Don’t you miss President Hinckley? He has been gone five years already. He was warm, and witty and so inspiring. He made me want to be a better me.
You have probably seen this quote from him making its way around the internet. I would be surprised if you haven’t seen it. People love to re-post it. Sometimes they take parts out of it and put it on a pretty background for Pinterest. Others use it in their blogs, or talks. It is a great quote:
“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.
Life is just like an old time rail journey…delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”
What a great thought. So much to chew on. (I would like to point out at this time that I do not have to tolerate my EC. I even like the way she eats grapefruit, and when I’m cooking, the beef is not tough) Other than those two things, this quote is brilliant. I’m sure there are some of you right now, nodding and saying “That is my favorite President Hinckley quote.”
There is one small problem…
It isn’t President Hinckley’s quote.
Sure, if you type “old time rail journey and Hinckley” into Google, you will get over a million links, but that doesn’t make it his quote.
Yes, he did say it in a great speech he gave at BYU, all the way back in 1973, (link here) but in that speech he attributed the rightful person who originated the quote.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones
While you could make the argument that he and President Hinckley had very similar hairstyles, Mr. Jones was Unitarian.
He was from Wisconsin and spent the bulk of his 92 years on earth as a newspaper man – columnist, editor and publisher.He served in the Navy in WWII, flew helicopters in Vietnam, and attended the Nuremburg trials. He had an amazing, full life that took him all around the world. After reading his bio, and some of his writing, I am more curious to hear what else he had to say. Smart guy. Not Mormon.
Why am I telling you this?
A couple of reasons:
First, as a reminder that there are a lot of good people out there who have a lot of truth, and we need to be aware of it. We also need to be careful, because truth does not equal authority. Just because someone says something wise, does not mean we should follow them. It is interesting to me the sources the church leaders come up with.
Second, Our beloved prophets say a lot of wonderful things. We don’t need to attribute things to them that have been swiped from other people.
So, in the days of Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. check your sources before you share.One more thing, in case you are curious, here is the paragraph that precedes the quote mentioned above. It is even better in context:
“There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks, to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear, the divorce courts are jammed.”
Something to think about…
I am such a fan of you. And have been for many years. Thank you!
Yay! A fellow source scout. I’m fastidious about checking sources and was recalling this quote a while ago and searching it and came across his BYU talk that properly attributes it, and filed that away for keeping. Another one I foresee being wrongfully adopted as mormon doctrine is the parable of the dandelions Pres. Uchtdorf related last Oct, funny thing is I heard the same story in my Dialectical Behavior Therapy class before that and pretty sure they’ve been using it for several years if not a decade, though I’m guessing it’s not their original story either. Here’s to citing sources. Carry on!
Get off your high horse people! Many of you sound like President Hinckley was taking credit for the quote, when in fact, if you go back and read his talk, he credits the whole thing to its proper author. Meanwhile, if a prophet of the Lord chooses to quote, and cite, a profound statement as true, I will continue to attribute it to him in the context of his prophetic call.
Weird. I don’t see anyone accusing the prophet of taking credit for the quote – or even being on high horses. It is very clear in the post, and the talk, that President Hinckley attributed the quote to the correct person. I figure if he thinks he should attribute the quote correctly, I should follow his example. You can do what you want to do.
Thank you, THANK YOU. I was reading President Hinckley’s “Standing for Something” the other day and came across this quote. I’d assumed it was President Hinckley’s quote and was rather embarrassed that I hadn’t questioned it when I saw it in an email a number of years ago…and then passed it on to others. There needs to be a “snopes” for misquotes. 😉
I disagree – I think proper accreditation is important. Not only does it put the quote, or story in context, it is a basic tenant of honesty: Thou shalt not steal.
Also, many times when things aren’t sourced properly, they aren’t cited properly, and then we are circulating false information – even if it gives us warm fuzzies.
And that is how you end up with sayings like “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it,” circulating around the church.
I am always amazed by the reactions of people when it comes to what a prophet has said. This quote was not the focus of the talk ,but it had relevance, as far as not giving proper credit i think we should look at how many times we say ” i don’t know who said it but..” . I post things or re-post things because i like the message or because it may encourage someone . I think a wise person is someone who has lived a certain way ,held to their beliefs ,stood up for someone or something even if that view is not popular,they react a certain way that makes you want to trust them.It seems to me the author would be grateful that someone found their quote note worthy ,because they wrote it for people to read and repeat,and that is what is important.
Thank you for your research i like knowing facts ,but what i like more is feeling the spirit of the message no matter who said it first. Somethings just bare repeating.
I disagreed with this quote even when I believed that GBH did author it. I think if we understood “bliss” then it could easily be normal. It is something that no one can give you, nor can anyone ever rob you of. You can’t get it from anything external to yourself – not golf, kids, or even beef (although I had a filet mignon once that came mighty close). Why shouldn’t we seek and expect bliss? As long as we know the truth about it and don’t look for it in the wrong places, specifically, anywhere outside of one’s own soul.
You mean I shouldn’t quote “Some general authority (I don’t remember who) once said (I don’t remember when)… “?
While I despise misquotes, and love your article and will link to it EVERYTIME I see that quote wrongly attributed, I miss President Hinckley more. This article stirred up lot’s of fond memories.
Just after my first real crisis of faith, the bishop had me fill out and turn in papers for a mission. Sometime later, Howard W. Hunter passed away. On a Monday in March, Gordon B. Hinckley was announced as the President of the Church. I had always thought of “Elder Hinckley” as the older looking boring guy who talked during conference. (I never really paid attention.) 2 days after that Monday, I received a mission call to the Georgia Macon Mission, Signed by President Hinckley.
I paid more attention to him in my first General Conference as a Missionary, and gained rapid appreciation and fondness for him. His interview with Tom Brokaw was during my mission and brought much interest, even in Georgia.
I came home, Got engaged to my high school sweetheart, got a job that worked me Sundays, realized my High School sweetheart was not the one for me, Married off 15 roommates (Not all at once), changed jobs, struggled in my diligence and activity, had more trials of faith, was engaged again, had it fall through again, and generally lived through some of my darkest ever and brightest ever times. I changed jobs a third time, Met my EC, and married her.
Twelve days later, we received a chilling text message from a co worker. “President Hinckley Passed away tonight.”
President Hinckley was my companion through the hardest (so far) years of my life. I would listen and re listen to conference through out the year, always glad for his talks to come on. From my Mission, to my marriage, President Hinckley was my guide.
That is one of my favorite quotes. I’m glad to know who it is really attributed to. Thanks for digging that up and sharing with us.
thank you! that quote has been driving me crazy because I knew he didn’t say it but couldn’t remember who did say it. i think this needs to be right next to the abe licoln quote that says you can’t trust everything you read on the internet.
Love it. Soon after reading your blogpost, I opened up Facebook and there in my newsfeed was a beautiful photo of Pres Hinckley with this quote. By way of commenting, I linked in this post. Just doing my bit to spread to word 🙂
I do like this quote, and have often seen it attributed to Pres Hinckley, but it didn’t ever sound like his way of expressing himself. I like the sentiment, though!
Didn’t President Hinckley say “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”?
Tom, I’d slap you if I could. Please have Tabitha do it for me.
(If this is Tabitha, your joke was really funny – thank you.)
I’m mildly insulted with profound finesse-
(Tom wrote it.)
I’m not going to slap him. He brings chocolate home from work.
Tabitha
“the” -Abraham Lincoln
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Ooh, but my husband IS perpetually young(er than me by six months) and handsome! I have been fighting to stop being annoyed at the constant misquoting and sharing of “important” but false info on fb. Aargh. Must.not.get.irritated….
Yes, I miss President Hinckley. I really miss my Dad also, but even though they were alike in some ways, my Dad was not a member. Hopefully he is now. Do you think that Pres. Hinckley is doing missionary work in Paradise?
Here is a quote of Pres. Hinckleys that I came across on Pinterest…
“There is something wonderful about a book. We can pick it up. We can heft it. We can read it. We can set it down. We can think of what we have read. It does something for us. We can share minds, great actions and great undertakings in the pages of a book.”
Please don’t tell me you read that great quote on your KIndle.
I am a until-death-do-us-part book person! And I have a bookmark collection that includes hundreds of bookstore bookmarks. I have at least one from every state of the union…except North Dakota.
Another thing I like to remember from quotes like this is that our prophets, seers, and revelators don’t JUST read scriptures. They apparently enjoy good movies, books, and other good people and quote them. Looking for and sharing the good in many places. “Seek ye out of the best books” and all that.
Thanks! Here’s another great one widely attributed to Sister Hinckley. But I’m fairly sure she quoted it at a Women’s Conference and it is not her own words. It’s cute and I’m sure it contains sentiments she would enjoy but it actually doesn’t sound like her!
“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden.I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”
I *think* that quote was originally from Erma Bombeck, but I wouldn’t bet my eternal life on it.
Another one is the quote often attributed to David O. MacKay – “The best thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother.” It’s a wonderful quote, but President MacKay was quoting another source which was correctly attributed in his original talk but has been ignored since.
But yes, our church leaders (and I particularly love Elder Holland and President Uchtdorf) say some wonderful things without our needing to invent any more.
Haven’t seen this particular quote before, so I can’t claim that I’ve wondered about it, but reading it this time it contained the kind of down-to-earth optimism that I loved from President Hinckley, but it really didn’t sound like him. Makes much more sense now – thanks for clearing up one of these!
Thank you for clearing that up. I feel better since I’ve never much liked that quote and I’m glad to know it did not originate from President Hinckley. There’s lots of truth to it I suppose, but I never look at life as ordinary or that my children have grown up to be “just like people.” I prefer to carry on in bliss as normal.
Me too!
There are several quotes recently that are being attributed to General Authorities (because they were quoted in Conference.) It sometimes irks me to see that the proper credit is not given.
My husband brought a bright blue binder into our marriage filled with typewritten quotes and essays from Jenkin Lloyd Jones. You’ve inspired me to dig it out and re-read it again. I remember it being filled with wonderful wisdom.
I love this post. And I love when credit is given where credit is due. Thanks! Now… I’m off to repost that quote because it is awesome!