3 Ne. 16:10; D&C 1:35
“We have been warned that we are ripening in iniquity and that we will be destroyed if we do not repent. Now my beloved brothers and sisters, I realize that these predictions are not pleasing, but nevertheless they speak the truth… . There is but one way these impending calamities can be avoided, and that way is repentance … the foreboding calamities can be averted if the inhabitants of the earth will repent, believe, and have faith in God as our Heavenly Father, in His Son Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, and will conform to their teachings.” (Marion G. Romney, The Tragic Cycle, pp. 15-16)
“Other great civilizations have died by suicide. The first free people, the Greeks, died thus. And why did Greece fall? A slackness and softness finally came over them to their ruin. In the end more than they wanted freedom they wanted security, a comfortable life, and they lost all—security, comfort and freedom. We as a people have never known bondage. LIBERTY has always been our blessed lot. Few of us have ever seen people who have lost their freedom—their LIBERTY. And when reminded of the danger of losing our LIBERTY and independence our attitude has usually been—IT CANNOT HAPPEN HERE. We must never forget that nations may—and they usually do—sow the seeds of their own destruction while enjoying unprecedented prosperity.” (Ezra Taft Benson, A Nation Asleep, pp. 13, 20)