“Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace.”

Ezra Taft Benson | The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 361

Topics: Agency, Atonement, Blessings, Change, Character

“Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | "Settle This in Your Hearts"

Topics: Agency, Christmas, Jesus Christ

“Life offers you two precious gifts. One is time, the other, freedom of choice—the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed. You may purchase with it vanity; you may spend your time in pursuit of material things. Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are not bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction.”

Richard L. Evans

Topics: Agency, Decisions, Secularism (Worldliness), Time

“Education is yours to obtain. No one else can fain it for you. Wherever you are, develop a deep desire to learn.”

Russell M. Nelson

Topics: Agency, Education, Knowledge

“What are the three most important decisions? First, what will be my faith? Second, whom shall I marry? Third, what will be my life’s work?”

Thomas S. Monson | "Decisions Determine Destiny"

Topics: Agency, Career, Decisions, Faith, Marriage

“Exercising agency in a setting that sometimes includes opposition and hardship is what makes life more than a simple multiple-choice test. God is interested in what we are becoming as a result of our choices. He is not satisfied if our exercise of moral agency is simply a robotic effort at keeping some rules. Our Savior wants us to become something, not just do some things. He is endeavoring to make us independently strong – more able to act for ourselves than perhaps those of any prior generation. We must be righteous, even when He withdraws His Spirit, or, as President Brigham Young said, even ‘in the dark.’”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson | “Moral Agency,” Ensign, June 2009, p. 53

Topics: Agency, Character, Decisions

“You have agency, and you are free to choose. But there is actually no free agency. Agency has its price. You have to pay the consequences of your choices.”

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf | On the Wings of Eagles, BYU Devotional, July 2006

Topics: Agency, Decisions, Fall of Adam & Eve

“Let us educate ourselves. Light is not the absence of darkness; rather, darkness is the absence of light. Light and truth exist independently. This being the case, the more light we have, the more independent we are, and the freer we are to choose. With truth lighting the way, we are able to see and make choices we otherwise couldn’t make.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | "Broken Things to Mend"

Topics: Agency, Education, Truth

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Maya Angelou

Topics: Agency, Inspirational Quotes, Motivational Quotes, Work

“Adam and Eve’s fall wasn’t down, rather, as I have heard it expressed, they fell forward.”

Brad Wilcox

Topics: Agency, Fall of Adam & Eve

“[Smartphones] need to be our servants, not our masters. For example, if later tonight you share inspiring thoughts from this devotional on social media, your smartphone is a servant. If you randomly surf the Internet, your smartphone is a master.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard

Topics: Agency, Idol Worship, Social Media

“It has been said by one, years ago, that history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. Our lives will depend upon the decisions which we make—for decisions determine destiny.”

Thomas S. Monson | "Decisions Determine Destiny"

Topics: Agency, Decisions

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

George Patton

Topics: Agency, Leadership, Marriage

“God rarely infringes on the agency of any of His children by intervening against some for the relief of others. But He does ease the burdens of our afflictions and strengthen us to bear them…Through all mortal opposition, we have God’s assurance that He will ‘consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain’ (2 Nephi 2:2).”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks | Opposition in All Things

Topics: Agency, Opposition in All Things, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

“For where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act.”

Aristotle | Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2

Topics: Agency

“The Master could overwhelm us with his supernal knowledge, but he does not. He honors our agency. He allows us the joy of discovery.”

Russell M. Nelson | “Gratitude for the Mission and Ministry of Jesus Christ,” BYU Education Week Devotional Address, BYU Speeches

Topics: Agency, Knowledge, Mortality

“…we can choose to see commandments as limitations. We may feel at times that God’s laws restrict our personal freedom, take from us our agency, and limit our growth. But as we seek for greater understanding, as we allow our Father to teach us, we will begin to see that His laws are a manifestation of His love for us and obedience to His laws is an expression of our love for Him.”

Carole M. Stephens | "If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments,” 2015 General Conference

Topics: Agency, Commandments, Obedience, Ten Commandments

“We want a script, and we find we stand before a blank canvas. We expect a road map, and we find we have only a compass. We have yet to learn, as the poet John Ciardi wrote, that ‘clean white paper, waiting under a pen, is a gift beyond human history and hurt and heaven.”

Terryl and Fiona Givens

Topics: Agency, Decisions, Plan of Salvation, Truth

“As Joseph reminded his followers, ‘I believe that God foreknew everything, but did not foreordain everything.’ Exaltation, is within the reach of all, even if the journey toward that divine end is fraught with suffering. If we had insurance against a painful journey, one-third of the heavenly hosts would not have abandoned the enterprise. The risks are real. Or, in the language of the Book of Mormon, we cannot assume that our afflictions come from God, but we can know that ‘God shall consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain.'”

Terryl and Fiona Givens | "The Christ Who Heals"

Topics: Agency, Foreordination, Opposition in All Things, Trials, War in Heaven, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.”

Henry David Thoreau

Topics: Agency, Leadership

“By ‘moral discipline,’ I mean self-discipline based on moral standards. Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. It rejects the self-absorbed life in favor of developing character worthy of respect and true greatness through Christlike service.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson | "Moral Discipline," Conference October 2009

Topics: Agency, Character

“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.”

Brigham Young | In Journal of Discourses, 11:272.

Topics: Agency

“Agency is a God-given right to choose between good and evil. It is not a right to do anything you please, anytime, for any purpose. Choose between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error. If I choose, I take the consequences of the choice, for the law works either way. If I choose good, then the spirit of the Lord will be ready to inspire me to fill me with love. If I choose evil, I place myself under the influence of Satan and his helpers and his spirits; I forfeit the influence of good. And as I progress further into the evil, the light of Christ which lightens all men fades away. But my right to choose and to keep on choosing is mine continually. I can turn at any time and reverse myself. I can turn toward good if evil, or I can turn toward evil if good.”

S. Dilworth Young | “The Key to Faith,” BYU Devotional, July 1, 1969, pp. 2-3

Topics: Agency, Satan

“Truly God loves us, and because He loves us, he neither compels or abandons us. Rather, he helps us and guides us. Indeed, the real manifestation of God’s love is His commandments.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Topics: Agency, Commandments