There exists something of a script for this great play, the drama of the ages. It outlines in brief form, at least, what happened in Act I, the Premortal Life. While there is not much detail, it makes clear the purpose of it all. And it reveals enough of the plot to help you figure out what life is all about.

That script, as you should already know, is the scriptures, the revelations. Read them, study them. They tell you “what man is,” why God is “mindful of him,” and why we are made a little lower than the angels” or as Joseph Smith translated it, “a little less than the Gods, and yet “crowned ... with glory and honour” (Psalms 8: 4-5)

The scriptures speak the truth. From them you can learn enough about all three acts to get your bearings and get direction in your life. They reveal that, “Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth”, and that “truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 9:23-24): Act I, Act II, and Act III.

You can learn of things as they were, as they actually are, not just as they appear to be, and you can learn of things as they are to come. What happens to you after the curtain comes down on this second act of mortal life, we take on faith. Each of us writes our own ending to Act II.

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.

The virtue of man ought to be measured, not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his everyday conduct.

Missionary work is different in nature than any other position, and is a great privilege and blessing to be involved in, and a very small gift to give. Missionary work is the payment of a tithe of your life to the advancement of the work of God in all the world...Missionaries who are prayerful, obedient and who work hard will be given some measure of harvest, for which you will be grateful all the days of your life...You will never be able to judge the consequences of that which you do as a missionary...If you bring someone into the Church and that individual stays in the Church, the harvest will go on and on, growing and growing through the years and through generations of time...We place tremendous confidence in you. We count on you to do a superb job. No less than the best will do. You must do your very, very best.

Emerson was once asked which, of all the books he had read, had most affected his life. His response was that he could no more remember the books he had read than he could remember the meals he had eaten, but they had made him. All of us are the products of the elements to which we are exposed.

I take it to be a principle rule of life, not to be too much addicted to any one thing.

Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% what we decide to do about it.

When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'