Topic: Freedom, Loss of, Matches 54 quotes.

This is an age of change. Innovation is the idol of the times. “In this age of novelty, many things are made better, and many things are made worse. Old errors are discarded, and new errors are embraced.” Governments feel the same effects in this craze for change. “But the experience of all ages,” said Daniel Webster on one occasion, “will bear us out in saying that alterations of political systems are always attended with great danger, for if the Constitution is to be changed, an alteration in one part will work an alteration in another.”

Nor are great and striking alterations alone to be shunned. A succession of small changes, a perpetual tampering with minute parts, steal away the breath, though they leave the body; for it is true that a Government may lose all its real character: its genius and its temper: without losing its appearance. So if we are not careful—very careful—we may find our government changed to a despotism, and yet called a Republic. It may have all the essential modes of freedom, and yet nothing of the essence, the vitality of freedom in it. The form may be left, but the spirit and the life will be gone.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1937

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

The present hour witnesses a crisis, the like of which we have never known before in our history. The fine morale of the nation has been broken, and this has brought about a condition of bitterness and hate, for people have lost their regard for the power of government and for the sanctity of the law. Envy and jealousy, and hate of neighbor for neighbor have crowded out our nobler altruistic feelings. Groups of men, unmindful of human rights, are clamoring for changes in our government. Our resources are being wasted. The looting of the public wealth has become a recognized industry, and the men who practice it are as highly trained as men in the skilled employments and professions. The sorrowful thing is that these men are entrenched behind the walls of political trickery. One of the greatest plagues today is the disregard for authority and law in government, and there is growing up in our social world an aversion toward hard work. Can it be that modern thought is discarding the influence of Providence in the affairs of men? The truth that government is instituted by the hand of God was uppermost in the minds of our forebears when the Constitution was formulated; this thought inspired the very lives of Washington and Lincoln; and Jesus Christ our Lord taught us that governments without the spirit of humble faith in the Master, cannot live.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Government, Wealth Transfer; Politics

God bless the people, God bless our country. Instill in the hearts of the American people a greater love, if possible, in the future than in the past, of the great Constitution of this land. I feel in my soul that the time will never come in all the history of the world, be it short or be it long, that this people will deny that the Constitution of the United States came from God himself through men raised up for the purpose of establishing it and building upon it the greatest nation on earth. God be with us, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

Throughout the world today, as we have already been informed by a number of the speakers, there is commotion and a spirit of unrest; and the people, many of them, feel that it is something to their credit to hold radical views, to consider themselves to be progressive, and to make attack upon things that have stood and have endured throughout the ages. This tendency is not alone found in the political world. It is found in the world of education, of religion, of government, of business and everywhere. Men are departing from the well-worn paths, no matter how good they are, and feel that conservatism is a reproach; that it is the duty of man to do away with that which is old, or which has been established, and find something that is new. We stand practically alone in the world, yes, absolutely alone in the world, representing the truth of the living God, declaring to all men the principles of eternal truth which do not change.

Source: Elder Joseph Fielding Smith
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: Change; Freedom, Loss of

The Lord has said, “I will fortify this land against all other nations.” The danger is not from without, but from within, as the Book of Mormon plainly points out from secret combinations of men giving their first allegiance to their secret combination. That is the danger for after awhile these combinations will be contending one against the other until anarchy is apt to prevail, crime becomes rampant and danger to the existence of our government with its glorious Constitution is great, unless the people turn unto the Lord and seek Him.

Source: Elder Charles W. Nibley
General Conference, April 1922

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

I fully believe that we can turn things around in America if we have the determination, the morality, the patriotism, and the spirituality to do so.

Source: President Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1979

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

I think it is time we should all awaken. Our concern isn’t about the flames of freedom which burn so brightly in our generation; the concern is that in the upcoming generation the fire has never been kindled. Our youth have never known anything but criticism of the United States of America. We need some faithful, free-loving patriots who will issue forth a clear, loud trumpet call. Remember Paul’s counsel: “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare ... to the battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8.) Freedom ought to ring in the heart of every Latter-day Saint regardless of his country.

Source: Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone
General Conference, October 1975

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Freedom, Restoration of

If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers—normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free—Americans who have been lulled away into a false security.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1968

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

Gradual encroachments

The facts are clear. Our problem centers in Washington, D.C. And this applies to the administration of both political parties. In the words of James Madison, “Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.” (Elliot’s Debates, Vol. 3, p. 87.)

If America is to withstand these influences and trends, there must be a renewal of the spirit of our forefathers, an appreciation of the American way of life, a strengthening of muscle and sinew and the character of the nation. America needs guts as well as guns. National character is the core of national defense.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1968

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Freedom, Restoration of

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