Self-Reliance Quotes

1.) “If we only half do our work we will have no pleasure, if we do it from a sense of duty we will have no joy, but if we feel we are a branch of this vine, and that our Father in Heaven has felt us to be worthy to be a member of that branch, and that we can carry this work when it is here to do, then we will have joy.”

Relief Society Magazine, Nov. 1933, 649

Detail from Louise Y. Robison, by John Willard Clawson. Courtesy Church History Museum.

(Daughters in My Kingdom – The History and Work of Relief Society, Chapter 5, pg. 70, Cultivating Self-Reliance, 2011http://www.lds.org, )

 

2.) “We … urge, earnestly and always upon the people, the paramount necessity of living righteously; of avoiding extravagance; of cultivating habits of thrift, economy, and industry; of living strictly within their incomes; and of laying aside something, however small the amount may be, for the times of greater stress that may come to us.”

First Presidency (Heber J. Grant, Anthony W. Ivins, J. Reuben Clark Jr.)

Deseret News, Sept. 2, 1933, Church section, 7; punctuation standardized

(Daughters in My Kingdom – The History and Work of Relief Society, Chapter 5, pg. 71, Cultivating Self-Reliance, 2011http://www.lds.org,)

 

3.) In April 1936, the First Presidency introduced a Church wide welfare program. This put the Church in a better position to help needy members. In the October 1936 general conference, President Heber J. Grant explained the purpose of the program.

“Our primary purpose,” he said, “was to set up, in so far as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership.”¹⁵

(Daughters in My Kingdom – The History and Work of Relief Society, Chapter 5, pg. 72, Cultivating Self-Reliance, 2011http://www.lds.org, )

4.) "Let us as individuals, as families, and as wards and stakes learn to live within our means. There is strength and salvation in this principle. Someone has said that we are rich in proportion to that with which we can do without. As families and as a Church, we can and should provide that which is truly essential for our people, but we must be careful not to extend beyond that which is essential or for purposes which are not directly related to our families’ welfare and the basic mission of the Church."

(Spencer W. Kimball, Rendering Service to Others, April 1981, http://www.lds.org)

5.) "Our efforts must always be directed toward making able-bodied people self-reliant."

(Marion G. Romney, The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance, Oct. 1982, http://www.lds.org/)

6.) “Let’s not be gullible gulls. We … must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence.” (“Fable of the Gullible Gull,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1950, p. 32.)

(Marion G. Romney, The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance, Oct. 1982, http://www.lds.org/)

7.) “This great principle does not deny to the needy nor to the poor the assistance they should have. The wholly incapacitated, the aged, the sickly are cared for with all tenderness, but every able-bodied person is enjoined to do his utmost for himself to avoid dependence, if his own efforts can make such a course possible; to look upon adversity as temporary; to combine his faith in his own ability with honest toil; to rehabilitate himself and his family to a position of independence; in every case to minimize the need for help and to supplement any help given with his own best efforts."

(Marion G. Romney, The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance, Oct. 1982, http://www.lds.org/)

8.) "He teaches us to be self-reliant and industrious, to plan ahead, to provide for possible hard times, to avoid obligations unless we are sure we can handle them, and then to serve him with such devotion that He will be pleased to augment all of our own earnest efforts."

(Mark E. Petersen, Blessings in Self-Reliance, April 1981, http://www.lds.org/)

9.) "Principles of love, work, self-reliance, and consecration are God given. Those who embrace them and govern themselves accordingly become pure in heart."

(Keith B. Mcmullin, Come to Zion! Come to Zion, Oct. 2002, http://www.lds.org/)

10.) "But Heavenly Father does not do for us what we can and should do for ourselves. He expects us to use the means we receive of Him to care for ourselves and our families. When we do so, we are self-reliant."¹⁹

(Keith  B. McMullin, Come to Zion! Come to Zion!, Oct. 2002, http://www.lds.org/)