Top 200 Ezra Taft Benson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

Featured in: Virtue Quotes, Communication Quotes, Humility Quotes, Quotes About Kids

2. “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

Featured in: Christian Quotes, Blessing Quotes, Sunday Quotes, Values Quotes, Happy Sunday Quotes

3. “You are free to choose, but you are not free to alter the consequences of your decisions.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

Featured in: Accountability Quotes, Quotes for Better Decisions

4. “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

5. “He who kneels before God, can stand before any man.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

Featured in: Sunday Quotes

6. “It is better to prepare and prevent than it is to repair and repent.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

7. “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

8. “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

9. “True repentance involves a change of heart and not just a change of behavior.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

10. “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

11. “The Lord is letting the wheat and the tares mature before he fully purges the Church. He is also testing you to see if you will be misled. The devil is trying to deceive the very elect.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

12. “Nothing will surprise us more than when we get to heaven and see the Father and realize how well we know Him and how familiar His face is to us.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

13. “The greatest test of life is obedience to God.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

14. “The Book of Mormon was written for us today. God is the author of the book. It is a record of a fallen people, compiled by inspired men for our blessing today. Those people never had the book. It was meant for us.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

15. “An honorable man or woman is one who is truthful; free from deceit; above cheating, lying, stealing, or any form of deception. An honorable man or woman is one who learns early that one cannot do wrong and feel right. A man’s character is judged on how he keeps his word and his agreements.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

16. “The more we express our gratitude to God for our blessings, the more he will bring to our mind other blessings. The more we are aware of to be grateful for, the happier we become.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

17. “Thoughts lead to acts, acts lead to habits, habits lead to character – and our character will determine our eternal destiny.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

18. “If you really want to receive joy and happiness, then serve others with all your heart. Lift their burden, and your own burden will be lighter.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

19. “The temple will be an ever-present reminder that God intended the family to be eternal.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

20. “To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all-consuming and all-encompassin g. It is no lukewarm endeavor. It is total commitment of our very being-physicall y, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually-to a love of the Lord.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

21. “Be cheerful in all that you do. Live joyfully. Live happily.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

22. “Praise your children more than you correct them. Praise them for even their smallest achievement.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

23. “To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours because we overindulge in junk foods.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

24. “To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look. Stand up for freedom, no matter what the cost. Stand up and be counted. It can help to save your soul-and maybe your country.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

25. “Just as a man does not desire food until he is hungry, so does he not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

26. “The high cost of low living.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

27. “Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

28. “You cannot do wrong and feel right. It is impossible!”

— Ezra Taft Benson

29. “The secret of a happy marriage is to serve God and each other. The goal of marriage is unity and oneness, as well as self-development. Paradoxically, the more we serve one another, the greater is our spiritual and emotional growth.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

30. “Do not make your mind a dumping ground for other people’s garbage.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

31. “Let us have no further blind devotion to the communist dominated United Nations!”

— Ezra Taft Benson

32. “That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

33. “The secret to missionary work is work. Work, work, work!”

— Ezra Taft Benson

34. “One good yardstick as to whether a person might be the right one for you is this: in her presence, do you think your noblest thoughts, do you aspire to your finest deeds, do you wish you were better than you are?”

— Ezra Taft Benson

35. “A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing in its evil influence and control over America and the entire world.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

36. “It is not on the pinnacle of success and ease where men and women grow most. It is often down in the valley of heartache and disappointment and reverses where men and women grow...”

— Ezra Taft Benson

37. “No true Latter-day Saint and no true American can be a socialist or a communist or support programs leading in that direction. These evil philosophies are incompatible with Mormonism, the true gospel of Jesus Christ.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

38. “We do not have to prove the Book of Mormon is true. The book is its own proof.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

39. “Freedom must be continually guarded as something more priceless than life itself.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

40. “From the Book of Mormon we learn how disciples of Christ live in times of war.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

41. “Yes, it is the precepts of men versus the revealed word of God. The more we follow the word of God the less we are deceived, while those who follow the wisdom of men are deceived the most.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

42. “Only Jesus Christ is uniquely qualified to provide that hope, that confidence, and that strength we need to overcome the world and rise above our human failings. To do so, we must place our faith in Him and live by His laws and teachings.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

43. “The secret of a happy marriage is to serve God and each other.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

44. “The central feature of pride is enmity – enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

45. “The responsibility of a man is to lead his family.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

46. “Be a light unto the world, a standard to others. You can live in the world and not partake of the sins of the world. You can live life joyously, beautifully, unmarred by the ugliness of sin. This is our confidence in you.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

47. “Without Christ there would be no Christmas and without Christ there can be no fulness of JOY.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

48. “God loves us. He’s watching us, he wants us to succeed, and we’ll know someday that he has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us. If we only knew it, there are heavenly hosts pulling for us – friends in heaven that we can’t rememer now, who yearn for our victory.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

49. “Those who think clean thoughts do not do dirty deeds.”

— Ezra Taft Benson

50. “Youth is the spirit of adventure and awakening. It is a time of physical emerging when the body attains the vigor and good health that may ignore the caution of temperance. Youth is a period of timelessness when the horizons of age seem too distant to be noticed.”

— Ezra Taft Benson