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Brigham Young

Portrait of Brigham Young — Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

AUTHOR PROFILE

Brigham Young

Brigham Young led the Latter-day Saints after Joseph Smith’s death and became the Church’s second president. He is inseparable from the westward migration, the founding of settlements in the Great Basin, and the effort to build a lasting Church community there. His many recorded sermons also require attention to their nineteenth-century setting and to the difference between a reported speech and an authenticated verbatim transcript.

“But how are we to be made happy? There is one course—love the Giver more than the gift.”

— Brigham Young

Biography at a glance

Born: 1801 in Vermont
Died: 1877 in Salt Lake City, Utah
Church service: Apostle from 1835; President of the Church from 1847 until his death
Historical role: Led the migration to the Salt Lake Valley and the building of Latter-day Saint settlements in the West

Conversion and early leadership

Young studied the Book of Mormon before being baptized in 1832. He soon joined the Church’s missionary and leadership work, including the 1834 Camp of Israel and a mission to Britain. His willingness to support Joseph Smith during difficult years helped make him a central figure in the Quorum of the Twelve. The Church’s history essay covers both these early years and the choices he made later.

Leading the Saints west

After the killings of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844, Young led the Twelve as the Saints planned a new place to gather. He directed the migration from Nauvoo and helped establish communities in what became Utah and neighboring states. Church, civic, and family life were closely intertwined in his leadership. His record includes achievements in migration and settlement as well as teachings and policies, including plural marriage and the priesthood restriction, that require candid historical context. The Church’s essay on that restriction is essential related reading.

Related LDS Flow reading

Pioneer spirit in the twenty-first century

Explore related people and topics

Joseph Smith, who called Young to the Twelve
John Taylor, who later succeeded him
Quotes about faith

Sources and further reading

Quotes by Brigham Young

58 quotes

“But how are we to be made happy? There is one course—love the Giver more than the gift.”

JD 9:31, Brigham Young, The Gifts of God, Etc.

— Brigham Young

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

— Brigham Young

“When God speaks to the people, he does it in a manner to suit their circumstances and capacities…Should the Lord Almighty send an angel to re-write the Bible, it would in many places be very different from what it now is. And I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation. According as people are willing to receive the things of God, so the heavens send forth their blessings.”

"The Christ Who Heals"

— Brigham Young

“Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life.”

— Brigham Young

“Though a man should say but a few words, and his sentences and words be ever so ungrammatical, if he speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost, he will do good.”

Discourses of Brigham Young, 31

— Brigham Young

“If I had a choice of educating my daughters or my sons because of opportunity constraints, I would choose to educate my daughters”

— Brigham Young

“Do not throw away a man or a woman, old or young. If they commit an evil today and another tomorrow, but wish to be Saints and to be forgiven, do you forgive them, not only seven times, but seventy times seven in a day, if their hearts are fully set to do right. Let us make it a point to pass over their weaknesses and say, “God bless you in trying to be better in time to come,” and act as wise stewards in the kingdom of God.”

Journal of Discourses, 8:368

— Brigham Young

“No matter what your circumstances are, whether you are in prosperity or in adversity, you can learn from every person, transaction, and circumstance around you.”

— Brigham Young

“I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful that they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God…Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.”

— Brigham Young

“It may appear strange to some of you, and it certainly does to the world, to say it is possible for a man or woman to become perfect on this earth. It is written “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Again, “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” This is perfectly consistent to the person who understands what perfection really is. If the first passage I have quoted is not worded to our understanding, we can alter the phraseology of the sentence, and say, “Be ye as perfect as ye can,” for that is all we can do, though it is written, be ye perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. To be as perfect as we possibly can, according to our knowledge, is to be just as perfect as our Father in heaven is. He cannot be any more perfect than He knows how, any more than we. When we are doing as well as we know how in the sphere and station which we occupy here, we are justified in the justice, righteousness, mercy, and judgment that go before the Lord of heaven and earth. We are as justified as the angels who are before the throne of God. The sin that will cleave to all the posterity of Adam and Eve is, that they have not done as well as they knew how.”

December 18, 1853; Journal of Discourses 2:130

— Brigham Young

Jesus is the first begotten from the dead, as you will understand. Neither Enoch, Elijah, Moses, nor any other man that ever lived on earth, no matter how strictly he lived, ever obtained a resurrection until after Jesus Christ’s body was called from the tomb by the angel. He was the first begotten from the dead. He is the Master of the resurrection.

Discourses of Brigham Young, 374

— Brigham Young

“There are a great many branches of education: some go to college to learn languages, some to study law, some to study physic [sic], and some to study astronomy, and various other branches of science. … But our favourite study is that branch which particularly belongs to the Elders of Israel—namely, theology. Every Elder should become a profound theologian—should understand this branch better than all the world.”

Journal of Discourses, 6:317.

— Brigham Young

“The whole object of the creation of this world is to exalt the intelligences that are placed upon it, that they may live, endure, and increase for ever and ever.”

— Brigham Young

Why do people apostatize? You know we are on the “Old Ship Zion.” We are in the midst of the ocean. A storm comes on, and, as sailors say, she labors very hard. “I am not going to stay here,” says one; “I don’t believe this is the ‘Ship Zion.’ “But we are in the midst of the ocean.” “I don’t care, I am not going to stay here.” Off goes the coat, and he jumps overboard. Will he not be drowned? Yes. So with those who leave this Church. It is the “Old Ship Zion,” let us stay in it.

Journal of Discourses 10:295; Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 85

— Brigham Young

What a dark valley and a shadow it is that we call death! To pass from this state of existence as far as the mortal body is concerned, into a state of inanition [emptiness], how strange it is! How dark this valley is! How mysterious is this road, and we have got to travel it alone. I would like to say to you, my friends and brethren, if we could see things as they are, and as we shall see and understand them, this dark shadow and valley is so trifling that we shall turn round and look about upon it and think, when we have crossed it, why this is the greatest advantage of my whole existence, for I have passed from a state of sorrow, grief, mourning, woe, misery, pain, anguish and disappointment into a state of existence, where I can enjoy life to the fullest extent as far as that can be done without a body.

(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young (1997), 273) — “Death and Life, Pioneer Perspectives on the Resurrection,” Ensign, April 2013, p. 52

— Brigham Young

“When you … see our Father, you will see a being with whom you have long been acquainted, and He will receive you into His arms, and you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him. … You will be so glad and joyful. … When you are qualified and purified, … you can endure the glory of eternity.”

— Brigham Young

I have faith in my God, and that faith corresponds with the works I produce. I have no confidence in faith without works.

Journal of Discourses, 4:24

— Brigham Young

“We need to learn, practice, study, know and understand how angels live with each other. When this community comes to the point to be perfectly honest and upright, you will never find a poor person; none will lack, all with have sufficient. Every man, woman, and child will have all they need just as soon as they all become honest. When the majority of the community are dishonest, it maketh the honest portion poor, for the dishonest serve and enrich themselves at their expense.”

Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 232

— Brigham Young

“The gospel causes men and women to reveal that which would have slept in their disposition until they dropped into their graves. The plan by which the Lord leads this people makes them reveal their thoughts and intents, and brings out every trait of disposition lurking in their beings.”

— Brigham Young

“All the sacrifice that the Lord asks of his people is strict obedience to our own covenants that we have made with our God, and that is to serve him with an undivided heart.”

Journal of Discourses, 18:246

— Brigham Young

“The volition of [man] is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God. … This is a law which has always existed from all eternity, and will continue to exist throughout all the eternities to come. Every intelligent being must have the power of choice.”

In Journal of Discourses, 11:272.

— Brigham Young

The Lord has directed his people to rest one-seventh part of the time, and we take the first day of the week, and call it our Sabbath. This is according to the order of the Christians. We should observe this for our own temporal good and spiritual welfare . . . six days are enough for us to work, and if we wish to play, play within the six days; if we wish to go on excursions, take one of those six days, but on the seventh day, come to the place of worship, attend to the Sacrament, confess your faults one to another and to our God, and pay attention to the ordinances of the house of God.

Journal of Discourses, 15:81

— Brigham Young

“The Holy Ghost is [the Father and the Son’s] minister to bring truths to our remembrance, to reveal new truths to us, and teach, guide, and direct the course of every mind, until we become perfected and prepared to go home, where we can see and converse with our Father in Heaven.”

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], p. 33

— Brigham Young

“When I lay hands on the sick, I expect the healing power and influence of God to pass through me to the patient, and the disease to give way. … When we are prepared, when we are holy vessels before the Lord, a stream of power from the Almighty can pass through the tabernacle of the administrator to the system of the patient, and the sick are made whole.”

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young (1997), 252;

— Brigham Young