Thomas S. Monson Quotes

Map out your future - but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.

Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreaming meet.

The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books - especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.

I like to take every day just searching my own heart, making sure that I'm on course, and I'm doing what God wants me to do. I'm real good with not looking to the critics and looking straight ahead.

Be present. Be meditative. Form real friendships. Stay away from business networking events or friendships where there is always an underlying business angle.

I was a pretty wild kid, and I probably lived 48 years in my first 20. But I always seemed to have a true line of faith for some reason.

I'm starting to think about my life, thinking about where I'm going to be in three years time: who I'm going to be with, where I'm going to be situated myself.

Staying chaste until marriage, a commandment of my faith, was one of the most difficult challenges of my young life. I had a powerful sense that if I did not get a grip on my identity, my ethics, and my religion, I would go off the rails.

I was trying to learn how to deal with the freedom that I had away from home for the first time. 'Long Black Train,' the song and the album, are very special to me. It was just one of those things that I felt like God gave to me for a purpose, and I've been out here promoting that purpose.

I choose to fill my days with what I'm passionate about, and live with purpose.

I started making some proper decisions, getting things in order. It's kind of like cleaning up your house. I was looking for direction for what God wanted me to do - and that's when I got a call about The Passion.

God has a plan for everybody's life, so there was obviously a reason why He wanted me to go to Notre Dame. Everything happens for a reason.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Honestly, what keeps me grounded is my faith and my value system.

I have reached a place in my life where I need to sit down and say, 'Well, what do I do? What's best for me?' I need to look into options for the future.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn't allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

I totally changed my life, changed my lifestyle.

What's valuable to me has become clearer as I've got older. To me, it's about the value of your time and your day and the value of the people you spend it with.

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

People think that because people do religious stuff, that's all we're supposed to do. But with God's help, everything that He wants me to accomplish, I'm going to do it. It's all about pacing.

I remember my manager telling me, 'Be myself, be humble, keep rooted, keep God first'. Those words were very helpful.

I think God has a sense of humor, and the way my lessons come from God is very funny. I have to laugh at myself even if it's a tough lesson.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.