This I Believe | Gordon B. Hinckley | 1992

We are largely the product of our beliefs. President Hinckley shares his ten personal articles of belief.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/gordon...

"It dawned on me the other day that I was part of a graduating class of a sister institution in 1932. This coming June it will be sixty years ago that we proudly and happily marched in a processional, listened to a commencement address of which I remember absolutely nothing, and went out to face the world.

That was a dark season, that year of 1932. It was at the bottom of the great worldwide depression. The unemployment rate was not the 5 or 6 or 7 percent over which we worry today, but more than 30 percent. Men saw their savings vanish, and some, with nothing to live for, took their own lives. Many with greater faith held on tenaciously as they sank into the pit of poverty.

It was into that world of economic distress that we of the class of ’32 arrived, breathing something of an air of cynicism. Yet notwithstanding this, there was much joy in our lives. Cars were cheaper then, but few could afford one. But we dated, we danced, we had a lot of fun while worrying about life, and somehow we made it and pulled through. I can think of scores of my peers who had nothing in those days but who, somehow, with the blessings of heaven, went forward and became men and women of strength and substance as they walked a straight and steady course, guided by principles to which they held with steadfastness.

It was their beliefs and the motivation that came therefrom that pulled them through. Everyone of us is largely the product of his or her beliefs. Our behavior is governed by these. They become our standards of conduct.

I have a few personal articles of belief, ten to be exact, that I have tried to observe over the years and which this evening I would like to share with you. I hope you will not think me arrogant or conceited or self-righteous in doing so. I hope you will not think me egotistical. While I speak in a personal vein, I feel the things I mention are of universal application. I have chosen as a title for this talk the title of a small book put out many years ago by Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe. I have shared these thoughts with smaller groups on one or two previous occasions, although not in precisely the same language. And I do not necessarily set these ten statements in order of their importance. Here, then, are my ten articles of belief.

First, I believe in the wonders of the human body and the miracle of the human mind.

Second, I believe in beauty.

Third, I believe in the gospel of work.

Fourth, I believe that honesty is still the best policy.

Fifth, I believe in the obligation and blessing of service.

Sixth, I believe the family to be the basic and most important unit of society.

Seventh, I believe in the principle of thrift.

Eighth, I believe in myself.

Ninth, I believe in God, my Eternal Father, and in his Beloved Son, the Redeemer of the World.

Tenth, I believe in prayer, in the invitation to come unto my Eternal Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." - Gordon B. Hinckley

Gordon B. Hinckley was First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside address was given at Brigham Young University on 1 March 1992.

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