(2 Ne. 27:20; 28:15; Alma 32:23; D&C 6:7; 23:21; 88:118; 130:18-19; 2 Cor. 2:14; 2 Tim. 3:9; Prov. 16:18; Col. 2:8; Conference Report, Apr. 1901, p. 72; Doctrines of Salvation, Smith, 3:275-276; refer in this text to Jacob 2:13-17; 3 Ne. 6:10-16)
“It is easy to see why a proud man fails; he is content to rely on himself only.” (Howard W. Hunter, Conference Report, Apr. 1984, p. 89)
“There is almost a universal tendency for men and women who are specialists in an academic discipline to judge the Church against the principles of their profession. There is a great need in my mind for us, as students and as teachers, to consciously and continually subjugate this tendency and relegate our professional training to a position secondary to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, rather than to judge the Church and its program against the principles of our profession, we would do well to set the Church and its accepted program as the rule, then judge our academic training against this rule.” (Boyd K. Packer, BYU Speeches of the Year, 1969, p. 6)
“Knowledge of the physical universe and of the laws which govern it is cumulative. Thus each generation builds upon and expands the knowledge gained from discoveries of the past… . Unlike knowledge of the physical universe, the moral knowledge of each generation begins where the previous began rather than where they left off. For example, the remedy for an infection in the physical body has changed dramatically over the centuries; the remedy for infidelity, not at all… . This apparent imbalance in accumulating knowledge can easily contrubute to a spirit of arrogance in students of the physical world, especially in so-called intellectuals.”
(Boyd K. Packer, The Book of Mormon: Jacob Through Words of Mormon, To Learn with Joy, BYU Religious Studies Center, ed. by Nyman & Tate, pp. 8-9)
“Self-sufficiency, often through financial success, high educational attainment, fame, and honor among men, can keep us from having faith.” (John K. Carmack, Ensign, May 1993, p. 43)
“When men are humble they acknowledge an intelligence far superior to their own and they seek guidance and wisdom from that source.” (Stephen L. Richards, Conference Report, Apr. 1935, p. 30)
“To the proud, the applause of the world rings in their ears; to the humble the applause of heaven warms their hearts.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, Apr. 1986, pp. 3-7)
“The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and proud who are rich. The learned may feel the prophet is only inspired when he agrees with them; otherwise, the prophet is just giving his opinion—speaking as a man. The rich may feel they have no need to take counsel of a lowly prophet.” (Ezra Taft Benson, 1980 BYU Speeches of the Year, p. 29)
“Increasingly the Latter-day Saints must choose between the reasoning of men and the revelations of God. This is a crucial choice, for we have those within the Church today who, with their worldly wisdom, are leading some of our members astray. President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., warned that the ‘ravening wolves amongst us from our own membership and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing, because they wear the habiliments of the Priesthood… . We should be careful of them.’” (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, Oct. 1967, p. 34)
“A university education, I believe, would be desirable for every intelligent man and woman… . A little learning is a dangerous thing, and too many men and too many women who have become experts in a tiny field of learning think that because they are trained in that field of learning, they are experts in all fields of learning. Many men who are well-trained in one limited field feel that this equally qualifies them to express learned opinions in the field of faith and religion… . Now, brothers and sisters, in our Church in this day and age, when education is becoming more and more popular and more and more necessary, there is grave danger of intellectual apostasy … (2 Nephi 9:28-29). What causes intellectual apostasy? … Principally out of vanity and pride. They want to impress others with their learning. To put it indelicately, it is the problem of the swelled head, because that is exactly what the Prophet said” [2 Nephi 9:42]. (Theodore M. Burton, Conference Report, Apr. 1961, pp. 128-129)
“If there is any one group in the Church for whom I feel sorriest, it is those who brand themselves as intellectuals. I believe that class of people can go to apostasy along a broader road and through a wider gate than any other group… . And so this Church, which believed at the very outset that the glory of God is intelligence and has done more to encourage its membership to become intellectual than any other church upon the face of the earth, in any era, does not look upon intellect as its God. That is what these intellectual apostates do, and they are not sufficiently intelligent to know when they have apostatized… . I want to tell you that I think the humblest elder in the Church who knows what he knows and has the courage and the conviction to testify to the world what he knows is just as intellectual as a man can be. Under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, that man’s mind will develop, it will reach its maximum capacity, and he will accomplish more in mortality than the man without the Holy Spirit who strives, along man-made lines, to accomplish a mortal goal… . Any man who does not have the courage of his convictions, who is willing to the slightest degree to compromise [his testimony] with anyone, anywhere, and under any circumstance in this world is, to that extent, unworthy of the priesthood he holds.” (Henry D. Moyle, Address to Seminary & Institute Instructors, BYU, June 27, 1962)
“Now then, speaking of this matter of revelation as it pertains to our studies here [at BYU], President [Joseph F.] Smith again gave us some wonderful counsel about our studies in philosophy and science… . This is what he said, ‘Our young people are diligent students. They reach out after truth and knowledge with commendable zeal and in so doing they must necessarily adopt for temporary use many theories of men. As long, however, as they recognize them as scaffolding, useful for research purposes, there can be no special harm in them. It is when these theories are settled upon as basic truth that trouble appears and the searcher then stands in grave danger of being led hopelessly from the right way.’ And then he said this: ‘Philosophic theories of life have their place and use, but they are out of their place in Church schools or anywhere else when they seek to supplant the revelations of God.’ Now if we’ll just remember that. The revelations of God are our standards, the things by which we measure all learning. And if these things square not with the revelations, then we may be certain that they are not the truth.” (Harold B. Lee, BYU Devotional, Oct. 15, 1952)
“Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.” (Ezra Taft Benson, quoted in Ensign, Nov. 1993, p. 16)
“A problem occurs on occasion when, in the pursuit of higher degrees, one becomes so imbued with the terminology and methodology of a secular discipline that, almost without realizing it, he compromises the gospel message… . We encourage you to get your higher degrees and further your education; but let us not forget that disaffection from the gospel and the Lord’s church was brought about in the past by the attempts to reconcile the pure gospel with secular philosophies of men.” (Ezra Taft Benson, address given to Religious Educators at the Assembly Hall, Sept. 17, 1976)
“Do some teachers and students create the impression … that salvation is unimportant or that salvation is to be found in academic disciplines? Salvation is in Christ, not in most of the things we do on the BYU campus or anywhere else… . All of our important and interesting debates about politics, academic subjects, and educational policy are insignificant by comparison with this.” (Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, Mar. 1994, p. 65)