Ezra Taft Benson Quotes

When threatened, the first thing a democracy gives up is democracy.

Democracy is our commitment. It is our great legacy, a legacy we simply cannot compromise. Democracy is in our DNA.

My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law.

I look on that paper (the Constitution) as the most fatal plan that could possibly be conceived to enslave a free people.

Sometimes, when democracy has to fight with autocracy, what can be done? We have to fight; somebody has to.

We must bring the rule of law to its full fruition in the United States, and when we do, we will have achieved the goals and rhetoric of our Founding Fathers.

When I was in college in the late 80s-early 90s, there was a sense that history was on a straight path toward democracy everywhere. Well, that's not true. It was also not true that there's a single era of oligarchy, because we showed we could do something about it.

We are hated because we are free. We are hated because of the idea that is the United States of America. We are hated because of our Constitution.

Iraq is better without Saddam Hussein than with Saddam Hussein. Without a doubt.

I cut my teeth as a journalist writing about societies that didn't have democracy.

Americans, at our best, stand up to bullies and fight those who seek to demean and degrade others.

We can see our liberties vanishing here in the United States... A little bit here and a little piece there... We can see it, we can feel it, and we can hear it.

Is democracy about living in fear? Is that what our forefathers fought the British for?

I have always believed that genuine democracy is fairness.

The Constitution is worth saving, the rule of law is worth saving, democracy is worth saving, but these things can and will be lost if everyone waits around for someone else.

To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.

In the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.

The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.

The most persistent threat to freedom, to the rights of Americans, is fear.

In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

Only religion can prevent democratic rule from developing into mob rule. A nation can prosper only as its citizens are religious, intelligent, capable of service and eager to render it.

It's a curious fact about Americans that in their most fiercely patriotic moods they are willing to set aside their Constitution, the guarantor of their freedom, in order to prosecute war -- yet they insist that the war is for 'freedom'.

War and Authority are companions; Peace and Liberty are companions.

No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.

The Constitution is the bedrock of all our freedoms; guard and cherish it; keep honor and order in your own house; and the republic will endure.