Benjamin Franklin Statement

I was watching a broadcast on the BYU channel and Elder Edgley was the speaker and he presented what I thought was a profound statement from Benjamin Franklin and I wanted to pass it along:

We stand at the crossroads,
each minute,
each hour,
each day,
making choices.
We choose
the thoughts
we allow ourselves to think,
the passions
we allow ourselves to feel,
and the actions
we allow ourselves to perform.
Each choice
is made in the context
of whatever value system
we've selected
to govern our lives.
In selecting that value system,
we are,
in a very real way,
making the most important choice
we will ever make.
Those who believe there is one God
who made all things
and who governs the world by his Providence
will make many choices different
from those who do not.
Those who hold in reverence
that being who gave them life
and worship Him through
adoration,
prayer,
and thanksgiving
will make many choices different
from those who do not.
Those who believe
that mankind are all of a family
and that the most acceptable
service of God
is doing good to man
will make many choices different
from those who do not.
Those who believe
in a future state
in which
all that is wrong here
will be made right
will make many choices different
from those who do not.
Those who subscribe
to the morals of Jesus
will make many choices different
from those who do not.
Since the foundation of all happiness
is thinking rightly,
and since correct action
is dependent on correct opinion,
we cannot be too careful
in choosing the value system
we allow to govern
our thoughts and actions.
And to know that God governs
in the affairs of men,
that he hears and answers prayers,
and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him,
is indeed,
a powerful regulator
of human conduct.

[Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living, ed. George L. Rogers, 3rd ed. (Eden Prairie, Minnesota: Acorn Publishing, 1996), 88­90]