Monday, October 15, 2007

A Favorite Quote

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Hugh B. Brown, when he spoke at BYU in 1958. The speech is entitled "The Questing Spirit", and an excerpt is linked with the title. My favorite part of the speech is:


“I hope that you will develop the questing spirit. Be unafraid of new ideas for they are the stepping stones of progress. You will of course respect the opinions of others but be unafraid to dissent—if you are informed.

…Now I have mentioned freedom to express your thoughts, but I caution you that … in that search you will need at least three virtues; courage, zest, and modesty. The ancients put that thought in the form of a prayer. They said, ‘From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth, from the laziness that is content with half truth, from the arrogance that thinks it has all truth—O God of truth deliver us’.”

4 comments:

Louann and Bari said...

Thanks Ray- I know I don't ask enough questions, I just accept things the way they are.
And- what in the world were you doing up so late? I thought I was the only one up at that hour.....

Patty said...

Yet another great post! I always look forward to reading what you've written- I think I learn a new way of looking at things every time I do!

Anonymous said...

Ray,
Where does that quote come from?

Thanks,
Corbin

Papa D said...

Corbin, it was in a speech Elder Brown gave at BYU a couple of weeks before he was ordained an apostle - May 29, 1958. I'm trying to find a complete copy of the speech, but the following site has a slightly longer excerpt from it:

http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/
pdf/122-80.pdf

I will link it in the original post, so that you won't have to cut and paste the url.