Under a proper social system, a private individual is legally free to take any action he pleases (so long as he does not violate the rights of others), while a government official is bound by law in his every official act. A private individual may do anything except that which is legally forbidden; a government official may do nothing except that which is legally permitted.

Source: Ayn Rand
Essays on Liberty, vol 11, p106-7

Topics: Free Agency; Law

Compelling Concepts

Among these elemental concepts is the love of freedom; it is found in man not only, but even in the brutes. Man and beast rebel against slavery. They yield to it only under compelling force.

Another elemental eternal concept is belief in God, which may ripen into a knowledge of God. Normal man ultimately demands this belief to make mortality tolerable.

Modern communism as explained by communists who are in places where they speak their real minds, deny God, declare that other men are beasts that must be tamed and worked as beasts. This is an enemy that threatens us within and without. This is not a Godless world.

But men cannot be led indefinitely, nor driven by a savage despotism, down this road to an intellectual and moral abyss. They may follow along for a generation or two. But they will one day rebel against the rule of liquidation. No group can permanently maintain itself by murder, as history proves from the days of the hideous proscription lists of Sulla till now. Fear and ruthless cruelty can rule for a time, but the spirit of liberty ultimately breaks forth and sweeps away everything that lies in its path.

So it will be with communism, which now on a world scale may well be only doing the work of the Paris mobs in the French Revolution, for there are fields of human endeavor where the power of birth and station still afflict man’s growth and development.

Source: J. Reuben Clark
Stand Fast by Our Constitution, p 79-80.

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

I hope the United States of America will be able to keep disengaged from the labyrinth of European politics and wars; and that before long they will, by the adoption of a good national government, have become respectable in the eyes of the world, so that none of the maritime powers, especially none of those who hold possessions in the New World or the West Indies, shall presume to treat them with insult or contempt. It should be the policy of the United States to minister to their wants without being engaged in their quarrels. And it is not in the power of the proudest and most polite people on earth to prevent us from becoming a great, a respectable, and a commercial nation if we shall continue united and faithful to ourselves.

Source: George Washington
before he became president, writing to a friend

Topics: Politics, International

I am decidedly of the opinion we should take no part in European quarrels, but cultivate peace and commerce with all, yet who can avoid seeing the source of war, in the tyranny of those nations who deprive us of the natural right of trading with our neighbors? . . . If the new government wears the front which I hope it will, I see no impossibility in the availing ourselves of the wars of others to open the other ports of America to our commerce, as the price of our neutrality.

Source: Thomas Jefferson
writing to George Washington

Topics: Politics, International

Glorious day approaches

He purposes that the earth shall rest and that its inhabitants shall dwell in peace. Such a glorious day approaches. It is even now at our doors. The righteousness which will bring it in and sustain it shall come in one of two ways: as a result of the predicted destruction of the wicked, or by men’s repenting and taking upon themselves in the prescribed manner the name of Jesus Christ, “the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men. . . .” (Moses 6:52.)

Source: Elder Marion G. Romney
General Conference - April 1968

Topics: Peace

I have a feeling in my heart that the United States has a glorious destiny to fulfil, and that part of that glorious destiny is to extend liberty to the oppressed, as far as it is possible to all nations, to all people.

Source: President Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1916

Topics: America, Destiny

Panic of Fear

You youth of the Church! With these God-given promises and prophecies before you, do not let yourselves be stampeded into this panic of fear that is now sweeping over the country, deliberately propagated by those who wish to get us into the war on any pretext—this fear that if we do not enter this war we face subjugation by a foreign foe. If subjugation shall come, it will come because we have reached a “fulness of iniquity,” and not because we fail to take on the horrors of this war. It is righteousness, not the hates of human slaughter, of which this nation stands now in need.

Source: J. Reuben Clark
Stand Fast by our Constitution, p. 184

Topics: Fear; War

Perilous Danger in Government

Men are so ready and willing to be deceived in regard to that which will produce their destruction, that they put off the day of dread.

Although Joseph Smith and the Elders of this Church have proclaimed, both by their own voice and by publications, the downfall of this government, and set forth things so plainly to those that would look at them, yet the people have closed their eyes and have pressed forward in their own way; and they will so continue until every word shall be fulfilled. (Sept. 9, 1860, JD 8:301)

We cannot took forward with any very bright hope for the future of this nation, unless there is heartfelt repentance on the part of the people. Affairs will grow worse and worse, and all the evils that have befallen and are befalling other nations will come upon this. (July 15, 1881, JI 16:162)

Source: George Q. Cannon
Gospel Truth - Discourses and Writings of George Q. Cannon, p. 542

Topics: America, Future

Party Above Country?

Why do men place party above country? One of the answers is obvious, namely, for selfish personal interest and the emoluments of office. The other answer is not quite so apparent. It is, so it seems to me, a lack of an adequate concept of the place and function of government in human affairs. Now the only remedy I know for the eradication of the misconception is in the inculcation of the Savior’s doctrine of altruistic service. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matt. 16:25.) This unselfish doctrine is the true foundation for neighborliness and friendliness among men and for the great principles of charity and love. Contraction of the heart is perhaps the most malignant malady afflicting the world. I know of no prescription nearly so effective as that of giving—giving one’s substance and giving one’s self. You may well measure the patriotism and real devotion of citizens of this country to its institutions and lofty ideals by the extent to which selfish ends are subordinated to the common good. It is a very definite perversion of the rightful place and concept of party organization and procedure in our government to subordinate the nation’s prestige and welfare to partisan preferment and personal aggrandizement. I am pleased to observe that there are indications which point to better conditions in this respect.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
Where is Wisdom?, p. 283 - 284

Topics: Politics

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