there is enough and to spare

Modern revelation advises as to the earth's resources: "there is enough and to spare" (D&C 104:17). Governments and economic systems falter before those assurances. Especially sobering is this divine declaration: "But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin" (D&C 49:20).

Neal A. Maxwell

Not My Will, but Thine by Neal A. Maxwell. 2008. Deseret Book. p. 89,90

without diamonds

‘It is strange to say,’ reflected Desmond Luke, a prominent Freetown (Sierra Leone) lawyer, ‘but I believe without diamonds this country couldn’t have been in this state of exploitation and degradation.’



The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair by Martin Meredith. PublicAffairs. 2005.

the vilest scramble for loot

Joseph Conrad described the activities of Léopold’s Congo Free State as ‘the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience’.


The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair by Martin Meredith. PublicAffairs. 2005.

worshipping a little god

I would as soon see a man worshipping a little god made of brass or of wood as to see him worshipping his property.


Brigham Young, The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball. 1969. p.40, 41 Originally found in Journal of Discourses, 6:196

And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.

For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.

O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies - because of the praise of the world?

Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?

Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads?

Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer.


Mormon 8:36-41

he left all of it

A modern illustration of that principle [greed] is suggested in the apocryphal story of two men standing before the casket of a wealthy friend. Asked one, "How much property did he leave?" Replied the other, "He left all of it."


Dallin Harris Oaks, Ensign, May 1994. p. 35 "Tithing".