Ezra Taft Benson Quotes

We need a nation of minutemen – citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.

I don't know how you feel, my brethren and sisters, but I'd rather be dead than to lose my liberty. I have no fear we'll ever lose it because of invasion from the outside. But I do have fear that it may slip away from us because of our own indifference, our own negligence, as citizens of this land. And so I plead with you this morning that you take an active interest in matters pertaining to the future of this country.

As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things.

It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.

Our chief aim as public-spirited citizens must be neither to avoid trouble, nor to stay out of jail, nor even to preserve our lives, but to keep on fighting for our fundamental principles and ideals.

If you believe in the values of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, if you're willing to work hard and play by the rules, you are part of our family. And we're proud to be with you.

Being American is not a matter of birth. We must practice it every day, lest we become something else.

I wanted to participate in the political responsibilities of an American citizen. I wanted to vote. I wanted to be a full member of the American community. I made America my home country. It's my identity in many ways.

Republican government presupposes decent and admirable qualities among its citizens - so we should be serious about strengthening character and inculcating virtue.

My theory is this: Rather than having commentaries from the cheap seats, get involved and see what you can do. What can you do around your own community, within your own family, to try to improve race relations in our country? I think this is a responsibility that we all have as citizens.

We didn't move here so I could save American democracy. But I've embraced it with the zeal of a convert.

I feel, if I criticize my country, it's not because I don't like my country. I love my country. That is my patriotism. I want to make it a better place for my children, for everyone. And if we don't look at what's in front of us, and we allow things to get out of hand because of other vested interests, then as citizens are not doing a good job.

A lot of us were worried that the secular fabric of the country was under threat and it was time that citizens begin to speak out. Hence we called ourselves Citizen Speak India.

Would I get into politics? I'll just say what I tell people when they ask me this: Pray that everyday citizens like me aren't pushed to that corner.

No citizen of this nation is worthy of the name unless he bears unswerving loyalty to the system under which he lives, the system that gives him more benefits than any other system yet devised by man. Loyalty leaves room to change the system when need be, but only under the ground rules by which we Americans live.

A true patriot would keep the attention of his fellow citizens awake to their grievances, and not allow them to rest till the causes of their just complaints are removed.

United States could be a great country. It needs to be a great country. It's our responsibility as citizens to make that happen, every single one of us.

When we have run through all forms of government, without partiality to that we were born under, we are at a loss with which to side; they are all a compound of good and evil. It is therefore most reasonable and safe to value that of our own country above all others, and to submit to it.

American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.

As young Americans, you have an important responsibility, which is to become good citizens.

I am raising my voice as a citizen of the country. I don?t want to enter politics.

I just don't identify myself with a place. I just don't get it. Like, why am I cheering for this town? Towns are good and bad but they don't have principles, constitutions. You wouldn't go to war for your town.

We need a new kind of citizenship, so that we can see citizens as themselves earning the rank of patriot because of their involvement in their community affairs....We as a society need to be encouraging people to focus not just on individual wants but on serving the larger community.

The business of education has lay[ed] the foundations for nurseries of wise and good men, to adapt our modes of teaching to the peculiar form of our government . . . . He must be taught to love his fellow creatures in every part of the world, but he must cherish with a more intense and peculiar affection the citizens of Pennsylvania and of the United States.

While writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], [idea of inclusion] occurred to me, you either believe in the Constitution or you don't. If you do, it's intense in what it wants of us.