How I love President Gordon B. Hinckley. He is the most positive, happy person. We all can learn a lot from him. I wanted to save some of his talks here so that I'll never forget these quotes. These are taken from BYU Speeches in 1974 and 1996. These messages are so timely even now. I miss you, President Hinckley!
Gordon B. Hinckley
BYU Speeches, 1974
… “Surely this is the age and place of the gifted
pickle sucker.”
The tragedy is that this spirit is epidemic.
Criticism, fault-finding, evil speaking—these are of the spirit of the day.
They are in our national life. To hear tell these days, there is nowhere a man
of integrity among those holding political office. In many instances this
spirit has become the very atmosphere of university campuses. The snide remark,
the sarcastic gibe, the cutting down of associates—these, too often, are of the
essence of our conversation. In our homes wives weep and children finally give
up under the barrage of criticism leveled by husbands and fathers. Criticism is
the forerunner of divorce, the cultivator of rebellion, sometimes a catalyst
that leads to failure…
I come this morning with a plea that we stop
seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that
we “accentuate the positive.” I am asking that we look a little deeper for the
good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously
compliment virtue and effort. I am not asking that all criticism be silenced.
Growth comes of correction. Strength comes of repentance. Wise is the man who
can acknowledge mistakes pointed out by others and change his course. I am not
suggesting that our conversation be all honey and blossoms. Clever expression
that is sincere and honest is a skill to be sought and cultivated.
What I am suggesting and asking is that we turn
from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable
good in the land and times in which we live, that we speak of one another’s
virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace
pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears.
When I was a boy our father often said to us:
Cynics do not contribute.
Skeptics do not create.
Doubters do not achieve.
Skeptics do not create.
Doubters do not achieve.
…There is too much fruitless, carping
criticism of America. Perhaps the times are dark. There have been dark days in
every nation. I should like to repeat the words of Winston Churchill spoken
exactly thirty-three years ago today. Bombs were then dropping on London. The
German juggernaut had overrun Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium,
Holland, Norway, Russia. All of Europe was in the dread grasp of tyranny, and
England was to be next. In that dangerous time, when the hearts of many were
failing, this great Englishman said:
Do not let us speak of darker days; let
us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great
days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God
that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part
in making these days memorable in the history of our race. [Address
at Harrow School, 29 October 1941]
Earlier he had said to his people and to the whole
world, following the catastrophe at Dunkirk when the prophets of doom foretold
the end of Britain:
We shall not flag or fail.
. . . We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and
oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the
beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields
and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. [Speech
on Dunkirk, House of Commons, 4 June 1940]
It was such talk as this, and not the critical
faultfinding of glib cynics, that preserved the great people of Britain through
those dark and deadly days when all the world thought their little island would
go under.
…I doubt not that we shall have days of trial. I am
confident that so long as we have more politicians than statesmen, we shall
have problems. But I am certain that if we will emphasize the greater good and
turn our time and talents from vituperative criticism, from constantly looking
for evil, and lift our sights to what may be done to build strength and
goodness in our nation, America shall continue to go forward with the blessing
of the Almighty and stand as an ensign of strength and peace and generosity to all
the world.
…We hear much talk of economic depression these
days. Heaven forbid that we should ever slip again into the kind of monetary
quagmire through which we struggled in the 1930s. Those were the days of the
long soup lines, of suicides that came of discouragement, of a bleakness of
life which few of you can understand. I hope and pray that such hard times will
never come again. But I think it not impossible or even improbable if enough
people, in the spirit of negativism and defeatism, talk about it and predict
it. We are the creatures of our thinking. We can talk ourselves into defeat or
we can talk ourselves into victory.
…In your associations one with another, build and
strengthen one another. “No man is an island; no man stands alone.” We so need
help and encouragement and strength, one from another.
…I was impressed with a Sydney Harris column that I
clipped from the Deseret News some years ago. Said this
eminent writer:
Sir Walter Scott was a trouble to all his
teachers and so was Lord Byron. Thomas Edison, as everyone knows, was
considered a dullard in school. Pestalozzi, who later became Italy’s foremost
educator, was regarded as wild and foolish by his school authorities.
Oliver Goldsmith was considered almost
an imbecile. The Duke of Wellington failed in many of his classes. Among famous
writers, Burns, Balzac, Boccaccio, and Dumas made poor academic records.
Flaubert, who went on to become France’s most impeccable writer, found it
extremely difficult to learn to read. Thomas Aquinas, who had the finest
scholastic mind of all Catholic thinkers, was actually dubbed “the dumb ox” at
school. Linnaeus and Volta did badly in their studies. Newton was last in his
class. Sheridan, the English playwright, wasn’t able to stay in one school more
than a year.
All of this seems to say to me that each of these
men, every one of whom later become great, might have done much better in his
studies had he received less of criticism and more of encouragement.
…don’t partake of the spirit of our times. Look for
the good and build on it. Don’t be a “pickle sucker.” There is so much of the
sweet and the decent and the good to build on…
Gordon B. Hinckley
BYU Speeches, 1996
… the march of civilization. It has been a truly remarkable odyssey as through the centuries society has made progress as people have lived together in communities with respect and concern one for another. This is the hallmark of civilization. And yet at times we wonder how much progress we have really made. This century which now draws to a close has witnessed more wars and more death and suffering than any other century in human history. … Civility and mutual respect seem to have disappeared as people kill one another over ethnic differences.
But civility also appears to be fading much closer to home. Civility covers a host of matters in the relationships among human beings. Its presence is described in such terms as “good manners” and “good breeding.” But everywhere about us we see the opposite. …
It is appalling. It is alarming. And when all is said and done the cost can be attributed almost entirely to human greed, to uncontrolled passion, to a total disregard for the rights of others. In other words, to a lack of civility. As one writer has said, “People might think of a civilized community as one in which there is a refined culture. Not necessarily; first and foremost it is one in which the mass of people subdue their selfish instincts in favor of the common well being” (Royal Bank Letter, May–June 1995). He continues: “In recent years the media have raised boorishness to an art form. The hip heroes of movies today deliver gratuitous put-downs to ridicule and belittle anyone who gets in their way. Bad manners, apparently, make a saleable commodity. Television situation comedies wallow in vulgarity, stand up comedians base their acts on insults to their audiences, and talk show hosts become rich and famous by snarling at callers and heckling guests” (Ibid).
All of this speaks of anything but refinement. It speaks of anything but courtesy. It speaks of anything but civility. Rather, it speaks of crudeness and rudeness, and an utter insensitivity to the feelings and rights of others.""
