Naive hope is based on wishful thinking, but a hope formed from suffering, perseverance, and character and rooted in faith in God is something else entirely. It is realistic, motivating, and awesome. It helps us see beyond the misery of the immediate to the possible. It is founded on the certainty of the Lord's love and power.

You just have to have a simple faith.

Spirit is like the wind, in that we can't see it but can see its effects, which are profound.

My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier.

Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light.

I don't care whether the people believe me to be a prophet, seer, or revelator or not - I have been very profitable to this people, and I have seen a good many things, and I have revealed many things.

Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I'll tell you a story.

Man in his hunger for faith will feed his mind with the nearest and most convenient food.

You're not sentimental?' 'No, I'm romantic-- a sentimental person thinks things will last-- a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't. Sentiment is emotional.

He stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and,far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguishing nothing except a single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock.