“One of the most serious human defects in all ages is procrastination, an unwillingness to accept personal responsibilities now. Men came to earth consciously to obtain their schooling, their training and development, and to perfect themselves, but many have allowed themselves to be diverted and have become merely ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water,’ addicts to mental and spiritual indolence and to the pursuit of worldly pleasure. There are even many members of the Church who are lax and careless and who continually procrastinate. They live the gospel casually but not devoutly. They have complied with some requirements but are not valiant. They do no major crime but merely fail to do the things required – things like paying tithing, living the Word of Wisdom, having family prayers, fasting, attending meetings, serving. Perhaps they do not consider such omissions to be sins, yet these were the kinds of things of which the five foolish virgins of Jesus’ parable were probably guilty. The ten virgins belonged to the kingdom and had every right to the blessings – except that five were not valiant and were not ready when the great day came. They were unprepared through not living all the commandments. They were bitterly disappointed at being shut out from the marriage – as likewise their modern counterparts will be. One Church member of my acquaintance said, as she drank her coffee: ‘The Lord knows my heart is right and that I have good intentions, and that I will someday get the strength to quit.’ But will one receive eternal life on the basis of his good intentions? Can one enter a country, receive a scholastic degree, and so on, on the strength of good intent unsupported by appropriate action? Samuel Johnson remarked that ‘hell is paved with good intentions.’ The Lord will not translate one’s good hopes and desires and intentions into works. Each of us must do that for himself.”
– Spencer W. Kimball
“True, some sincerely intend to nourish the gospel seed in their next season of life, but those procrastinated springs come late, if at all. Of course, we genuinely rejoice in late bloomers, as we do in returning prodigals. Mercifully, too, those who come in the last hour receive the same wages (Matthew 20:1-16). Yet, there will be no special door prizes at the final judgment for those most reticent and last on their knees or whose tongues are the last to confess!”
– Neal A. Maxwell
“Of the time that is allotted to man here on the earth there is none to lose or waste. After suitable rest and relaxation there is not a day, hour or minute that we should spend in idleness, but every minute of every day of our lives we should strive to improve our minds and to increase the faith of the holy Gospel, in charity, patience, and good works, that we may grow in the knowledge of the truth as it is spoken and prophesied of and written about.”
– Brigham Young
“What have we? Our time. Spend it as you will. Time is given to you; and when this is spent to the best possible advantage for promoting truth upon the earth, it is placed to our account, and blessed are you; but when we spend our time in idleness and folly it will be placed against us.”
– Brigham Young
“I’ve come to understand something that happened to me in my early teens. I was in a hurry when I felt, not heard, a voice, an impression, which I knew then was from God. It was close to these words: ‘Someday, when you know who you really are, you will be sorry that you didn’t use your time better.’ I thought then that the impression was odd, since I thought I was using my time pretty well and I thought I knew who I was. Now, years later, I am beginning to know who I am – and who you are – and why we will be so sorry if we do not invest our time well. You will develop your ability to invest your precious time well by gaining three confidences. First, you must gain confidence that God keeps his promises. Second, you must gain God’s confidence that you will always keep the promises, not that you choose to make, but that he asks you to make. And third, you must help others gain confidence that God keeps his promises. You can gain confidence that God keeps his promises by trying them. That’s why I so appreciate those commandments to which God has attached an explicit promise. I see those commandments as school masters. And I try to put them high on my list of things to do, because I know their value for changing my heart and building my power to invest my time.”
– Henry B. Eyring
“Forever is composed of nows.”
– Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. So today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”
– Dalai Lama
“Use your spare time wisely. If we waste thirteen minutes each day, it is the equivalent of two weeks a year without pay.”
– J. Richard Clarke
