Robert Charles Winthrop Quotes

Where you have no religion, you are sure to have no government, for as religion disappears, anarchy takes place and fixes a compleat Hell on earth till religion returns.

The priest accustoms the child to the idea of law, to make it obey better what he calls the "divine law," and the lawyer prates of divine law, that the civil law may be the better obeyed.

My obedience is not to the law but to the Great Creator.

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.

When there is conflict between what God requires and the demands of the government, each of us has an important decision to make concerning taxes.

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.

If religion cannot restrain evil, it cannot claim effective power for good.

The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order ...

The authority of all magistrates (with however great power and sovereignty they be vested) is as it were hedged in by these two limits set by God himself, namely Piety and Charity

To despise legitimate authority, no matter in whom it is invested, is unlawful; it is rebellion against God's will.

It is not God that is worshipped but the group or authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity.

No true and perfect human society can be conceived which is not governed by some supreme authority…. Do the sheep when they are all assembled together rule and guide the shepherd?

Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?

The Bible is authoritative, without error, and inspired by God..

religion and morality are a much better whip to keep people in submission than even the club and the gun.

The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.

A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced.

Jesus was a perfect example of following authority. He was subject to His earthly parents; he subjected himself to the laws of the land, and as God, he had the power not to do any of it.

To speak against religion (the Christian) is breaking down the bond of good government.

At various times during the last four thousand years God has asserted his rights and endeavoured to establish his own authority, his own laws, and his own government among the children of men.

The most powerful men were those who most effectively used the power of adult competence to enforce childish agreements.

Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master.

I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.

The apostle enters upon his subject thus - Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: the powers that be, are ordained of God.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.