Pay Thy Debt and Live by President Ezra Taft Benson Ensign June 1987.
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1987/06/pay-thy-debt-and-live?lang=eng&query=debt
“Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.” (Samuel Johnson.)
“The debt-habit is the twin brother of poverty.” (Theodore Thornton Munger.)
“Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible.” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon.)
“I have discovered the philosopher’s stone, that turns everything into gold: it is, ‘Pay as you go.’” (John Randolph.)
“Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.” (Benjamin Franklin.)
My brothers and sisters, let us heed the counsel of the leadership of the Church. Get out of debt!
Let us pay first our obligations to our Heavenly Father. Then we will
more easily pay our debts to our fellowmen. Let us heed the counsel of
President Brigham Young, who said: “Pay your debts, … do not run into debt any more. … Be prompt in everything, and especially to pay your debts.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, comp. John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954, p. 303.)
President Joseph F. Smith added: “In the time of prosperity … get out of debt. … If you desire to prosper, and to be … a free people, first meet your obligations to God, and then … to your fellowmen.” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1939, pp. 259–60.)
President Heber J. Grant counseled: “Tithing
is a law of God. … Be honest with the Lord and I promise [the
Latter-day Saints] that peace, prosperity, and financial success will
attend.”
To the Boys and to the Men by President Gordon B. Hinckley October 1998. Ensign November 1998.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1998/10/to-the-boys-and-to-the-men?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1998/11/to-the-boys-and-to-the-men?lang=eng
One
of the happiest days in the life of President Joseph F. Smith was the
day the Church paid off its long-standing indebtedness.
What
a wonderful feeling it is to be free of debt, to have a little money
against a day of emergency put away where it can be retrieved when
necessary.
President
Faust would not tell you this himself. Perhaps I can tell it, and he
can take it out on me afterward. He had a mortgage on his home drawing 4
percent interest. Many people would have told him he was foolish to pay
off that mortgage when it carried so low a rate of interest. But the
first opportunity he had to acquire some means, he and his wife
determined they would pay off their mortgage. He has been free of debt
since that day. That’s why he wears a smile on his face, and that’s why
he whistles while he works.
