William R. Bradford

First Quorum of the Seventy (October 3, 1975 – October 4, 2003)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1999 General Conference
  • Righteousness
    • “We live in a time when many men and women do not prescribe morality to their actions, and so they believe that what they do has only social consequences. In this they deny God, and they also deny that things are either right or they are wrong.”
    • “Right and wrong do exist and are opposite to each other. The actions of mankind do have moral consequences. The gospel of Jesus Christ defines for us the difference between what is good and what is bad.”
    • “Where there is disobedience to God’s laws and commandments, in benevolence He has given us the law of repentance. If we act upon this marvelous law, we will be forgiven of our disobedience and become more righteous; thus repentance leads us to righteousness. Many, in fact most, of the challenges that we have in mortality can be solved by repentance. They can all be solved finally by righteousness.”
    • “Where there is disobedience to God’s laws and commandments, in benevolence He has given us the law of repentance. If we act upon this marvelous law, we will be forgiven of our disobedience and become more righteous; thus repentance leads us to righteousness. Many, in fact most, of the challenges that we have in mortality can be solved by repentance. They can all be solved finally by righteousness.”
    • “Righteousness is the better way. Finally, it is the only way. In righteousness is the power to provide the joy and happiness and the safety and security that men and women have longed for and searched for through all the generations of time.”
    • “There is opposition. Right and wrong do exist. Our actions do have moral consequences. There is no right way to do a wrong thing.”
• April 1992 General Conference
  • Unclutter Your Life
    • “A cluttered life is a life that you do not have control of. It is a life in which the things you have surrounded yourself with, and allow to use up your time, are controlling you and negatively influencing your happiness and eternal progress.”
    • “Nothing suits the devil better than to become a silent partner with us.”
    • “We need to examine all the ways we use our time: our work, our ambitions, our affiliations, and the habits that drive our actions. As we make such a study, we will be able to better understand what we should really be spending our time doing.”
    • “With an uncluttered life, you will not be so busy doing terrestrial things that you do not have time to do those things which are celestial. God’s plan is a plan of simplicity. It involves being obedient to simple laws, laws that have within them an automatic blessing and happiness for obedience and an automatic punishment and unhappiness for their disobedience.”
• October 1987 General Conference
  • Selfless Service
    • “Some things are interesting and enticing while other things are important.”
    • “Sometimes, because of the pressures of the world around us, our service projects become self service projects rather than selfless service projects.”
    • “Selflessness is righteousness. It embraces the true spirit of companionship. It is the very essence of friendship. It is the portrayer of true love and oneness in humanity. Its reward is the freeing of the soul, a nearness to divinity, a worthiness for the companionship of the Spirit. Every requirement that God’s plan for our salvation places upon us is based on the giving of one’s self.”
    • “The only way under the heavens whereby a person can be sanctified is in selfless service.”
• October 1983 General Conference
  • How Do You Know?
    • “What I have said, I declare in soberness to be true. I declare it to the receptive ear, to those who also know it is true. I declare it, unashamedly, to the doubting ear, to those who would mock and scorn, as we can imagine could have been the case when the declarations fell from the lips of Noah and the people surely demanded from him an answer: “How do you know? How do you know?” I declare it to the slumbering, who, in their ignorance of God’s plan and their darkness of mind, can but think the question, “How do you know? How do you know?””
    • “The Book of Mormon contains the record of a fallen people. It outlines how man got into a condition which subjects him to death and separation from God.”
    • “The Book of Mormon also contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It outlines for us in perfect clarity what has been done for us and what we must do ourselves to overcome our fallen condition and return to the presence of God.”
• October 1981 General Conference
  • Sanctification through Missionary Service
    • “Although there are thirty thousand missionaries now serving, there should and could be many times that many. If they would prepare themselves and step forward to do that which is their decreed duty, the work could be done at a rate and in dimensions beyond our highest expectations.”
    • “If I could listen to you separately, each case would unfold with one thing in common. All would justify yourselves in not doing your duty to God.”
    • “Lest I be misunderstood, may I say to you young women, this also applies to you. Many of you say, “What will I ever do if he leaves me?” You hold him back. You allow your association with him to go beyond where it should. You often contribute to his decision not to serve. You sometimes even contribute to his unworthiness to serve. By so doing you are also disqualifying yourself from your intended blessings.”
    • “To sanctify yourself you must serve others.”
• October 1979 General Conference
  • The Governing Ones
    • “The fact that you bear the priesthood is not a casual matter. It manifests that you have passed through the waters of baptism. You have been interviewed by Israel’s judges and found qualified to be God’s governing ones. Your status as the governing ones has been, and remains, conditional upon compliance with the terms set forth by the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in our premortal life. You accepted those terms then, and by virtue of your ordination and present worthiness you have accepted them here. Nothing about this is casual. It is serious business. It is so serious that God’s affairs on earth and the salvation of all mankind rest upon it.”
    • “The results of what you think and do are governed by law. Good returns good. Evil returns evil. You govern yourself by subjecting yourself to the discipline of law. If you are obedient to God’s law, you remain free. You progress and are perfected. If you are disobedient to God’s law, you bind yourself to that which restricts your progress. You become defiled and unworthy to be an associate with those who are more clean and pure.”
    • “The Lord expects you to govern a home- and family-centered gospel-living system. The challenge of governing the family is to so love, teach, and motivate its members that their personal decisions will be to unite one with another in the common purpose of following God’s plan.”
• October 1977 General Conference
  • The Safety of the Gospel Law
    • “If a man jumps from an airplane without a parachute, he must fall to his destruction. It matters not that he knows the saving power of the parachute. If he does not have one on and open it as he falls, he will not be saved, for the law of gravity cannot be defied. By this we can clearly see that not only is the knowledge of a saving law necessary for salvation but also the application of it in our lives.”
• April 1976 General Conference
  • Are We Following Christ’s Pattern?
    • “Do the things which you think and do entitle you to bear the name of Jesus Christ? Does your love for that holy name inspire and lift you to lofty heights and cause desires within you to want all the world to know of him and receive for themselves his sacred name? Do you feel a sharp pain, as if a dagger had pierced your heart, when you hear the name of the Son of God taken in vain? Do you ever walk through doors where he would never enter? Have you kept his name unsullied and spotless so that because of you it has not been allowed to come in contact with that which is base and unbefitting? In his name are you builders of his kingdom? No man can serve two masters. Men must either declare themselves as Christ’s servants, take upon themselves his name, and do his work, or fall victim to the enticing trap of Satan, helping him in his work of destruction.”
    • “Love is the only element that can tenderize the human heart.”
• October 1975 General Conference
  • We Are Sent for the Last Time
    • “I confess my weakness before you. I know, however, that the Lord will build a strength of armor and power around those who seek his Spirit. Throughout my life, my decisions have been influenced by a whispering voice saying, “Come, follow me.” It is a great honor and privilege to obey as the Spirit directs. I assure you that the channel is open that this might happen.”
    • “My father taught me not to be a toe-dipper, but to plunge into the good things of life, to bathe all over in the sea of the gospel. My mother has taken me to that seashore every day of my life.”

Other Talks

Articles in Church Publications

Other Publications and Resources