Joseph Smith

I am a man of God, and I desire to do the will of God.

I told them I was a Prophet of God, and had a right to obtain revelations, and that I should not be trammelled by men.

I wish to do something to distinguish myself, and so I am going to get up a religion.

I calculated to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel, by establishing a theocracy.

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the vail was rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who sustains all worlds and all things by His power, was to make himself visible, I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man.

You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from a small degree to another, from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.

I have asked of the Lord concerning the practice of the Saints, and I have received for answer, that I should take unto myself more wives than one, and that the Saints should do likewise.

If a man marry a wife by my word, which is the word of the Lord, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to the ordinances of my Holy House, and they shall not commit adultery, and if they die, they shall inherit crowns, thrones, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths, and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set to keep the way of the trees of life, and shall enter into their exaltation, and shall be in a state of eternal lives.

The only way for you to grow in grace and truth is to come up and obey all the commandments of God.

I am a Lover of the Constitution of the United States.

I defy all the world to find a passage in the Bible where the Lord says that He ever authorized a man to make a king, or a priest, or even a prophet, without first giving him a vision or by the ministering of an angel.

I will preach on the stand what I preach in the pulpit.

If I had not been persecuted, I would not have been a prophet.

I have been in the midst of more wickedness and persecution than any man living.

I am not afraid to die. I have done nothing to merit death or condemnation.

No man knows my history. I cannot tell it. I shall never tell it. I make no apologies for my life.

I defy all the world to produce a greater work than the Book of Mormon.

I have learned for myself that God is a God of order, and not of confusion.

I am tired of the traditions of men, and the doctrines of devils.

I have the Priesthood, and can administer in the ordinances of the Gospel.