Topic: Morality, Matches 55 quotes.

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

We are the trustees of a sacred trust. We have been given by Providence this Government with all its potentiality, with all its accomplishment, with all, its promise. The question should be to every American: How am I discharging this trusteeship? What am I doing to preserve, protect, and perpetuate the ideals of the government in which we have such implicit faith? We have a solemn obligation before us.

Every American should read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, Lincoln’s Address at Gettysburg, and see for himself whether the American policy has been a selfish program. It has been a program to serve humanity.

Only the application of the standards of moral excellence can save our fundamental ideals. As we look into the future, will it be progress or decline? Let us pray God that it may be progress. But progress will never be unless we sacredly preserve our Constitution and hold it as the surest vision for liberty and freedom.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1937

Topics: Morality

As a result of this progress in the line of science, and the coming of foreigners to our shores, our civilization has become complex. Lawmaking bodies have created laws by the thousands, until we have come to believe that government is the source of righteousness; that government by external means is the spring of morality and spiritual life. The morale of America has drifted to a very low state; this is also true of all the civilized world. Our moral autonomy has gone, and men and nations have forgotten God. Satan is offering the kingdoms of the world to those who will fall down and worship him. The temptation of Jesus after his baptism has become today the temptation of men. Yet nations are crying for Peace. They have organized leagues of peace; they have made some determined efforts to do away with war; they have all failed for the reason that peace movements have not been founded on a proper comprehension of righteousness and truth.

When our forefathers met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia in 1774 to draft some system of government by which the colonies could carry on, an old minister, Dr. Jacob Duche, was called in to offer a prayer, and as he prayed, John Adams tells us that tears “gushed into the eyes of all present.” It was a fervent prayer to the Lord and I quote it in full for it carries a message of faith to us:

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of Kings, Lord of Lords, who dost from Thy throne behold all the dwellers upon the earth, and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires and governments, look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, upon these American States who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves upon Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only upon Thee.

To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause. To Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care. Give them wisdom in council, and valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause, and if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, O let the voice of Thine own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop their weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle.

Be Thou present, O Lord of Wisdom, and direct the Council of the honorable Assembly. Enable them to settle things upon the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may speedily be closed; that order, harmony and peace may effectually be restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people.

Preserve the health of their bodies, the vigor of their minds. Shower down upon them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Savior. Amen.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Christianity; Morality

The real test of the strength of civilization is in the moral capacity of the rank and file of the citizens to give up the pleasures of the present for greater rewards in the future. This quality is the foundation of both moral and spiritual character. The social security of a nation is based on the character of the citizens, not on the amount of material comforts the government may bestow upon them. Hard work and sacrifice make men strong. Ease and gifts from any source are destructive to efficiency, character, and citizenship. Social security is in the character of the citizens and hence must come from within. Social security can not be bestowed from without.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Morality; Security

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