual man might accomplish without infringement by others his individually discerned desires. Community is therefore minimal and artificial.

Latter-day Saint theology maintains that a mixture of truth and error exists in both classical Greek and liberal thought. Objective reality exists and can be known, forming the basis of uncoerced and natural community. At the same time, however, the Latter-day Saint belief in man's uncreated individuality and in the sanctity of his agency---an agency so sacrosanct that God himself will not infringe upon it---denies the legitimacy of force as a means of attaining the community's ends. Man's goal is seen as being the perfection of his individuality in the image of his Heavenly Father, until he is able to enjoy a celestial community. The attainment of such a goal, however, can only be accomplished by loving persuasion, not by force.

Latter-day Saint theology offers a solution to an age-old paradox---the conflict between individualism and communality---by suggesting a harmony between them in which each is essential to the other. Man's individuality, stemming from his eternal and uncreated intelligence and protected by the principle of agency, is developed to its ultimate godlike potential as he serves his brothers and sisters without compulsory means in righteousness and love.
Author: Edwin Brown Firmage, Source: �Eternal Principles of Government: A Theological Approach,� Ensign, Jun 1976, emphasis added
Saved by cboyack in politics liberty government freedom agency socialism individual charity force community coercion