Ezra Taft Benson
“The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and proud who are rich. The learned may feel the prophet is only inspired when he agrees with them otherwise, the prophet is just giving his opinion—speaking as a man. The rich may feel they have no need to take counsel of a lowly prophet.” (1980 BYU Speeches of the year, p. 29 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 120)
Ezra Taft Benson
“Increasingly the Latter-day Saints must choose between the reasoning of men and the revelations of God. This is a crucial choice, for we have those within the Church today who, with their worldly wisdom, are leading some of our members astray. President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., warned that the ’ravening wolves amongst us from our own membership and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing, because they wear the habiliments of the Priesthood….We should be careful of them.’” (Conference Report, Oct. 1967, p.34 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 121)
Ezra Taft Benson
“Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.” (Ensign, Nov. 1993, p.16)
Boyd K. Packer
“There is almost a universal tendency for men and women who are specialists in an academic discipline to judge the Church against the principles of their profession. There is a great need in my mind for us, as students and as teachers, to consciously and continually subjugate this tendency and relegate our professional training to a position secondary to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, rather than to judge the Church and its program against the principles of our profession, we would do well to set the Church and its accepted program as the rule, then judge our academic training against this rule.” (BYU Speeches of the year, 1969, p. 6 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 119-20)
Theodore M. Burton
“A university education, I believe, would be desirable for every intelligent man and woman….A little learning is a dangerous thing, and too many men and to many women who have become experts in a tiny field of learning think that because they are trained in that field of learning, they are experts in all fields of learning. Many men who are well-trained in one limited field feel that this equally qualifies them to express learned opinions in the field of faith and religion…Now, brothers and sisters, in our Church in this day and age, when education is becoming more and more popular and more and more necessary, there is grave danger of intellectual apostasy…(2 Nephi 9:28-9). What causes intellectual apostasy?…Principally out of vanity and pride. They want to impress others with their learning. To put it indelicately, it is the problem of the swelled head, because that is exactly what the Prophet said” (Conference Report, Apr. 1961, pp. 128-9 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 121)