Brigham Young Quotes

Do not be over-zealous in punishing others.

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it.

Let not your rage or malice destroy a life.

Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.

Punishment cannot heal spirits, can only break them.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

Rejoice not at thine enemy's fall - but don't rush to pick him up either

Never give a Blow in a passion. Stay till your passion is over; and let the Offenders plainly see, that you deal thus with them, out of a pure Obedience unto God, and for their true Repentance.

I learned long ago not to tear into anyone for a mistake.

I try not to be too judgmental.

The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. 'The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.'

Relationships don't thrive because the guilty are punished but because the innocent are merciful.

there is no glory in punishing

True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one.

Have charity; have patience; have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak--above all, any little child--to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste--never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer--crush what is finest and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature.

The nectar of compassion is so wonderful. If you are committed to keeping it alive, then you are protected. What the other person says will not touch off the anger and irritation in you, because compassion is the real antidote to anger. Nothing can heal anger except compassion. That is why the practice of compassion is a very wonderful practice.

Even when people act nastily to you, don't condemn them or retaliate.

Patience puts up with those you'd like to put down

I think empathy is a guy who punches you in the face at a bus station, and you're somehow able to look at that him and know enough about what situation he was in to know that he had to do that and not to hit back. That's empathy, and nothing ever happens in writing that has that kind of moral heroism about it.

Show respect to people who don't deserve it. Not as a reflection of their character, but of yours.

Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.