Freedom

• Alma 30:7…Freedom of worship.
• Alma 21:22…Righteous leaders allow their people to have freedom of worship.
• Alma 12:31… Wherefore, he gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good
• “The government will take from the ‘haves’ and give to the ‘have nots.’  Both have lost their freedom.  Those who ‘have,’ lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will and in the way they desire.  Those who ‘have not lost their freedom because they did not earn what they received. They got ‘something for nothing,’ and they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift.” Howard W. Hunter, former President and Prophet of the LDS Church.
• ““I don’t care how much money you get,” my dad used to tell me. “It’s not worth it if you’re not happy.” That’s the most valuable piece of advice he ever gave me: Do what you want in life. To this day I’ve tried to follow that philosophy.”  American Sniper: Memorial Edition (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, and Jim DeFelice) Page 8
• “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”– Thomas Jefferson
• “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”– Thomas Jefferson
• “In The Tao of Leadership, John Heider stresses the importance of interfering as little as possible. “Rules reduce freedom and responsibility,” he writes. “Enforcement of rules is coercive and manipulative, which diminishes spontaneity and absorbs group energy. The more coercive you are, the more resistant the group will become.””  Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.  Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty.  Page 121
• “The meaning of wealth is fundamentally freedom. It’s freedom from material constraints and the constraints of time. It’s a dialectic between freedom from and freedom to. The freedom to, on the material side, is to be able to purchase what you want, to go where you want, to have what you want in the material realm. Freedom in the temporal realm is often a way of retrieving the past. When things go wrong and you have wealth, you can often correct a mistake or problem. You can shape to some extent the present and the future.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 18
• “No country has shed more of its own blood for the freedom of other people than America.”  Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown (Blehm, Eric) page 234
• “In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of seagulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations, they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved. …“The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the…seagulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead, they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.
• “Now the seagulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ‘something for nothing’ lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.“A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government’s ‘shrimp fleet.’ But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?
• “Let’s not be gullible gulls. We … must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift, and our true love of independence.
• Marion G. Romney:  Whenever we get into a situation that threatens our self-reliance, we will find our freedom threatened as well. If we increase our dependence, we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act.
• “in June 1982, addressing the British Parliament, he (Ronald Reagan) talked of Poland’s courage, “by being magnificently unreconciled to oppression.”  He noted that “Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.”  He then threw down a challenge to the free peoples of the earth:  What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people…I have often wondered about the shyness of some of us in the West about standing for these ideals that have done so much to ease the plight of man and the hardships of our imperfect world…Let us now begin a major effort to secure the best- a crusade for freedom that will engage the faith and fortitude of the next generation….let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.”  Seven Miracles that Saved America, Page 264
• “A government will never be better than what is expected or demanded of it by the people.  The Founders certainly understood that in order for the government they were forming to be successful, a moral and virtuous people would be required.  A sample of their thoughts on the subject includes John Adams:  “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.  Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other..”  James Madison:  “Is there no virtue among us?  If there be not, we are in a wretched situation.  No theoretical checks- no form of government can render us secure.  To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea.”  Benjamin Franklin:  “Only virtuous people are capable of freedom.  As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”  George Washington, in his farewell address to the nation, stated:  “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports…It is substantially true that virtue or morality is necessary to spring of popular government.  The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.”  In sum, a nation cannot live in freedom or liberty unless it is populated by a moral and virtuous people.”  Seven Miracles That Saved America, Page 286
• “It is imperative for our freedom to understand that our parents were doing the best they could with the understanding, awareness, and knowledge they had.”  You Can Heal Your Life (Louise Hay) Page 29
•  “How much do you know about your parents’ childhoods, especially before the age of ten? If it’s still possible for you to find out, ask them. If you’re able to find out about your parents’ childhoods, you will more easily understand why they did what they did. Understanding will bring you compassion. If you don’t know and can’t find out, try to imagine what it must have been like for them. What kind of childhood would create an adult like that? You need this knowledge for your own freedom. You can’t free yourself until you free them. You can’t forgive yourself until you forgive them. If you demand perfection from them, you will demand perfection from yourself, and you will be miserable all your life.”  You Can Heal Your Life (Louise Hay) Page 29
• “The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interest wide and far enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, and which they were not capable of alone.”  (Joshua Lawrence Chamberlaine, Gods and Generals [2003], 53)
• “Stand firm ye boys from Maine. For not once in a century are men permitted to bear such responsibilities for freedom and justice; for God and humanity is now placed upon you.”  (Joshua Lawrence Chamberlaine, Witness to Gettysburg [1987], 195)
• “Our future can be imperiled by freedom left uncontrolled.”  (Gerald E. Melchin, Ensign, May 1994, 82)
• “In The Tao of Leadership, John Heider stresses the importance of interfering as little as possible. “Rules reduce freedom and responsibility,” he writes. “Enforcement of rules is coercive and manipulative, which diminishes spontaneity and absorbs group energy. The more coercive you are, the more resistant the group will become.””  Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.  Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty.  Page 121
• 2 Nephi 2:16… Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.
• “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson