2 Ne. 10:23; D&C 29:35, 39; 130:18-21; 132:5; Moses 5:33; 6:55-56; Hel. 14:30-31; Conference Report, Oct. 1965, p. 8; Conference Report, Apr. 1950, p. 32; Journal of Discourses 10:2-3; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 49; Hymn, no. 240
“We are free to choose, but we are not free to alter the consequences of those choices.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Come Unto Christ, p. 40)
“Because free agency is a God-given precondition to the purpose of mortal life, no person or organization can take away our free agency in mortality… . What can be taken away or reduced by the conditions of mortality is our freedom, the power to act upon our choices. Free agency is absolute, but in the circumstaces of mortality freedom is always qualified… . If I should hang from the cat-walk here in the Marriott Center and release my grip, I would not be free to will myself into a soft landing. And I cannot choose to run through a brick wall. A loss of freedom reduces the extent to which we can act upon our choices, but it does not deprive us of our God-given free agency.” (Dallin H. Oaks, 1987-88 BYU Devotional & Fireside Speeches, p. 43)
“Difficulty comes when agency is used to make choices that are inconsistent with … covenants. Study the things you do in your discretionary time, that time that you are free to control. Do you find that it is centered in those things that are of highest priority and of greatest importance? Or do you unconsciously, consistently fill it with trivia and activities that are not of enduring value nor help you accomplish the purpose for which you came to earth? Think of the long view of life, not just what’s going to happen today or tomorrow. Don’t give up what you most want in life for something you think you want now.” (Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 1997, p. 54)
“Sadness, disappointment, severe challenge are events in life, not life itself… . A pebble held close to the eye appears to be a gigantic obstacle. Cast on the ground, it is seen in perspective. Likewise, problems or trials in our lives need to be viewed in the perspective of scriptural doctrine… . Some people are like rocks thrown into a sea of problems. They are drowned by them. Be a cork. When submerged in a problem, fight to be free to bob up to serve again with happiness… . When you trust in the Lord, when you are willing to let your heart and your mind be centered in His will, when you ask to be led by the Spirit to do His will, you are assured of the greatest happiness along the way and the most fulfilling attainment from this mortal experience. If you question everything you are asked to do, or dig in your heels at every unpleasant challenge, you make it harder for the Lord to bless you.” (Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 1996, pp. 24-25)
“Our destiny is not based on chance. It is based on choice !” (Boyd K. Packer, CES Religious Educators Symposium, Aug. 10, 1993, p. 9)
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, p. 104)
“… the Father’s plan, which required that all people obtain mortal bodies, be tried and proven in all things, and have opportunity to choose of their own free will… . Lucifer—a personage of prominence—sought to amend the plan, while Jehovah sustained the plan. The central issue in that council, then, was: Shall the children of God have untrammeled agency to choose the course they should follow, whether good or evil, or shall they be coerced and forced to be obedient? Christ and all who followed Him stood for the former proposition—freedom of choice; Satan stood for the latter—coercion and force. Because Satan and those who stood with him would not accept the vote of the council, but rose up in rebellion, they were cast down to the earth, where they have continued to foster the same plan. The war that began in heaven is not yet over. The conflict continues on the battlefield of mortality. And one of Lucifer’s primary strategies has been to restrict our agency through the power of earthly governments. Proof of this is found in the long history of humanity (see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 357).” (Ezra Taft Benson, The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner, pp. 2-3)
“Sydney Harris wrote, in the Chicago Daily News:
I walked with my friend, a Quaker, to the newsstand the other night, and he bought a paper, thanking the newsie politely. The newsie didn’t even acknowledge it.
‘A sullen fellow, isn’t he?’ I commented.
‘Oh, he’s that way every night,’ shrugged my friend.
‘Then why do you continue to be so polite to him?’ I asked.
‘Why not?’ inquired my friend. ‘Why should I let him decide how I’m going to act?’” (Boyd K. Packer, 1966-67 BYU Speeches of the Year, Oct. 4, 1966, p. 9)
“I was down in Old Mexico a few years ago at Telacapaca where they feature the molding of clay into various kinds of pottery. There I saw them take lumps of clay which had been molded, usually by crude, primitive methods, the molder wading in the mud to mix it properly. Then it was put upon a potter’s wheel, and there the potter began to fashion the intricate bits of pottery which he was to place on the market. And as we watched, we saw occasionally, because of some defect in the mixing, the necessity for pulling the whole lump of clay apart and throwing it back in to be mixed over again, and sometimes the process had to be done several times before the proper kind of mud was mixed for the potter. With that in mind, I thought I began to see the meaning of this scripture: ‘We are as clay in the hands of the potter, and we are all the work of His hands.’ Yes, we too, have to be tried and tested by poverty, by sickness, by the death of loved ones, by temptation, sometimes by the betrayal of supposed friends, by affluence and riches, by ease and luxury, by false educational ideas, and by the flattery of the world. A father, explaining this matter to his son, said, [2 Ne. 2:15].” (Harold B. Lee, BYU Speeches, Oct. 1956, pp. 2-3)
“We can choose our reactions to difficulties and challenges… . Self-pity and discouragement do not come from the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But life can be both bitter and sweet. It is up to us to choose whether we want to reflect the voices of gloom or gladness.” (Marvin J. Ashton, Conference Report, Apr., 1991, p. 24)
“We give up our agency when we examine our circumstances as if we were trapped by them. We lose our agency and make ourselves victims by the use of phrases like these:
“You make me mad.”
“I could be happy if it weren’t for …”
“I’ll change if you do.”
“He did it to me first.”
“I could be a good parent if it weren’t for my children.”
“Everybody’s doing it.”
(Terry Olson, BYU Religious Educators Summer Conference, 1991)
“We are … the sum of all the choices we make. We should always remember that our choices do not begin with the act, but in the mind with the idea. As a poet stated, ‘Sow a thought, and you reap an act; sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny’ [Anonymous]. Given our agency, we are therefore individually responsible for our ideas, acts, habits, character, and, yes, even our destiny.” (Richard B. Wirthlin, Ensign, Nov. 1997, p. 10)
“To you adults who repeat the pattern of neglect and abuse you endured as little children, believing that you are entrapped in a cycle of behavior from which there is no escape, I say: It is contrary to the order of heaven for any soul to be locked into compulsive, immoral behavior with no way out! It is consistent with the workings of the adversary to deceive you into believing that you are.” (Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, Nov. 1986, p. 18)
“Sometimes the solution is not to change our circumstance, but to change our attitude about that circumstance and its difficulties so that we see more clearly… . There are those today who say that man is the result of his environment and cannot rise above it. Those who justify mediocrity, failure, immorality of all kinds, and even weakness and criminality are certainly misguided. Surely the environmental conditions found in childhood and youth are an influence of power. But the fact remains that every normal soul has its free agency and the power to row against the current and to lift itself to new planes of activity and thought and development. Man can transform himself. Man must transform himself… . Man has in himself the seeds of godhood, which can germinate and grow and develop. As the acorn become the oak, the mortal man becomes a god. It is within his power to lift himself by his very bootstraps from the plane on which he finds himself to the plane on which he should be. It may be a long, hard lift with many obstacles, but it is a real possibility. In other words, environment need not be our limit. Circumstance may not need to be our ruler… .” (Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, July 1978, pp. 3-7)