What E’er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part: Avoid Wearing Masks That Hide Identity
“The price of freedom has been too high, and the consequences of nonparticipation are too great for any citizens to feel they can ignore their responsibility.”
Politics
“…dangers that lie under the present course…”
‘…we do reserve to ourselves the right to tell our people what we think is right regarding politics as affecting the fundamentals of our government system, to warn them of the dangers that lie under the present course, and to try to persuade them that their peace, their happiness, and their security do not lie along the path of the present trends of government.’
“To Build Up Zion, and not Babylon”
“…it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give, out and out, to man or woman, money, food, clothing, or anything else, if they are able-bodied, and can work and earn what they need, when there is anything on the earth for them to do. This is my principle, and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers… No, my plan and counsel would be, let every person, able to work, work and earn what he needs; and if the poor come around me—able-bodied men and women—take them and put them into the house. “Do you need them?” No; but …teach them to labor and earn what they need”
The Book of Mormon Is the Word of God
“Now, we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism…”
“…the democracy on which our freedoms depend…”
“I’m not making an argument for the outcome of the election, but I make an argument for the democracy on which our freedoms depend, and we cannot have democracy if we cannot accept outcomes with which we disagree as well as outcomes with which we agree…”
The Prohibitive Costs of a Value-free Society
“It remains to be seen whether or not our nation can tame big government. There is, frankly, no precedent for dismantling, even partially, a welfare state, especially in a peaceful and constitutional way. Such a Goliath will not go quietly to surgery.”
The Purpose of Church to Perfect the Individual
“Jesus sought for a perfect society by perfecting the individual. He recognized the fallacy in the dream of those who hoped to make a perfect society out of imperfect individuals. In all his labors and associations, he sought the perfection of the individual.”
“In Mine Own Way”
“We cannot afford to become wards of the government, even though we have a legal right to do so. It requires too great a sacrifice in self-respect and in political, temporal, and spiritual independence. Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation, in temporal as well as in spiritual things.”
Faith, Fairness, and Religious Freedom
‘Our society has become so blinded by its quest to redress wrongful discrimination against one class of people that it is now in danger of creating another victimized class: people of faith, like you and me. …The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has stood consistently for freedom of choice and conscience. …“We believe … that all men are created equal, and that all have the privilege of thinking for themselves upon all matters relative to conscience.” …A war in heaven was fought for agency, and it is a gross violation of that agency to force you to betray your conscience because your views do not align with the crowd.’
Elder Oaks Testifies before U.S. Congressional Subcommittee
“The conflict between individual rights to freely worship God and government attempts to regulate or interfere with religious practices remains today…. If past is prologue, the forces of local, state, and federal governmental power, now freed from the compelling governmental interest test, will increasingly interfere with the free exercise of religion. We fear that the end result will be a serious diminution of the religious freedom guaranteed by the United States Constitution.”