James E. Talmage has said the more powerful the experience, the more private. Steven Covey has said that we all have private battles and public battles. Pornography is corruptive because it takes our private time, our times of greatest opportunity and fills that time with waste and it does destroy. I wonder what we feed our minds with? I wonder what we do with that time? If we have poor images, wrongful desires, we should ask Christ to alleviate from us these things in order that we may conquer such things.

I want it distinctly understood, that fiddling and dancing are no part of our worship. The question may be asked, What are they for, then? I answer, that my body may keep pace with my mind. My mind labors like a man logging, all the time; and this is the reason why I am fond of these pastimes—they give me a privilege to throw everything off, and shake myself, that my body may exercise, and my mind rest. What for? To get strength, and be renewed and quickened, and enlivened, and animated, so that my mind may not wear out.

Our living prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, has invited us to come through the door of the temple, where we can enter into covenants with the Lord.

As in Noah's day, our efforts to live these covenants may often be accompanied by a measure of sacrifice. This sacrifice, regardless of how great or small, often determines how committed in mind and heart we are to be submissive to the will of our Heavenly Father. The pattern of sacrifice often includes a season of struggle where we must evaluate and weigh the consequences of our decisions. Choices may not always be clear or easy, so we struggle on. When we finally determine to rid ourselves of struggle and to sacrifice our will for the Lord's, we are lifted to a new level of understanding. This process is often more recognizable in our lives when we experience a significant tragedy or challenge.

...In this dispensation, covenant making has taken on a new perspective different from the days of Noah. We are not only responsible to make covenants for ourselves, but additionally we have been given the responsibility to search out our kindred dead and open the door for all who desire to make covenants and worthily receive the gospel ordinances.

You complain that my last letter does not make it clear whether I regard *being in love* as a desirable state for a human or not. But really, Wormwood, that is the sort of question one expects *them* to ask! Leave them to discuss whether 'Love', or patriotism, or celibacy, or candles on altars, or teetotalism, or education, are 'good' or 'bad'. Can't you see there's no answer? Nothing matters at all except the tendency of a given state of mind, in given circumstances, to move a particular patient at a particular moment near to [God] or nearer to us.

Beyond ecclesiastical study there is the challenge of education. Resolve now, while you are young, that you will get all of the education you can. We live in a highly competitive age, and it will only grow worse. Education is the key that will unlock the door of opportunity.

You may plan on marriage, and hope for it, but you are not certain that it will come. And even though you marry, education will be of great benefit to you. Don't just drift along, letting the days come and go without improvement in your lives. The Lord will bless you as you make the effort. Your lives will be enriched and your outlook broadened as your minds are opened to new vistas and knowledge.

Flow requires a depth of thinking and a focus of attention that all that context-switching prevents. Flow requires a challenging use of our knowledge and skills, and that's quite different from mindless tasks we can multitask (eating and watching tv, etc.) Flow means we need a certain amount of time to load our knowledge and skills into our brain RAM. And the more big or small interruptions we have, the less likely we are to ever get there.

And not only are we stopping ourselves from ever getting in flow, we're stopping ourselves from ever getting really good at something. From becoming experts. The brain scientists now tell us that becoming an expert is not a matter of being a prodigy, it's a matter of being able to focus.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.

The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.

A woman's reach is bounded by what her mind accepts and her heart allows.