Topic: Rights, Matches 35 quotes.

To restore freedom, we must reclaim the moral initiative. We must reconsecrate respect for justice as applicable to the individual, not the collective. We must hold as sacrosanct our right to earn and hold property, to direct its use, and to wield it as a shield against malefactors. We must proclaim our right as free, autonomous, and sovereign individuals to do what we want, say what we will, and build our lives without the permission, sanction, or approval of any group. We should and must never be punished for the transgressions of others.

Source: Russell Madden
Punishing the Many, Ideas on Liberty, June 2000.

Topics: Morality; Private Property; Rights

On this holiday we celebrate, as we have for more than two hundred years, the establishment of a government in a country unlike any other in the history of the world. It has had at its very heart the concept of a government “instituted of God for the benefit of man” (D&C 134:1). The deepest taproots of our nation and state have lain in the very essence of our humanity, our faith in God. This nation as a democracy has as its basic foundation a government of laws and equality of all before the law. Under the Constitution it has the right and the duty to institute laws to protect its citizenry in their inalienable rights, recognizing that, as the Doctrine and Covenants says, “sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly” (D&C 134:5). The government has the right and duty to enact laws, within the institutions set up by the Constitution, which are best calculated to secure the public interest while at the same time preserving the individual rights of its citizenry.

Source: James E. Faust
Address given 2 July 1995 at the Freedom Festival at Provo, UT.

Topics: Government, Good; Law; Rights

Whoever lives to see the Kingdom of God fully established upon the earth will see a government that will protect every person in his rights. If that government was now reigning upon this land of Joseph, you would see the Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Quaker, the Shaker, the Hindo, the Mahometan, and every class of worshipers most strictly protected in all their municipal rights and in the privileges of worshiping who, what, and when they pleased, not infringing upon the rights of others. Does any candid person in his sound judgment desire any greater liberty?

Source: Brigham Young
JD 6:342-343.

Topics: Freedom, Religious; Government, Good; Rights

Constitutional rights

Thus, under the guidance of the Lord was established a government based upon a written constitution in which were set forth the laws whereby its citizens were to maintain their freedom, freedom for us–

To live,

To pray and worship,

To work,

To own property,

To keep and bear arms,

To educate our children,

To assemble together,

To be tried by a jury,

To speak without fear of being cast into jail,

To go where we choose and do as we wish, so long as we do not jeopardize the rights, the welfare, and the safety of others.

Doubtless in all the world there is no document to compare with this “heavenly banner,” this “glorious standard,” the Constitution of the United States!

Source: Elder ElRay L. Christiansen
General Conference, October 1967

Topics: Rights; US Constitution

Thus, today, brethren, we are in danger of actually surrendering our personal and property rights. This development, if it does occur in full form, will be a sad tragedy for our people. We must recognize that property rights are essential to human liberty.

Former United States Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland, from our own State [Utah], carefully stated it as follows: “It is not the right of property which is protected, but the right to property. Property, per se has no rights; but the individual—the man—has three great rights, equally sacred from arbitrary interference: the right to his life, the right to his liberty, and the right to his property. The three rights are so bound together as to be essentially one right. To give a man his life, but deny him his liberty, is to take from him all that makes life worth living. To give him liberty, but take from him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty, is to still leave him a slave.” (From George Sutherland’s speech before the New York State Bar Association, January 21, 1921.)

The bond of our secular covenant is the principle of constitutional government. That principle is, in itself, eternal and everlasting, despite the pretensions of temporary tyrannies. The principle of tyranny maintains that human beings are incurably selfish and therefore cannot govern themselves. This concept flies in the face of the wonderful declaration of the Prophet Joseph Smith that the people are to be taught correct principles, and then they are to govern themselves. Dictatorship, however, argues that the people should be governed by the individual or a clique who can seize power through subversion or outright bloodshed. Further, the people are declared to be without guarantees or rights, and the regime is claimed to exist beholden only to the plans and whims of the ruling tyrant.

Our founding fathers, despite some natural fears, clearly regarded the promulgation of the Constitution of the United States as their greatest triumph.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1962

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Rights

One of the great fundamentals advocated by the founders of this American nation was that of frugal administration of government affairs. Never before in the history of the world has there been such an extravagant expenditure of the people’s money.

Someone made reference to four or five freedoms. We have had more than four or five freedoms, for I think of at least the sixth one—the right under the Constitution of the United States for every man to work how, when, or where he will—and that right has disappeared. It is gone and now lies in the hands of a group who rule the laboring class of the United States.

I point out these few facts to you in substantiation of the point that as a people and a government we are on the high road of apostasy from that inspired Bill of Rights bequeathed to us by the founders of this great republic.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1941

Topics: Bill of Rights; Free Agency; Rights

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God?

Source: Thomas Jefferson
Notes on the State of Virginia

Topics: Rights

As the state’s steady growth over the last 70 years indicates, once the government becomes the supplier of people’s needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right.

Source: Lawrence Auster

Topics: Government, Tyranny; Rights

From the scorching fires of every persecution there has arisen some leader with a tongue of fire who has been inspired by the love of Jesus Christ to call men to a higher, a purer and a better life. Jesus promoted the rights of mankind. He is the Creator, he is the Architect of the republican form of government.

Source: Clarence True Wilson
As quoted by Elder Richard R. Lyman in General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Rights

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