Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice

Remember this: debt is a form of bondage. It is a financial termite. When we make purchases on credit, they give us only an illusion of prosperity. We think we own things, but the reality is, our things own us.

Some debt—such as for a modest home, expenses for education, perhaps for a needed first car—may be necessary. But never should we enter into financial bondage through consumer debt without carefully weighing the costs.

What a tragic end to such a gifted beginning! What a pathetic farewell to a life that held such promise! And where did it go wrong? It went wrong when ambition became more important than conviction; when corruption transcended fidelity; when power and wealth created a thirst for material goods that honest living could not satisfy. Could there be sadder words than these from the lips of a BYU-Idaho graduate fifty or sixty or seventy years from today: “Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye. Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal I serv’d my King [or my company or my country club or my BMW], he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.”

For BYU-Idaho students it must be the kingdom of God first and forever. Eternal possessions. The restored gospel. Family and friends. Truth and industry and love. Humility and sacrifice and faith. As you stand on the threshold of your bright and beautiful future, may heaven strip from you this very hour, this very instant, any budding taste you may be acquiring for unseemly wealth or authoritarian power or worldly acclaim. I pray you will always have money sufficient for your needs and I pray you will exert a righteous influence wherever life’s journey takes you in the business and professional world, but I ask you not to be lured by the siren song of avarice and greed, or the quest for unrighteous dominion over your fellow men and women.

Student life and student wages should have already taught you that to be happy you do not need the most expensive car, the most fashionable clothing, nor the most elegant furnishings in your home. Furthermore, in the years ahead, neither your self-esteem nor your standing before God will hinge on being at the top of the corporate pyramid.

Don’t advance yourself through compromise. Don’t feather your nest with what you’ve plucked dishonorably from another. Remember that in the end, surely God will be looking only for clean hands, not full ones.

When gold was used, and the rules protected honest commerce, productive nations thrived. Whenever wealthy nations – those with powerful armies and gold – strived only for empire and easy fortunes to support welfare at home, those nations failed.

I do not worry about the Saints in poverty, but when the Lord sees fit to open the great oil reserves in Utah, I tremble for them.

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.

If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money; but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage.

He that loseth wealth, loseth much; he that loseth friends, loseth more; but he that loseth his spirit loseth all.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car... a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.