You can call it mysticism if you want to, but I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.

“Of course, the war in heaven over free agency is now being waged here on earth, and there are those today who are saying ‘Look, don't get involved in the fight for freedom. Just live the gospel.’ That counsel is dangerous, self-contradictory, unsound…Now, part of the reason we may not have sufficient priesthood bearers to save the Constitution let alone to shake the powers of hell, is because unlike Moroni, I fear, our souls do not joy in keeping our country free, and we are not firm in the faith of Christ nor have we sworn with an oath to defend our rights and the liberty of our country. Moroni raised a title of liberty and wrote upon it these words: ‘In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.’ Why didn't he write upon it: ‘Just live your religion; there's no need to concern yourselves about your freedom, your peace, your wives, or your children’? The reason he didn't do this was because all these things were a part of his religion, as they are of our religion today. Should we counsel people, ‘Just live your religion. There's no need to get involved in the fight for freedom’? No, we should not, because our stand for freedom is a most basic part of our religion; this stand helped get us to this earth, and our reaction to freedom in this life will have eternal consequences. Man has many duties, but he has no excuse that can compensate for his loss of liberty.”

Grant to Congress and the Courts the power to define the rights of conscience, and the limit beyond which faith shall not be carried into action, and religious liberty is practically at an end. The battles for spiritual freedom, which have been so nobly fought in generations past, and which have been gained by the sacrifice of so much precious blood, will, so far as we are concerned, have been fought in vain.

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

"As we yield our will to His, God will tutor us in the successful use of our moral agency. We will find freedom to be, to feel, and to do."

A knowledge of good and evil is the third element of agency. The first is choice, which is obtained by having two or more options. The second is freedom, which is obtained by having different results from the options. Agency is having choice with freedom as is provided by different results, and then having a knowledge of those results.

Some people perceive laws to be restrictive. However, laws do not restrict. They simply designate what is good and evil; what is permitted and not permitted; what is legal and illegal; what is possible and impossible. Laws attach consequences to decisions. Without laws, different decisions could not result in different consquences, resulting in no freedom. If a man insists that some laws restrict him, then he must also admit that other laws enable him. All things that are invented or created are accomplished only because laws make them possible. All things are goverrned and accomplished by laws, whether physical, social, or spiritual. Freedom, therefore, cannot be a place or condition without law. The fact is laws do not limit freedom. Laws actualy make possible the condition of freedom. It is law that makes us free: "I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free".

Posterity -- you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

Today you cannot effectively fight for freedom and not be attacked, and those who think they can are deceiving themselves. While I do not believe in stepping out of the path of duty to pick up a cross I do not need, a man is a coward who refuses to pick up a cross that clearly lies within his path.

A man must not only stand for the right principles, but he must also fight for them. Those who fight for principle can be proud of the friends they've gained and the enemies they've earned.