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Spencer W. Kimball

Portrait of Spencer W. Kimball — Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

AUTHOR PROFILE

Spencer W. Kimball

Spencer W. Kimball was the twelfth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His years of leadership are closely associated with worldwide missionary work and the 1978 revelation extending priesthood ordination and temple blessings to all worthy members regardless of race. His words on repentance, commitment, and service remain widely read.

“When you look on the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be ‘remember.’ Because all of you have made covenants – to know what to do and you know how to do it – our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

Biography at a glance

Born: March 28, 1895
Raised: In the Gila Valley of Arizona
Church service: Apostle from 1943; President of the Church from 1973 to 1985
Major themes: Repentance, missionary work, and widening access to the blessings of the gospel

Faith shaped in Arizona

Kimball spent much of his youth in Thatcher, Arizona, where work, family worship, and local Church service filled his days. His mother died when he was young, a loss he later recalled as a severe trial. The Church’s account of his life and ministry traces his upbringing, family, health challenges, and calls to serve.

Ministry through illness and change

As an apostle, Kimball traveled widely while facing serious throat and heart problems. He became Church president in December 1973. He urged members to bring the gospel to more nations and helped reorganize Church leadership as the worldwide membership grew. In June 1978, after years of prayer and discussion among Church leaders, the First Presidency announced a revelation opening priesthood ordination and temple blessings to members who had previously been excluded because of race. The Church History Topics essay gives context to the restriction and its end.

Related LDS Flow reading

Missionary service through the decades

Explore related people and topics

Russell M. Nelson, who treated Kimball as a heart surgeon and later became an apostle
Gordon B. Hinckley, who served alongside him in Church leadership
Quotes about repentance

Sources and further reading

Quotes by Spencer W. Kimball

72 quotes

“When you look on the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be ‘remember.’ Because all of you have made covenants – to know what to do and you know how to do it – our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom.”

“Small Acts of Service,” Ensign, December 1974, 5.

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Sometimes ideas flood our mind as we listen after our prayers. Sometimes feelings press upon us. A spirit of calmness assures us that all will be well. But always, if we have been honest and earnest [in our prayers] we will experience a good feeling – a feeling of warmth for our Father in Heaven and a sense of his love for us.”

Ensign, October,1981, p. 5

— Spencer W. Kimball

“If we like luxuries or necessities more than we like obedience, we will miss the blessings which he would like to give us.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Soul mates’ are fiction and an illusion; and while every young man and young woman will seek with all diligence and prayerfulness to find a mate with whom life can be most compatible and beautiful, yet it is certain that almost any good man and any good woman can have happiness and a successful marriage if both are willing to pay the price.”

Oneness in Marriage

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Of all treasures of knowledge, the most vital is the knowledge of God.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“But is prayer only one-way communication? No! . . . At the end of our prayers, we need to do some intense listening – even for several minutes. We have prayed for counsel and help. Now we must “be still and know that [He is] God” (Ps. 46:10).”

Ensign, October 1981, p. 5

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Any excuse, no matter how valid, always weakens character.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

I am confident that when we come back with our body again, there will be no aches or pains. There will be no wrinkles or deformities. I am sure that if we can imagine ourselves at our very best, physically, mentally, spiritually, that is the way we will come back – perhaps not as a child or youth, perhaps in sweet and glorious maturity, but not in age or infirmity or distress or pain or aches. The meaning of death has not changed. It releases a spirit for growth and development and places a body in the repair shop of Mother Earth, there to be recast, remolded into a perfect body, an immortal glorious temple, clean, whole, perfected, and ready for its occupant for eternity.

Teaching of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 45

— Spencer W. Kimball

“I am impressed that our various Church programs are like keys on the keyboard of a piano. Some of the keys are used much more often than others, but all of them are needed from time to time to produce harmony and balance in our lives. So often, therefore, what we are doing in our various talks and meetings is to remind ourselves of the need for balance, the need for fresh emphasis here or there, and the need to do the things that matter most without leaving the other things undone.”

Conference Report, Apr. 1976, 70; or Ensign, May 1976, 46

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Enter this door as if the floors were paved with Gold; And every wall of jewels all of wealth untold; As if a choir in robes of fire were singing here; No shout nor rush, but hush, for God is here.”

The Things Of Eternity

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Fathers and mothers, your foremost responsibility is your family. By working together you can have the kind of home the Lord expects you to have. By showing love and consideration for one another and for your children, you can build a reservoir of spiritual strength that will never run dry.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Jesus said several times, ‘Come, follow me.’ His was a program of “do what I do,” rather than “do what I say.” His innate brilliance would have permitted him to put on a dazzling display, but that would have left his followers far behind. He walked and worked with those he was to serve. His was not a long-distance leadership. He was not afraid of close friendships; he was not afraid that proximity to him would disappoint his followers. The leaven of true leadership cannot lift others unless we are with and serve those to be led.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“The evil one knows where to attack. He is going to attack the home. He is going to destroy the family. That’s what he wants to do. … Let us make up our minds he will not do it in our families.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Family life is the best method for achieving happiness in this world, and it is a clear pattern given to us from the Lord about what is to be in the next world.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Sow a thought, reap an act; Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap an eternal destiny.”

The Miracle of Forgiveness

— Spencer W. Kimball

“The statement, “As a man thinketh, so is he,” could equally well be rendered “As a man thinketh, so does he.” If one thinks it long enough he is likely to do it.”

The Miracle of Forgiveness

— Spencer W. Kimball

“[The keys] will be given to those who have passed off this stage of action and have received their bodies again. . . . They will be ordained, by those who hold the keys of the resurrection, to go forth and resurrect the Saints, just as we receive the ordinance of baptism then receive the keys of authority to baptize others for the remission of their sins. This is one of the ordinances we can not receive here [on the earth], and there are many more.” (JD, 15:137)

“Our Great Potential,” Ensign, May 1977

— Spencer W. Kimball

“The great volume of revelation … come[s] to today’s prophets in the less spectacular way—that of deep impressions, but without spectacle or glamour or dramatic events accompanying. Expecting the spectacular, one may not be fully alerted to the constant flow of revealed communication.”

“To His Servants the Prophets,” Instructor, Aug. 1960, 257.

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Let us remember, too, that greatness is not always a matter of the scale of one’s life, but of the quality of one’s life. True greatness is not always tied to the scope of our tasks, but to the quality of how we carry out our tasks whatever they are. In that attitude, let us give our time, ourselves, and our talents to the things that really matter now, things which will still matter a thousand years from now.”

“First Presidency Message: A Gift of Gratitude,” Liahona, December 1977, p. 1

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Destroy the seed and the plant will never grow. Man alone, of all creatures of earth, can change his thought pattern and become the architect of his destiny.”

The Miracle of Forgiveness

— Spencer W. Kimball

“We have repeatedly affirmed the position of the Church in unalterably opposing all abortions, except in two rare instances: When conception is the result of forcible rape and when competent medical counsel indicates that a mother’s health would otherwise be seriously jeopardized.”

“A Report and a Challenge,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, 6; see also “The Time to Labor Is Now,” Ensign, Nov. 1975, 6.

— Spencer W. Kimball

“If you were to select just two or three individuals in your life who have been most influential, what specifically did they do that was most helpful to you at a critical or important time in your life? On reflecting for a few moments, you are apt to conclude that such a person really cared for you, that he or she taught you something you needed to know. Reflect now upon your own performance.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

“Being human, we would expel from our lives sorrow, distress, physical pain, and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort. But if we closed the doors upon such, we might be evicting our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery. The sufferings of our Savior were part of his education.”

The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball (1982), 168

— Spencer W. Kimball