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Showing posts with the label evil

the line between good and evil passes through all human hearts (Solzhenitsyn)

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

How to Live Well amid Increasing Evil (Scott)

  Elder Richard G. Scott Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, April 2004 General Conference As you continue to center your mind and heart in [the Lord], He will help you have a rich and full life no matter what happens in the world around you. Excellent suggestions to combat the deteriorating world environment have been given in this conference. As a prophet of God, President Gordon B. Hinckley put world conditions and our opportunities into crystal clear perspective. Two of his recent comments to priesthood and auxiliary leaders illustrate that prophetic vision. First, regarding the challenge we face: “The traditional family is under heavy attack. I do not know that things were worse in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah. … We see similar conditions today. They prevail all across the world. I think our Father must weep as He looks down upon His wayward sons and daughters.” 1 Now concerning our extraordinary opportunities: “Who in the earlier days could have dreamed of this season of opp

Evil can be undone, but it cannot develop into good (C.S. Lewis; Holland)

  “I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A [mathematical] sum [incorrectly worked] can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and [then] working it afresh from that point, never by simply   going on.   Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound.”  [ C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1946), viii.] So God is just, “mercy claimeth the penitent” ( Alma 42:23 ), and evil can be undone. Jeffrey R. Holland,  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2013/09/the-justice-and-mercy-of-god?lang=eng

Great Experiences (Sterlin W. Sill)

Certainly the most successful lives are those that have the most worthwhile experiences. The religion of  Christ  itself is not so much a set of ideas as it is a set of activities. The purpose of the Church is to help us translate the principles of the gospel of Christ into constructive, meaningful human experience. And everyone should work toward this end by a daily practice of thinking some uplifting thoughts, listening to some fine music, reading some stimulating literature, doing some good deeds, and having some great experiences every day. Because we draw so much from the rebellion, weakness, and evil with which we are surrounded, we tend to load ourselves up too heavily with guilt complexes, mental problems, insecurity, and mediocrity. I recently heard of a man who compounded the problem by hoarding his mistakes. He often referred to the fact that his D.F.T. drawer was the largest file in his office. Someone once asked him what these file letters stood for, and he said they i

Vice

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen to oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man, epistle i, I. 217)