Topic: Individual, Improvement, Matches 4 quotes.

A Defense of Compulsory Labor

Let us first consider a quotation from Bossuet [tutor to the Dauphin in the Court of Louis XIV]: 5

One of the things most strongly impressed (by whom?) upon the minds of the Egyptians was patriotism. . . . No one was permitted to be useless to the state. The law assigned to each one his work, which was handed down from father to son. No one was permitted to have two professions. Nor could a person change from one job to another. . . . But there was one task to which all were forced to conform: the study of the laws and of wisdom. Ignorance of religion and of the political regulations of the country was not excused under any circumstances. Moreover, each occupation was assigned (by whom?) to a certain district. . . . Among the good laws, one of the best was that everyone was trained (by whom?) to obey them. As a result of this, Egypt was filled with wonderful inventions, and nothing was neglected that could make life easy and quiet.

Thus, according to Bossuet, persons derive nothing from themselves. Patriotism, prosperity, inventions, husbandry, science—all of these are given to the people by the operation of the laws, the rulers. All that the people have to do is to bow to leadership.

Source: Frederic Bastiat
The Law

Topics: Individual, Improvement

Duty Of Individual To Society

While emphasizing the worth of the individual, I wish to say that the individual in turn owes a duty to society. The world today perhaps as never before is demanding that the employer consider his employee not merely as a part of a machine to make money, but as a living, sensitive being entitled to justice and right. It is equally obligatory upon the employee to recognize the employer as one who has equal privileges. It is the duty of the citizen to take this same attitude toward the leaders of his government, and the duty of the churchman to recognize the rights of those appointed to preside.

This is a time in which we should renew and rekindle the faith of our fathers. On every hand “we see social unrest; unloving and unlovely men, greed, selfishness, political corruption. We see people indifferent, pleasure seeking, ignorant, far from following a life of service. Plans fail and success seems an Utopian dream. The materialistic philosophy of life which so largely controls our thinking today has nearly succeeded in convincing the world that a man’s life does consist in the abundance of things which he possesses.”

Source: Elder David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Individual, Improvement

When France sought to maintain her government, her civilization, by appealing to the rule of Reason, and God was out of the question, she soon came to difficulty. No nation can fully preserve its institutions and wholly disregard God. This government, mighty as it is, and greater as it may become, shall still have to observe and to honor the laws of God, the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ, according to the Book of Mormon prophets, or it cannot stand. So I believe that one of the finest practices to inculcate into the very hearts of men true, genuine honesty is to teach them to be honest before God.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1929

Topics: Individual, Improvement

Our doctrine of equality and liberty, and humanity and charity, comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man through the fatherhood of God. The whole foundation of enlightened civilization, in government, in society, and in business, rests on religion. Unless our people are thoroughly instructed in its great truths they are not fitted either to understand our institutions or to provide them with adequate support. For our independent colleges and secondary schools to be neglectful of their responsibilities in this direction is to turn their graduates loose with simply an increased capacity to prey upon each other. Such a dereliction of duty would put in jeopardy the whole fabric of society. For our chartered institutions of learning to turn back to the material and neglect the spiritual would be treason, not only to the cause for which they were founded but to man and to God.

We cannot remind ourselves too often that our right to be free, the support of our principles of justice, our obligations to each other in our domestic affairs, and our duty to humanity abroad, the confidence in each other necessary to support our social and economic relations, and finally, the fabric of our government itself, all rest on religion.

Its importance cannot be stressed too often or emphasized too much.

Source: President Calvin Coolidge

Topics: Individual, Improvement

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