BYU Speeches
Alphabetical by Speaker

“May we lay down our lives for those sheep, a day at a time, in a service that partakes of the most honorable cause that ever graced the pages of human existence.”

We can’t develop a Christlike love by ourselves, but we can do all in our power to become a “true follower”—meek, lowly of heart, and submissive to correction and affliction. Then the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, “filleth” us “with hope and perfect love, which . . . endureth [forever], when all the saints shall dwell with God.”

They fulfill their dreams by coming to this oasis of learning in a spiritually parched world, yearning to ask the young ruler’s question: What shall I do? And they come believing that the faculty and staff here will tell them what to do.

All I ask brothers and sisters, is that we who go to college may be honest enough and courageous enough to face whatever uncertainties we may encounter, and that we try to understand them and do something about them.

Every time we go to the temple, the ordinances reorient us to the natural order of the universe, including the natural order of marriage. Like the ancient mariner, we look to the heavens to get our bearings—and we do that through the temple.

The best way for a Latter-day Saint student to reconcile the competing values of faith and intellect is to be mentored by teachers and leaders whose daily lives, attitudes, and teaching authentically demonstrate how deep religious faith and demanding intellectual rigor are mutually reinforcing.

“The Lord speaks of a solemn assembly where the laborers for Zion may purify themselves so that he by his atoning power may make them clean.”

“The teacher’s work, especially here at Karl Maeser’s school, is a deeply satisfying labor, with students and books and papers that bless us all the days God lets us live. What a good way to spend our lives.”

May your positive memories of BYU stay with you throughout your life. May your BYU connections continue to be a strong influence in all that you do. May you know that you will always be welcome here on campus on this consecrated ground.

May your positive memories of BYU stay with you throughout your life. May your BYU connections continue to be a strong influence in all that you do. May you know that you will always be welcome here on campus on this consecrated ground.

As we connect with ­others, our power to do good in the world is ­exponentially increased.

“The Lord wants and needs all of you to be strong, to be believers, to be an example of goodness to all the world.”

You will be able to do and accomplish so much that I will only add to the other advice you have received: live the principles of the gospel.

Joseph Smith was foreordained to be the duly appointed leader of this, the greatest and final of all dispensations.

Someone has likened each of our lives to a mighty river as it flows to the sea. It is the product of many streams—some large, some small . . . I thank God for the streams, clear and pure, that have influenced my life.

“It is for this reason you have come to this institution—to learn how to take this intelligence, knowledge, and experience to gain wisdom and learn understanding in your hearts in order to help you keep the commandments.”

To assist you in living lives of service, let me suggest three essential principles: First, help others succeed. Second, learn and develop your own talents and value the talents of others. Third, obtain a spirit of serving and giving.

As the years go by, you will discover many axioms that reflect your own experience of living the gospel. Learn them, live them in your life, and share them.

In our fast-paced world, we are sometimes impatient for His plan to unfold. Popular culture tells us, “Get a life.” My advice to all of us is, “Get an eternal life.” By making right choices today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our time on earth, that eternal goal means the most to us.

“The capability, through repentance, to forgive and the ability to love are God-given gifts to enable us to live our lives fully and to help others live bravely and meaningfully in this less than perfect world.”

Good friends help keep us on the high ground. Good friends strengthen us and help us live the commandments when we are with them. True friends will not make us choose between the Lord’s ways and their ways.

The temple is a sacred edifice, a holy place where essential saving ceremonies and ordinances are performed to prepare us for exaltation.

I add my testimony to that of Nephi. I know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ and that this is the way.

It is my fervent desire that each of us will use our God-given intelligence to gain the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in our hearts to meet life’s tests and trials and to endure to the end.

Whether it is a no-problem day or we are in the midst of an intensive period of testing and trial in our lives, we can find strength in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Both the heart and the mind must be fully engaged in this holy process. The conversion of our soul and the ongoing refinement of our life, as we adopt the attributes of godliness, is our earthly mission and is rewarded with “eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”

My aspiration is for each of us to want to live a more reverent life—a life reflective of our love for God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ, His Son and our Savior.

[S]eeking balance—giving adequate time and effort to each of those things that really matter—is vital to our success in mortal probation.

We renew [our] covenants as we come to His Church every Sabbath day and partake of the sacrament. This is how we come to Christ. This is how we walk with Him. This is how we realize our full divine potential.

I humbly remind you of the only pure, sinless life ever lived on this earth, that of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Seek for Him! And when you find him, you, too, will make a difference.

Life, if lived properly, allows the Holy Ghost to bring the vision into our mind. The perfect description was given by a loving Heavenly Father when He said, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

It requires the gospel and the Church to bring everything that is important in our lives into one eternal sphere. There is nothing else in this life of eternal worth—just family, friends, and the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ.

We are authority figures, and our outreach, or our interest—or our lack of it—may influence these of little experience but great capacity to learn.

We are not justified if we “pass by on the other side,” hurrying to our priesthood meetings or to the temple or to do visiting teaching or anything else if there is something at hand we should do that the Lord wants done. I don’t think we should or need to choose between serving God and serving our fellowmen.

Quoting an Episcopalian prayer book, the author gives “five steps to wisdom”—read, hear, mark, learn, and digest. Application of the five steps should be made to the Book of Mormon, so that one’s love of the book will grow.

We all have the need to know the processes by which we recoup what we could be and could have, had we chosen more wisely. So these are the three basics: Atonement, Agency, and Accountability.

I propose that in striving to achieve the aims of a BYU education, you will simultaneously be advancing in your quest for perfection and eternal life—a quest that we must always remember is made possible only through the love and the Atonement of the Savior.

With balance comes happiness and inner peace. How unfortunate it is that some work a lifetime on a goal like making money or attaining social status, only to find that these things do not bring real happiness.

My purpose today is to encourage us all to “say something” and “know something” more about mental health in order that we all might “be something” more and obtain optimal mental health.

Real hope, based on eternal principles and spiritual experiences, is an anchor to our souls, intended to have and capable of having precisely the same effects as a sea anchor.

The plan is for us to seek our way from simplicity through complexity, by study and by faith, until we arrive at the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

More than something that that dude in the Third Ward or your great aunt does, genealogical consciousness is a way of being, a way of thinking about your place within and responsibility to the generations surrounding you.

Although secular knowledge somewhat explains how genetic-based characteristics and environmental influences interact to influence human development, there is an important spiritual dimension of our beings that cannot be readily probed by scientific means. What a wonderful blessing it will be if we are found worthy to learn from our Heavenly Father about how our spiritual personalities and biology are intertwined, according to His foreknowledge, in preparation for individualized schooling experiences in mortality.

If you follow the suggestions I have offered and combine them with earnest prayer and pondering, they can provide you with the insight needed to see where and possibly how you can maximize your potential and leave your indelible mark in the world.

I remember slipping out of bed to my knees. It was the first time in my life that I had ever prayed intently. There I was, with bandages on my eyes, alone in my bedroom, praying for help.

Consecrating our education and cultivating a giving attitude will enable us to bless many more individuals. . . . These will be the people who years later and thousands of miles away will not necessarily remember what we did but rather how we did it.

Brothers and sisters, what we choose as our guide determines the kind of life we will live and the blessings we will enjoy. . . . We will live a life and receive rewards consistent with the law by which we are willing to abide.

We can notice how false these comparisons most often are…That is worth noting, worth confronting, and worth ­constantly reminding ourselves.

Caring about God’s creation—which includes people and other living things already being affected by climate change today—is a genuine expression of our faith. It is a faithful acceptance of our responsibility, and it is a true expression of God’s love.

Just as there is a necessity for each of us to know that our physical heart is functioning properly, it is equally important to know that our spiritual heart is healthy and functioning properly.

Because attaining knowledge is such an important task—and a lifelong endeavor—it is important to understand the meaning and implications of being teachable. When we are teachable, the Holy Ghost bears witness of truth and we increase in knowledge and wisdom.

If you really understood that truth, you would sacrifice anything—everything—to achieve it. Understanding this truth is central to your purpose for being on the planet.

We don’t have to be perfect—after all we can do, the Savior does the rest. When we repent we choose to be changed, to be spiritually stronger, and to come closer to the Savior.

Your spiritual development, particularly the development of a firm Matiu Kauri–like testimony, will be of great value to you in perilous times.

The continuum begins with faith and ends with charity, or the pure love of Christ. Charity requires that we love the Savior and all people through the development and mastery of His attributes.

If the acquisition of knowledge is an act of humility and faith on our part that is powered by personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, then we need to do all we can to take full advantage of the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

The choices we make with money are at the heart of mortality’s test. Will we choose to waste our resources upon transitory pleasures, or will we choose to serve others and build up the kingdom of God?

“Now, since we know the Lord loves all of his children, we need to inquire whether our being here at this time with these blessings is by chance or whether there might be a purpose to it.”

I pray that the Lord’s blessings will be with us as we are proven, as we are tried, as we go into that crucible of adversity, that we will know there is always going to be the brighter day, and the brightest day will be the day when, if we stay true and faithful and we understand, we can enter into the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Remaining steadfast in Christ through our afflictions and adversity increases our capacity to see our promised end more clearly. Like a powerful spotlight that shines more brightly in complete darkness, our suffering reveals Christ to us.