We can never survive unless our young people understand and appreciate our American system, which has given more of the good things of life than any other system in the world—unless they have a dedication that exceeds the dedication of the enemy. Character must become important in this country again. The old essentials of honesty, self-respect, loyalty, and support for law and order must be taught the younger generation.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1968

Topics: Education; Virtue

Heritage threatened

Our priceless heritage is threatened today as never before in our lifetime: from without by the forces of Godless Communism, and at home by our complacency and by the insidious forces of the Socialist-Communist conspiracy, with the help of those who would abandon the ancient landmarks set by our fathers and take us down the road to destruction. It was Alexander Hamilton who warned that “nothing is more common than for a free people, in times of heat and violence, to gratify momentary passions, by letting into the government, principles and precedents which afterwards prove fatal to themselves.” (Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation, p. 462.)

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1968

Topics: America, Heritage; Freedom, Loss of

Responsibility as parents

We can spend millions in remedial programs aimed at the prevention and cure of crime, but the plain fact remains that until citizens recognize their divine responsibility as parents and are willing to be honest and respected themselves, and to teach their children likewise, crime will continue to increase. The home must ever foster the great and lasting virtues of purity of life, honesty, thrift, benevolence, and patriotism. To do this requires effort from both mother and father. It cannot be relegated to a baby sitter or a nursery school.

Source: Bishop John H. Vandenberg
General Conference, October 1967

Topics: Education; Virtue

Blessings for obedience

Men receive blessings by obedience to God’s laws, and without obedience there is no blessing. Before the final triumphal return of the Lord, the question as to whether we may save our constitutional republic is simply based on two factors: the number of patriots and the extent of their obedience.

That the Lord desires to save this nation that he raised up, there is no doubt. But that he leaves it up to us, with his help, is the awful reality.

There is a time and season for all righteous things, and many of life’s failures arise when men neither take the time nor find the season to perform their eternal duties.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1967

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

We shall not build love of country by taking away from our youth the principles which made us strong—thrift, initiative, self-reliance, and an overriding sense of duty to God and to man.

A terrible price has been paid by those who have gone before us, this that we might have the blessings of liberty and peace. I stood not long ago at Valley Forge, where George Washington and his ragged army spent the winter of 1776. As I did so, I thought of a scene from Maxwell Anderson’s play in which Washington looks on a little group of his soldiers, shoveling the cold earth over a dead comrade, and says grimly, “This liberty will look easy by and by when nobody dies to get it.”

Source: Elder Gordon B. Hinckley
General Conference, October 1965

Topics: Freedom, Price of; Principles

No member of the Church can be accepted as in good standing whose way of life is one of rebellion against the established order of decency and obedience to law. We cannot be in rebellion against the law and be in harmony with the Lord, for he has commanded us to `be subject to the powers that be, until he reigns whose right it is to reign.... (D&C 58:22.) And one of these days he is going to come.

Source: President Joseph Fielding
General Conference, April 1971

Topics: Law

Let us always remember that the planting of America in the strain that determined our country’s character was a spiritual planting. The fathers who planted this nation were Christians. They came here as Christians. They came because they were Christians. They came on a specifically Christian venture. Get it fixed in your mind that the planting that determined the genius of America was a Church—not a town, not a colony, not a trading or exploring venture, not a gold rush, but a church, a little Pilgrim church crossed the sea for the sake of its church life. That is the origin of the United States.

Source: Destiny Magazine, 1965

Topics: America, History; Christianity

When men obey commands of a creator, it is not blind obedience. How different is the cowering of a subject to his totalitarian monarch and the dignified, willing obedience one gives to his God. The dictator is ambitious, selfish, and has ulterior motives. God’s every command is righteous, every directive purposeful, and all for the good of the governed. The first may be blind obedience, but the latter is certainly faith obedience.

Source: Spencer W. Kimball
General Conference, October 1954

Topics: Obedience

To defend one’s country is a worthy deed! Patriotism is a virtue. In protecting the good name and holding inviolate the word of their country, men in the service of their country may rise to the heights of true nobility. . . .

The same virtue is possessed by him who with unwavering integrity protects the honor and good name of his friends and associates [yes, even his competitors]. It is the best within him expressing itself.

Source: President David O. McKay
The Instructor, Vol. 95, June 1960, pp. 177-178

Topics: Virtue

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