Freedom / Goverment Quotes
"Man is superior to government and should remain master over it, not the other way around."
Ezra Taft Benson (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, page 680)
"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)
"We are the nation's watchmen--no other people collectively love the Constitution and honor it and hold it as a divinely inspired document as do the Latter-day Saints."
Vaughn J. Featherstone, "But Watchman, What of the Night?" Ensign, Nov. 1975, 7
"When government accepts responsibility for people,
then people no longer take responsibility for themselves."
George Pataki - Reader's Digest - December 1995
"Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity and hardihood -- the virtues that made America. "
Theodore Roosevelt, 1917
"Prayer as a means of changing the hearts of national leaders? Of course! We cannot underestimate the power that is opened to us when all of us-in family prayers, in private prayers, in our meetings-combine our faith to plead with the Lord to help bring about righteous purposes here on earth. In fact, the Book of Mormon contains eloquent testimony of the power of prayer to open wide the doors that seem irrevocably locked."
Dean L. Larsen, "Prayer: The Missionary Tool in Everyone's Hands," Ensign, Oct. 1977, p. 38
"Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
Thomas Jefferson
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it."
Abraham Lincoln
"The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport."
Barbara Jordan
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-63)
35th US President, Democrat, politician
"We need more integrity in government. We need to be governed by men and women who are undivided in honorable purpose, whose votes and decisions are not for sale to the highest bidder. We need as our elected and appointed officials those whose characters are unsullied, whose lives are morally clean and open, who are not devious, selfish, or weak. We need men and women of courage and honest convictions, who will stand always ready to be counted for their integrity and not compromise for expediency, lust for power, or greed; and we need a people who will appreciate and support representatives of this caliber."
N. Eldon Tanner, Ensign, May 1977
"That means it depends on us. If we would maintain the independence and freedom the Founding Fathers intended, we must work to preserve and protect the moral foundation upon which they built the U. S. government. We must stand boldly for righteousness and truth, and must defend the cause of honor, decency, and personal freedom espoused by Washington, Madison, Adams, Lincoln, and other leaders who acknowledged and loved God. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in the same predicament President Lincoln observed in 1863.
"Said Lincoln: 'We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of their own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!' (A Proclamation to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation.')"
M. Russell Ballard, "Religion in a Free Society," Ensign, Oct. 1992, 68–69
"The spectacle of a nation praying is more awe-inspiring, more powerful, than the explosion of an atomic bomb."
Spencer W. Kimball, July 1972 Ensign
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."
Gerald Ford
“The Constitution of the United States is a divinely inspired document created by Founding Fathers, who were raised up by God to establish the United States of America,” said Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the annual Freedom Festival patriotic service held on 4 July in Brigham Young University’s Marriott Center.
“When was the last time that you read the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of Independence? I am amazed, every time I read those sacred documents, how sound and thorough they are.” He continued: “I have a great love and respect for the Founding Fathers. They have always been heroes to me. I worry sometimes about young people who idolize entertainers and sports figures. … I challenge you to become as familiar with George Washington, John Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson as you are with sports figures, actors, and rock stars. I marvel as I think about the miracles these great men accomplished.”