[Terryl Givens:] “The Great Man,” said Carlyle, 
“was always as lightning out of Heaven;
the rest of men waited for him like
fuel, and then they too would flame.”
Joseph Smith ignited something in thousands
of men and women that connects them to God
and to each other in powerful ways.
[Bonnie L. Oscarson:] Joseph Smith was many things, but one thing he never settled for
was being average or mediocre!
And just as Joseph Smith was chosen 
to come at a specific time and place
to fulfill the mission the Lord had in mind for him,
you have also been chosen to come to the earth now.
[Neal A. Maxwell:] From one untrained
 and unlearned in theology,
more printed pages of scripture have 
come down to us than from any other mortal.
[Leonard J. Arrington:] The atmosphere around
Joseph was one of hope and buoyancy,
of optimism and faith, of wholesome righteousness.
[Bruce R. McConkie:] “I feel like shouting Hallelujah,
all the time, when I think that I ever knew Joseph Smith” [Discourses of Brigham Young]
well that is as it ought to be,
because salvation is in Christ
and salvation is available because 
Joseph Smith revealed Christ to the world.
[Heidi S. Swinton:] Joseph’s life was one of pure 
integrity to the cause of Christ, who he loved.
He loved what the Lord loved.
He lived the Lord’s way.
It wasn’t easy for him.
It isn’t easy for us.
[Gordon B. Hinckley:] Joseph Smith did 
not write the Book of Mormon.
Rather, “by the gift and power of God”
he translated the writings of many authors
who wrote at different times
and under various circumstances.
[Hugh B. Brown:] Undergirding and 
overarching all the rest,
I say to you from the very center of my heart
I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
Although these evidences and 
many others that could be cited
may have the effect of giving 
one an intellectual conviction,
but by the whisperings of the Holy Spirit 
one may come to know.
And by those whisperings, I say I do know,
and I thank God for that knowledge.
