Faith is always pointed toward the future.

"I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been....Faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yetbe efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind....

Some of you may be having thoughts such as these: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester or a new major or a new romance hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to go home?

To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come.”
- Elder Holland, "Remember Lot's Wife"

A Faith-Based work

"Oftentimes with young adults I’ll tell the story about the day my husband and I were married. We had three dollars. Even worldwide, that’s not very much money nowadays. It was a faith-based work when we got married. We didn’t get married because of money, or because our education was complete, or because we even had a place to live. We lived with Grandpa and took care of him for the first season of our marriage. We went to school and worked hard, but we entered that relationship as a faith-based work. We knew that we had made a covenant with the Lord and that He would bless us. It didn’t take money; it took faith."

-Julie B. Beck

"When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably." 
-Walt Disney

"Too often we want to be given answers to questions and problems that, if they were given in the manner we ask for them, would take away our agency and the blessings that come from reaching out to the Lord for answers and direction. Some think it would be nice to have 'spiritual fortune cookies' we could open to find the answers to life's challenges. Wouldn't it be nice to have a labeled jar we could reach into for our answers? But that is not the way it is meant to be." 
-Elder Robert D. Hales

"We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes to unfold in our lives, on His timetable."
-Neal A. Maxwell

Neglecting those more important causes

“We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the ‘thick of thin things.’ In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”

-Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?”

"Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them - but do not let them master you." 
-Hellen Keller

Make your life a sweet and stiring song.

"Polly had fully intended to be very miserable and cry herself to sleep, but when she lay down at last her pillow seemed very soft, her little room very lovely...So much to do in the great, busy world, and she had done so little. Where should she begin....to be strong, and beautiful and go round making music all the time. Yes, she could do that, and with a very earnest prayer Polly asked for the strength of an upright soul, the beauty of a tender heart, the power to make her life a sweet and stirring song, helpful while it lasted, remembered when it died." 

-Louisa May Alcott, An Old Fashioned Girl

(Read my review of the book here!) 

"Come what may, and love it." 

-Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Having put our hand to the plow we must not look back, because when we are looking back, we are also holding back."

-Neal A. Maxwell

"Your mistake does not define who you are. You are your possibilities."

-Oprah Winfrey

"Those who drive steamrollers should know who they are."
-Monica Hymas

He wants you to succeed!

"My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. He is the Son of the living God."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?"

"Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney 

You don't just quit

"Yes, the job was hard, but quit? No. This was the one time in my life when I knew I was exactly where the Lord wanted me to be. And when you know something like that, you don’t just quit because you’re sleepy."
-Heather Oman, "Breathing"

"I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait."
- C.S. Lewis

Both optimism and tears.

"I find comfort in the reality that we are sent to mourn with those that mourn. We are not sent to cheer them up. Even though Jesus knew that Lazarus would rise, He did not arrive at the tomb with smiles and assurances that all would be well. The loss was real. It is because He wept at the grave of His friend that I feel I can reach to Him with my own losses....My faith is rooted in both optimism and tears."

-Melissa Young, "Feeling the Loss"

"If God asks that you bend, bend and do not complain. He is making you more flexible, and for this be thankful."
-Terri Guillemets

"In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
- Mother Teresa

"To create something you must be something." 
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

-Elder Claudio R.M. Costa

"Virtue —even attempted virtue— brings light; indulgence brings fog." 
 - C.S. Lewis

Don't run out ahead of Him

"Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. 'Corrie,' he began gently, 'when you and I go to Amsterdam - when do I give you your ticket?'
I sniffed a few times, considering this.
'Why, just before we get on the train.'
'Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need - just in time.'"
-Corrie Ten Boom, "The Hiding Place"

"We shouldn't complain about life not being a rose garden when we remember who wore the crown of thorns."
-Neal A. Maxwell