Why was this school established? Why weren't we satisfied with the other schools all over the country? Because there was something more than to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography to one generation after another. These are all important but they will not prepare us for a place in the celestial kingdom. ["Brigham Young University Leadership Week Address." Brigham Young University, March 7, 1948. (Provo, Utah: Adult Education and Extension Services), p. 4]
I want to say that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts all that is true in the world from whatever source it may come, with the knowledge that it originated with the greatest of all scientists, our Father in Heaven.
And so I congratulate the students of this great institution [BYU] to think that you have all advantages that the people of the world have, plus the advantages of faith in God, a belief in the power of our Heavenly Father and His inspiration.
So, I congratulate you, my brothers and sisters, and congratulate you with all the thousands who are yet to come to avail themselves of this great institution and what it offers. In no other place in the world can you get the training you can get here, and I would like to emphasize again that all the world has in the way of refinement, culture and education, a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may enjoy without losing faith. In addition to that we have the plus that the world does not have. This is faith in God and in the inspiration of the Almighty. ["Address at Groundbreaking of Physical Science Building." Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah, May 11, 1948, pp. 2, 45-5]
As a child, thirteen years of age, I went to school at the Brigham Young Academy. It was fortunate that part of my instruction came under Dr. Karl G. Maeser, that outstanding educator who was the first builder of our Church schools. I cannot remember much of what was said during the year that I was there, but there is one thing that I will probably never forget. I have repeated it many times; I think I have told it in this building. Dr. Maeser one day stood up and said:
Not only will you be held accountable for the things you do, but you will be held responsible for the very thoughts you think.
Being a boy, not in the habit of controlling my thoughts very much, it was quite a puzzle to me what I was to do, and it worried me. In fact, it stuck to me just like a burr. About a week or ten days after that it suddenly came to me what he meant. I could see the philosophy of it then. All at once there came to me this interpretation of what he had said: Why of course you will be held accountable for your thoughts, because when your life is completed in mortality, it will be the sum of your thoughts. That one suggestion has been a great blessing to me all my life, and it has enabled me upon many occasions to avoid thinking improperly, because I realize that I will be, when my life's labor is complete, the product of my thoughts. [Church Section, Deseret News, February 16, 1946.] (George Albert Smith, Sharing the Gospel With Others, pp. 62-63)