Believe Quote by Ezra Taft Benson
“I believe that God has endowed men with certain inalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and that no legislature and no majority, however great, may morally limit or destroy these; that the sole function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property, and anything more than this is usurpation and oppression.”
About This Quote
Source Speech: Address to LDS General Conference, 1975
Government exists solely to safeguard life, liberty, and property; any extra authority is oppression.
In simple terms: Government's role is protection only.
Key Takeaway
Limit power to essential protections.
Themes
rights
government
freedom
Mood
serious
reflective
Type
political
philosophical
When to use this quote
- political advocacy
- legal reform
- civil rights activism
Key Concepts
social contract
natural rights
limited government
Questions to Reflect On
- How can societies balance security with liberty?
- What mechanisms prevent government overreach?
A Different Perspective
Assumes all governments act benevolently, which is not always true.
![“The evidence of [the] natural right [of expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do not claim these under the…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ad1/thomas-jefferson-43_charter_the-evidence-of-the-natural-right-of-exp_2308565.jpg)
