Quotes from the Brethren
Jeffrey R. Holland–
This first semester of our brand-new academic year, it should be duly noted, is going to be spiced up by a national presidential election. It is now the first week of September, the conventions are over, and we have nine weeks to the day to go. And we know only two things for certain: first, that as Reinhold Niebuhr once said, “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary” (The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, 1944). Democracy is indeed, in that sense, still “on trial.” The civic loyalty and involvement of our people is its fundamental appeal and its only protection. Take your responsibilities seriously, document and discuss the issues, and cast your vote if you are of age. (And almost all of you are.) Democracy only works if you do. That’s the first thing we need to know in an election year. (Jeffrey R. Holland, “At Their Most Enlightened and Alert,” Sep. 9, 1988)
Neal A. Maxwell–
My faith in democracy is strong but conditional. I am somewhat in the position of the man whom the Savior questioned concerning his religious faith. The man replied, “Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief.” I, and probably you, need reinforcing experiences to freshly validate the workability of democratic ideals. Skepticism tends to feed on itself. (Neal A. Maxwell, “The Lonely Sentinels of Democracy,” New Era, July 1972, 47 )
Quotes from the Founders
John Adams–
[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few. (Adams, John An Essay on Man’s Lust for Power, August 29, 1763)
James Madison–
[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. (Madison, James Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787)
Speeches and Other Resources
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