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Gordon B. Hinckley

Portrait of Gordon B. Hinckley — Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

AUTHOR PROFILE

Gordon B. Hinckley

Gordon B. Hinckley served as the fifteenth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1995 to 2008. His ministry stretched from the rise of worldwide television news to an era when more Saints than ever lived far from a temple. He is remembered for bringing temple worship closer to families, speaking openly about faith, and encouraging members to care for one another.

“Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others…By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.”

— Gordon B. Hinckley

Biography at a glance

Born: June 23, 1910, in Salt Lake City, Utah
Church service: Apostle beginning in 1961; President of the Church from 1995 to 2008
Family: Married Marjorie Pay in the Salt Lake Temple in 1937
Major emphases: Temples, missionary work, education, and strengthening faith at home

From missionary service to Church leadership

After studying English and journalism at the University of Utah, Hinckley served a mission in Great Britain. He returned to Church employment in 1935, helping with its radio, publicity, and missionary literature work. Those early assignments put communication at the center of his service. He was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1961 and later served in the First Presidency before becoming Church president in March 1995. The Church’s timeline of his life traces these assignments and their dates.

Making temple blessings more accessible

Temple building became a defining part of President Hinckley’s administration. Smaller temples helped make ordinances available to members who had previously faced long and costly journeys. The Church’s history overview describes that effort and the wider growth of the Church during his presidency. He also directed the creation of the Perpetual Education Fund to support young adults seeking education in places where opportunity was limited.

Faith and family

President Hinckley often connected broad Church growth with everyday discipleship. His counsel addressed parents, young adults, converts, and neighbors of other faiths. In 1995 he presented The Family: A Proclamation to the World at a general Relief Society meeting. LDS Flow has a separate account of the proclamation and its place in his legacy.

Related LDS Flow reading

The Family Proclamation: President Hinckley’s Enduring Legacy

Explore related people and topics

Thomas S. Monson, who served with President Hinckley in the First Presidency
Spencer W. Kimball, under whom Hinckley served as a counselor
Quotes about temples
Quotes about family

Sources and further reading

Quotes by Gordon B. Hinckley

144 quotes

“You can determine the kind of life you will have in your thirties or forties by what you do in your teens.”

Ensign, Dec. 1995, 66

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Integrity is at the heart of commerce in the world in which we live. Honesty and integrity comprise the very underpinnings of society…..Indeed, the strength and safety of any organization-including the family-lie in the integrity of its members. Without personal integrity, there can be no confidence. Without confidence, there can be no prospect of permanent success.”

Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“It is possible to be honest every day. It is possible to live so that others can trust us-can trust our words, our motives, and our actions. Our examples are vital to those who sit at our feet as well as those who watch from a distance. Our own constant self-improvement will become as a polar star to those within our individual spheres of influence. They will remember longer what they saw in us than what they heard from us. Our attitude, our point of view, can make a tremendous difference.”

Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“[Pornography] is like a raging storm, destroying individuals and families, utterly ruining what was once wholesome and beautiful.”

A Tragic Evil Among Us, October 2004 General Conference

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Sloppy language and sloppy ways go together. Those who are truly educated have learned more than the sciences, the humanities, law, engineering, and the arts. They carry with them a certain polish that marks them as loving the better qualities of life, a culture that adds luster to the mundane world of which they are apart, a patina that puts a quiet glow on what otherwise might be base metal.”

Stand a Little Taller

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Some men who are evidently unable to gain respect by the goodness of their lives, use as justification for their actions the statement that Eve was told that Adam should rule over her. How much sadness, how much tragedy, how much heartbreak has been caused through centuries of time by weak men who have used that as a scriptural warrant for atrocious behavior! They do not recognize that the same account indicates that Eve was given as a helpmeet to Adam. The facts are that they stood side by side in the garden. They were expelled from the garden together, and they worked together, side by side, in gaining their bread by the sweat of their brows.”

Ensign, November 1991, p. 51

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who condescended to come into this world of misery, struggle, and pain to touch men’s hearts for good, to teach the way of eternal life, and to give Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. How different, how empty our lives would be without Him. How infinite is our opportunity for exaltation made possible through His redeeming love.”

Stand a Little Taller

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“If life gets too hard to stand, kneel.”

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“I repeat that plea to all fathers. Yours is the basic and inescapable responsibility to stand as the head of the family. That does not carry with it any implication of dictatorship or unrighteous dominion. It carries with it a mandate that fathers provide for the needs of their families. Those needs are more than food, clothing, and shelter. Those needs include righteous direction and the teaching, by example as well as precept, of basic principles of honesty, integrity, service, respect for the rights of others, and an understanding that we are accountable for that which we do in this life, not only to one another but also to the God of heaven, who is our Eternal Father. . . . With the obligation to beget goes the responsibility to nurture, to protect, to teach, to guide in righteousness and truth. Yours is the power and the responsibility to preside in a home where there is peace and security, love and harmony.”

“Bring Up a Child in the Way He Should Go,” Ensign November 1993, p. 60

— Gordon B. Hinckley

Permit me to read from another letter. Said the writer: “My husband is a good man with many outstanding qualities and character traits, but underneath it all there is a strong streak of authoritarianism. … His volatile temper flares up often enough to remind me of all the potential ugliness of which he is capable. “President Hinckley, … please remind the brethren that the physical and verbal abuse of women is INEXCUSABLE, NEVER ACCEPTABLE, AND A COWARDLY WAY OF DEALING WITH DIFFERENCES, especially and particularly despicable if the abuser is a priesthood holder.”

Our Solemn Responsibilities

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“The Lord has made us attractive one to another for a great purpose. But this very attraction becomes as a powder keg unless it is kept under control. It is beautiful when handled in the right way. It is deadly if it gets out of hand…It is better, my friends, to date a variety of companions until you are ready to marry. Have a wonderful time, but stay away from familiarity. Keep your hands to yourself. It may not be easy, but it is possible.”

“A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth,” New Era, Jan. 2001, 13.

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Any man in this church who abuses his wife, who demeans her, who insults her, who exercises unrighteous dominion over her is unworthy to hold the priesthood. In the marriage companionship there is neither inferiority nor superiority. The woman does not walk ahead of the man, neither does the man walk ahead of the woman. They walk side by side as a son and daughter of God on an eternal journey.”

General Conference Priesthood Session, April 6, 2002

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“It was the Master himself who said, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). How could he have spoken in stronger terms? “If there be any within the sound of my voice who may be guilty of such practice, I urge you with all of the capacity of which I am capable to stop it, to run from it, to get help, to plead with the Lord for forgiveness and make amends to those whom you have offended. God will not be mocked concerning the abuse of his little ones.”

“Save the Children,” Nov. 1994, p. 54

— Gordon B. Hinckley

Surely after all of the history we have read, after all of the suffering of which we have been told, after all of the exploitation of which we are aware, we can do more than we are now doing to lift the blight that condemns millions of children to lives that know little of happiness, that are tragically brief, and that are filled with pain. And we need not travel halfway across the earth to find weeping children. Countless numbers of them cry out in fear and loneliness from the evil consequences of moral transgression, neglect, and abuse. I speak plainly, perhaps indelicately. But I know of no other way to make clear a matter about which I feel so strongly.

Save the Children

— Gordon B. Hinckley

What a marvelous and wonderful thing it is, this powerful conviction that says the Church is true. It is God’s holy work. He overrules in the things of His kingdom and in the lives of His sons and daughters. This is the reason for the growth of the Church. The strength of this cause and kingdom is not found in its temporal assets, impressive as they may be. It is found in the hearts of its people. That is why it is successful. That is why it is strong and growing. That is why it is able to accomplish the wonderful things that it does. It all comes of the gift of faith, bestowed by the Almighty upon His children who doubt not and fear not, but go forward.

Conference, April 2001

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“I am satisfied that the more unkindly a wife is treated, the less attractive she becomes. She loses pride in herself. She develops a feeling of worthlessness. Of course it shows. “A husband who domineers his wife, who demeans and humiliates her, and who makes officious demands upon her not only injures her, but he also belittles himself. And in many cases, he plants a pattern of future similar behavior in his sons.”

Ensign, November 1991, p. 51

— Gordon B. Hinckley

God is weaving his tapestry according to his own grand design. All flesh is in his hands. It is not our prerogative to counsel him. It is our responsibility and our opportunity to be at peace in our minds and in our hearts, and to know that he is God, that this is his work, and that he will not permit it to fail. We have no need to fear. We have no need to worry. We have no need to speculate. Our imperative need is to be found doing our duty individually in the callings which have come to us.

“He Slumbers Not, nor Sleeps,” Ensign, May 1983

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“If we are worried about the future, then we must look today at the upbringing of children.”

Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“It is so important that you young men and you young women get all of the education that you can. The Lord has said very plainly that His people are to gain knowledge of countries and kingdoms and of things of the world through the process of education, even by study and by faith.”

Inspirational Thoughts, Ensign, June 1999, 4.

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“The things of God are understood by the Spirit of God. That Spirit is real. To those who have experienced its workings, the knowledge so gained is as real as that received through the operation of the five senses. I testify of this. . . . I urge you to continue throughout your lives to cultivate a heart in tune with the Spirit. If you do so, your lives will be enriched. You will feel a kinship with God our Eternal Father. You will taste the sweetness of joy that can be had in no other way.”

CES Fireside, September 9, 2001

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“There is no more compelling motivation to worthwhile endeavor than the knowledge that we are children of God, that God expects us to do something with our lives, and that He will give us help when help is sought.”

Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“We are doing everything we know how to reduce it. We are teaching our people. We are talking about it. We have set up a course of instruction for our bishops all across the nation. All last year we carried on an educational program. We have set up a help-line for them where they can get professional counseling and help with these problems. We have issued a journal dealing with child abuse, spouse abuse, abuse of the elderly, the whole problem of abuse. We are concerned about it. I am deeply concerned about the victims. My heart reaches out to them. I want to do everything we can to ease the pain, to preclude the happening of this evil and wicked thing. … I know of no other organization in this world that has taken more exhaustive measures, tried harder, done more to tackle this problem, to work with it, to do something to make a change. We recognize the terrible nature of it, and we want to help our people, reach out to them, assist them.”

“This Thing Was Not Done in a Corner”

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“I am satisfied that if we would look for the virtues in one another and not the vices, there would be much more of happiness in the homes of our people. There would be far less of divorce, much less of infidelity, much less of anger and rancor and quarreling. There would be more of forgiveness, more of love, more of peace, more of happiness. This is as the Lord would have it.”

Living Worthy of the Girl You Will Someday Marry

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Too many who come to marriage have been coddled and spoiled and somehow led to feel that everything must be precisely right at all times, that life is a series of entertainments, that appetites are to be satisfied without regard to principle. How tragic the consequences of such hollow and unreasonable thinking! …”

— Gordon B. Hinckley