"To teach, you must first learn.  To give, you must have something to offer.  A woman who nurtures her spirit and mind, who expands her understanding and capacities, will have a rich harvest with which to feed others."

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 "'One woman's spirit and mind can bless thousands of lives.'  Her influence can be felt not only in her immediate family and in her neighborhood, but also through generations to come."

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 "The gift of knowledge, understanding, and testimony remains an empty gift unless we use it to bless the lives of our families and those around us."

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        "To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age. To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. The righteous woman's strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times. She has been placed here to help to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home -- which is society's basic and most noble institution. Other institutions in society may falter and even fail, but the righteous woman can help to save the home, which may be the last and only sanctuary some mortals know in the midst of storm and strife."

Sister Camilla Kimball:

        "I have always had an inquiring mind.  I am not satisfied just to accept things.  I like to follow through and study things out.  I learned early to put aside those gospel questions that I could not answer.  I had a shelf of things I did not understand, but as I have grown older and studied and prayed and thought about each problem, one by one I have been able to understand them better.

        "A woman, to be well rounded in her personality, needs many experiences in and out of the home...She needs to keep growing, to keep aware of the world in which her children are growing.  In order to do this, she should be interested in educational advancement."

Women as caregivers -- wives, mothers, grandmothers, teachers, friends -- are at the center of the wheel of life and, as Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, must strive "to be the still axis within the revolving wheel of relationships, obligations, and activities."

"It seems that every task I do -- be it visiting teaching, carpooling, solving problems  in the workplace, changing diapers, writing memos, making arrangements on the telephone -- becomes ennobled if I do them in the spirit of an offering to God."

      "The average woman today, I believe, would do well to appraise her interests, evaluate the activities in which she is engaged, and then take steps to simplify her life, putting things of first importance first, placing emphasis where the rewards will be greatest and most enduring and ridding herself of the less rewarding activities.  The endless enticements and demands of life today require that we determine priorities in allocating our time and energies if we are to live happy, poised, productive lives."

      "Too great care cannot be taken in educating our young ladies.  Great responsibilities will evolve upon them.  To their hands will be mainly committed the formation of the moral and the intellectual character of the young.  Let the women of our country be made intelligent, and their children will certainly be the same.  The proper education of a man decides his welfare; but the interest of a whole family are secured by the correct education of a woman."

      "God didn't say that a woman was to be taken from a bone in the man's head that she should rule over him, nor from a bone in his foot that she should be trampled under his feet, but from the bone in his side, to be his companion, his equal, and his helpmeet in all their lives together."

      "Many of the sisters grieve because they are not blessed with offspring.  You will see the time when you will have millions of children around you.  If you are faithful to your covenants, you will be mothers of nations."

        Sister Patricia Holland said something that I find profound:  "If I were Satan and wanted to destroy a society, I think I too would stage a full-blown blitz on women" ("‘Many Things . . .One Thing,'" A Heritage of Faith: Talks Selected from the BYU Women's Conferences [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988], 17).

        Is that not exactly what he has done?  Hasn't he tried to discourage and distract us in every conceivable way?  Doesn't he try to block our understanding of how spiritually sensitive our natures are, how anxious and willing the Lord is to speak to us, and how vital we are to the plan and purposes of the Lord?  Satan wants us neutralized, because he knows that the influence of a righteous woman can span generations.

        " Without you [the women of the Church] the plan could not function.  Without you the entire program would be frustrated.  As I have said before from this pulpit, when the process of creation occurred, Jehovah, the Creator under instruction from His Father, first divided the light from the darkness, and then separated the land from the waters.  There followed the creation of plant life, followed by the creation of animal life. Then the creation of man and culminating that act of divinity came the crowning act, the creation of woman."

        "Paul the apostle anciently spoke of holy women.  It is the duty of each one of us to be a holy woman.  We shall have elevated aims, if we are holy women.  We shall feel that we are called to perform important duties.  No one is exempt from them.  There is no sister so isolated, and her sphere so narrow but what she can do a great deal towards establishing the Kingdom of God upon the earth."

        "Just a few weeks ago I had occasion to talk briefly with President Hinckley. In response to a question about my calling, I said, "I love getting out with the women of the Church. They are so good." At that, he immediately corrected me: "No, Sheri. They aren't good. They are great!"

        "Sisters, I do not believe that you and I are here at this unique time by accident.  I believe that, like Esther of old, we are 'come to the kingdom for such a time as this' (Esth. 4:14), when our influence, our example, our strength, and our faith may stand as a bulwark against the rising tide of evil that threatens to engulf our homes, our families, and our loved ones."