Topic: Morality, Matches 55 quotes.

How can a republican government stand? There is only one way for it to stand. It can endure; but how? It can endure, as the government of heaven endures, upon the eternal rock of truth and virtue; and that is the only basis upon which any government can endure.

Source: Brigham Young
JD 9:4.

Topics: Government, Forms of; Morality; Virtue

Washington said that morality and religion were the firmest props of government. I say morality—private morality—is indispensable to a good society rounded on happy homes in nations of freedom. One of the disappointments that has come to me in the observation of our political life is that all too frequently our citizens are prone to tolerate private immorality in public office, and that by comity neither side will accuse the other. I do not make this indictment general, but I firmly believe that there are a sufficient number of cases of hypocritical living in public affairs, and a sufficient number of instances of infidelity in the homes of the land, exposed and unexposed, as to have furnished an example for youth which has not been encouraging. The need of the hour is for good example and good teaching, and teaching is very difficult without the fortification of example.

Source: President Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, April 1957

Topics: Morality

Is there any such thing as mass morality? The Master taught us that as a man, not the masses thinks, so is he, not they. It is true that if enough individuals are convinced of spiritual realities, they can greatly influence the society in which they move but it is the individual and not the mass mind which has the conviction.

I hope you will approve the application which I make of this principle. I don’t believe that men in high places, in government, in business, or elsewhere can successfully divorce their private lives from their public declarations and protestations. Nor do I believe that women who attain positions of eminence can do it either. We often speak of the gullible public, but I am very much inclined to think that there is enough of discernment in this public to see behind the idealistic words of speaker or writer, the consistency of performance. I note with growing concern the declination of governmental appointing power to take into consideration morality, except as it affects stealing and treason. The sooner men learn that they cannot teach virtue without living it the quicker we will attain the respect of those whose co-operation we seek. And what is even more important, the sooner we will bring ourselves to our own self-respect.

You will gather from these remarks that I would subject every representative of the American people, from the small community level, to state, national and international position, to the scrutiny and test of virtuous, moral standards. I would. Some will say, you are discounting the value of brains and “know-how” in this intricate business of government and sociology. I am not. I stand in awe in the presence of a great mind with superior intelligence devoted to human welfare. We are greatly dependent upon such minds, but if I had to make a choice, which I ought not to have to make, between talent and integrity, I would choose integrity and virtue, for without them we are lost.

Source: President Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1953

Topics: Morality

I think a good place to start is always at home. Each one of us should resolve that we in and of ourselves will develop qualities of leadership and of honesty and of integrity and of justice and equity. We should be willing to take these principles, these characteristics, the ability which we thus create within ourselves, and give ourselves to the benefit of our city and of our county and of our state and of our nation.

This year there will probably be no more than fifty percent of the qualified voters in this great nation who will exercise their franchise. The officers who may be elected in the great elections to be held this year will be elected by minorities and will not represent the vote or the will of the majority. You know there are two kinds of offenses in the world—offenses of commission and offenses of omission. We sometimes do things that we should not do, and then again, we do not do some things that we should. I hope that Latter-day Saints will not permit themselves, political- wise, to fall into this latter category and be classed among those who give offense because they fail to do that which they should do. I would like to know if a reason exists that would justify a Latter-day Saint in not exercising his franchise for the party and the man of his own choice.

No political party is justified to continue in existence unless it clearly states the principles which it advocates, the platform upon which its candidates stand, and then with integrity, when and if elected, carry out those principles and live up to that platform. Except that be the case, we as Latter-day Saints should not align ourselves to any party, because we do not have the basis upon which we can make an intelligent decision. We must know what they stand for before we can favor them with our vote. I do not ask you, my brethren and sisters, to go to the polls and just vote, important as that is; but that when you vote, you vote intelligently for those principles and those things and those men which will give to you the kind of government you want, the kind of environment that you desire for yourself and for your posterity.

Source: Elder Henry D. Moyle
General Conference, April 1952

Topics: Morality; Politics; Voting

Good Government And Good Men

There has been running through my mind a statement by William Penn: “If men be good, government can not be bad.” At first I was inclined to challenge it seriously, as we are inclined to challenge all statements of broad generalization. I challenged it because I thought of all the exceptions to the rule. I thought of all the peoples, historically and also in the present, who had become captive peoples and oppressed peoples quite beyond their choice or their power to resist. I thought of all the straight-thinking minorities who have resisted the popular fallacies in every generation and in every country. But I became convinced, as I thought further through William Penn’s statement, that it had a broad and fundamental truth in it: “If men be good, government can not be bad”—in the long view of things, and admitting all the exceptions.

Source: Elder Richard L. Evans
General Conference, April 1945

Topics: Government, Good; Morality

Divine Guidance Necessary In Civil Government

There is a certain disposition among a good many people, and some of our own faith are not entirely free from it, to criticize any pulpit utterance which dwells on major current issues. There are those among us who suspect insidious political intent, if, from the pulpit, even so much as mention of government is made, but religion is of no value whatsoever if it deals only in platitudinous generalities.

We are the children of God, literally. That being the case, God’s word should be uppermost in our minds in trying to bring about worth-while government. Until we as a people in particular, and the sons and daughters of God in general, realize that our civil governments will be failures so long as they are not based upon divine guidance, so long will we continue to have strife, conflict, and bloodshed.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Morality

We live in this land choice above all other lands. Are we worthy to enjoy its incomparable blessings? Do we discipline ourselves, self-imposing upon us whatever struggles and sacrifices may be necessary in order that we shall preserve inviolate the principles bequeathed to us by the fathers of our country, many of whom spilled their blood and gave their lives that their descendants might be free?

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: America, a Choice Land; Morality

All Latter-day Saints and all thoughtful Americans feel that our last defense as a great democracy is righteous behavior, that the peace and perpetuity of this government depend upon the lives of its citizens, and no other people have a cleaner and deeper appreciation of the privileges and blessings of the great government that shelters us than have we.

Source: Elder Bryant S. Hinckley
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Morality; Peace

To perpetuate our government, we must cherish and love it. We must preserve a correct and energetic tone of morals. After all, liberty consists more in the habits of the people, than in anything else. There are always men wicked enough to go any length in the pursuit of power, if they can find people enough to support them. Ambition of men to become dictators must be restrained by the public morality. When such men arise, they must find themselves standing alone.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1937

Topics: Dictatorships; Morality

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