Topic: Politics, Matches 42 quotes.

I did not think the public offices confided to me to give away as charities.

Source: Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1802. ME 10:332

Topics: Politics

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

Source: Thomas Sowell

Topics: Politics

What is politically defined as economic “planning” is the forcible superseding of other people’s plans by government officials.

Source: Thomas Sowell

Topics: Economics; Force; Politics

Influence In The Americas

I suppose you brethren will all know, but I will recall it to your attention, that the Constitution of the United States is the basic law for all of the Americas, or Zion, as it has been defined by the Lord.

You brethren from Canada know that, your great British North America Act, in its fundamental principles, is based upon our Constitution, and you know that in the courts of Canada, the reports of our Supreme Court, and our Federal courts generally, are just as persuasive as the decisions of the courts of England, and even more so, where questions of constitutional law and constitutional interpretation are involved.

Now, I am not caring today, for myself, anything at all about a political party tag. So far as I am concerned, I want to know what the man stands for. I want to know if he believes in the Constitution; if he believes in its free institutions; if he believes in its liberties, its freedom. I want to know if he believes in the Bill of Rights. I want to know if he believes in the separation of sovereign power into the three great divisions: the Legislative, the Judicial, the Executive. I want to know if he believes in the mutual independence of these, the one from the other. When I find out these things, then I know who it is who should receive my support, and I care not what his party tag is, because, brethren, if we are to live as a Church, and progress, and have the right to worship as we are worshipping here today, we must have the great guarantees that are set up by our Constitution. There is no other way in which we can secure these guarantees. You may look at the systems all over the world where the principles of our Constitution are not controlling and in force, and you will find there dictatorship, tyranny, oppression, and, in the last analysis, slavery.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1942

Topics: Law; Politics

I think a good place to start is always at home. Each one of us should resolve that we in and of ourselves will develop qualities of leadership and of honesty and of integrity and of justice and equity. We should be willing to take these principles, these characteristics, the ability which we thus create within ourselves, and give ourselves to the benefit of our city and of our county and of our state and of our nation.

This year there will probably be no more than fifty percent of the qualified voters in this great nation who will exercise their franchise. The officers who may be elected in the great elections to be held this year will be elected by minorities and will not represent the vote or the will of the majority. You know there are two kinds of offenses in the world—offenses of commission and offenses of omission. We sometimes do things that we should not do, and then again, we do not do some things that we should. I hope that Latter-day Saints will not permit themselves, political- wise, to fall into this latter category and be classed among those who give offense because they fail to do that which they should do. I would like to know if a reason exists that would justify a Latter-day Saint in not exercising his franchise for the party and the man of his own choice.

No political party is justified to continue in existence unless it clearly states the principles which it advocates, the platform upon which its candidates stand, and then with integrity, when and if elected, carry out those principles and live up to that platform. Except that be the case, we as Latter-day Saints should not align ourselves to any party, because we do not have the basis upon which we can make an intelligent decision. We must know what they stand for before we can favor them with our vote. I do not ask you, my brethren and sisters, to go to the polls and just vote, important as that is; but that when you vote, you vote intelligently for those principles and those things and those men which will give to you the kind of government you want, the kind of environment that you desire for yourself and for your posterity.

Source: Elder Henry D. Moyle
General Conference, April 1952

Topics: Morality; Politics; Voting

The Law Of Zion

So, brethren, I wish you to understand that when we begin to tamper with the Constitution we begin to tamper with the law of Zion which God Himself set up, and no one may trifle with the word of God with impunity.

Now, I am not caring today, for myself, anything at all about a political party tag. So far as I am concerned, I want to know what the man stands for. I want to know if he believes in the Constitution; if he believes in its free institutions; if he believes in its liberties, its freedom. I want to know if he believes in the Bill of Rights. I want to know if he believes in the separation of sovereign power into the three great divisions: the Legislative, the Judicial, the Executive. I want to know if he believes in the mutual independence of these, the one from the other. When I find out these things, then I know who it is who should receive my support, and I care not what his party tag is, because, brethren, if we are to live as a Church, and progress, and have the right to worship as we are worshipping here today, we must have the great guarantees that are set up by our Constitution. There is no other way in which we can secure these guarantees. You may look at the systems all over the world where the principles of our Constitution are not controlling and in force, and you will find there dictatorship, tyranny, oppression, and, in the last analysis, slavery.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1942

Topics: Politics; US Constitution

I think the business men are largely to blame for these chaotic conditions. The Lord says: “Search out good and wise men”—not of any party; not of any church, but search out these good men and put them in charge of our civil affairs. But if you ask a business man to run for office, he becomes a Pharisee, a political Pharisee. He says: “I don’t like to enter into the slime of politics.” But who has made it a slime? The men who were unworthy to hold office. Business men say: “We can’t be elected.” Well, when, in the name of heaven, will you be any stronger? Why not enter the conflict? There ought to be common ground where good and wise men may stand, and their influence will be felt at headquarters in Washington.

Source: Elder Charles A. Callis
General Conference, October 1941

Topics: Politics; Voting

Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws.

Source: Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

Topics: Economics; Politics

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

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