Topic: Responsibility, Matches 82 quotes.

Know The Truth And Follow It

Now, if a citizen is to do well his part in securing good government he must be well informed on public questions and problems. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that man cannot be saved in ignorance and that the glory of God is intelligence. These are fundamental doctrines with us. Hence to please our Father in heaven, we must continually strive for wisdom, knowledge, intelligence we must keep growing in God-like attributes.

Can we vote intelligently and wisely unless we are informed on the questions and candidates at issue? But does not good citizenship require us to vote in this manner? I think so. We then should make a careful study of these questions, study them open-mindedly and as fully and deeply as circumstances will permit. To do this we must not be bound by a spirit of partisanship. Principles and policies should guide us rather than self-seeking politicians. We should follow the truth rather than deceptive propaganda.

But how shall we know the truth? Learn all the facts pertaining to the case, interpret them fairly, justly, truthfully, and with a sincere desire to be wise and to act for the best good of all, at least for the majority. Then we shall not be far from the truth. Good citizenship requires that we shall not be carried away from a safe anchorage by misleading propaganda, fostered by selfish interests.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Citizenship; Politics; Responsibility

Extravagance Deplored

I despise waste, and I think that waste under present conditions is almost criminal—the waste of anything. Extravagance that amounts to waste is likewise indefensible in view of the great needs that present themselves. Sometimes I grow indignant when I see and contemplate the extravagances that are indulged by some of our institutions, both public and private when people are in such great distress and great want. There are extravagances in government that absorb all my own taxes and the taxes of my neighbors. These expenses are useless and unnecessary, some of them legalized it is true, but public service ought to be so alive to the situation that confronts us today that even if extravagance is legalized it should be stopped. A sense of the proprieties and a sense of fairness and justice would prompt such action.

Our taxes are unbearably high because our incomes are so reduced. It is a tragedy to see the farms and the homes that are being sacrificed because of the inability of their owners to pay the taxes levied on them. Of course we want good government, we want the protection of law, we want all the opportunities that good government affords to us, and I recognize that they have to be paid for, but this is a day when economy must be applied.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Responsibility; Taxes

Investigation By Taxpayers

I am very sympathetic with the movement that I have heard is in progress wherein the taxpayers constitute themselves committees to investigate our public expenditures. No official of the government who has the right conception of his trust ought, in any sense, to resent an investigation of the administration of his office. I like the idea. I wish citizens everywhere would organize themselves and go to public officials and question them and ascertain whether or not it is not possible to make reductions in the excessive costs for which we are paying bills, for we pay them all.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Responsibility; Taxes

My brethren and sisters, I have studied the history of the past. I know the story of the rise and fall of Rome, of Babylon, of Egypt, and of other great nations, and the one outstanding thing that brought that about was the corruption of the officials who were placed in charge of affairs of state. I do not wish to continue to quote scripture in order to demonstrate that we are living in a time when the Lord has said that these very things shall exist. But he has warned us against them. He has declared the destiny of this nation and of all other nations. I wish simply to say that if they are to persist, if they continue, it will be when the people return to the Lord God of heaven and in justice and righteousness serve him, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs. And if this shall fail these very elements that have resulted in the destruction of the civilizations of the past, if they shall be permitted by us to persist, will eventually bring to us perplexity, confusion and final chaos.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1930

Topics: Government, Downfall; Responsibility

Are we losing respect for the Constitution, that document which Gladstone has called “the greatest State document of all the Christian ages”? Must voices be raised in the tops of these everlasting hills, calling to the people of the United States to come to the defense of the Constitution? Our forefathers and our own loved ones have spent their lives for its principles. Are we unwilling to cast our votes for those who will honor it?

Source: Elder Richard R. Lyman
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Responsibility; US Constitution, Defend

A Warning Voice Against Evil

It is pleasing to know that the Latter-day Saints are loyal, as a people, to the Government, to the Constitution, and that they observe the law. Moreover, it is well to have our attention called to the duties and responsibilities that are ours as members of the Church, and to have the warning voice raised, from time to time, against the evils that prevail in the world that we may be prepared to resist them.

Source: Elder Joseph Fielding Smith
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Law, Respect For; Responsibility

Let me add one final stop to your American journey. The place—Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia the tomb of America’s unknown soldier. Today the remains of three servicemen from three wars lie there. The inscription reminds us, “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” There are in addition 4,724 other unknown servicemen buried in Arlington, and all across the nation and the world. I have seen the crosses, row upon row, marking the places where lie America’s honored dead, literally in the thousands. What did it cost them that this nation might remain “the land of liberty”? How shall we honor them, you and I?

In two ways it seems to me: First, by striving to make our citizenry the righteous people the Lord requires of us. And second, by telling the story of what the Lord has done for you and me and this great church, and why.

Source: Elder Paul H. Dunn
General Conference, October 1975

Topics: Responsibility

In a despotism, an absolute monarchy, where the king rules, and the people only submit, great is the obligation of the king, but the individual citizen’s obligation is correspondingly less. In our own government, where the people rule, each individual citizen is a ruler in the nation and great is his responsibility; great are the obligations that rest upon him by reason of that citizenship, for he himself is a ruler, a sovereign, and helps to form and fashion the government of which he is one of its rulers. If we have good government it is because the individual citizens are good. If we have a bad government it is because the individual citizens are bad. That applies not only to the nation at large, but to the state, to the county and to the city.

Source: Elder Rulon S. Wells
General Conference, October 1921

Topics: Government, Forms of; Responsibility

We should continue to speak out for freedom and against socialism and communism as President McKay has consistently admonished us. We should continue to come to the aid of patriots, programs and organizations which are trying to save our Constitution through every legal and moral means possible.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1963

Topics: Citizenship; Responsibility

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