“We live in dangerously troubled times. The values that steadied mankind in earlier times are being tossed away. We must not ignore Moroni 's words when he saw our day and said, ‘Ye [must] awake to a sense of your awful situation’”
(Boyd K. Packer, General Conference Address, April 2004.)

“In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools and its becoming almost generally true it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.” (Boyd K. Packer, Charge to the David O. McKay School of Education, December 1996.)

“In a review of what a student has gained at school or in a class, he should give attention to things he may have lost. If he knew the value of some things he may have discarded, he would dig frantically through the wastebasket and trash can to rescue them before they are hauled away permanently. He came to school basically to learn an occupation, and likely he has. But as always, there was a price to pay, and occasionally students pay an exorbitant price. Not infrequently students will jettison things essential to life and end up well-occupied but unhappy. These questions are appropriate. Did they as freshmen come with idealism, and put it aside? Did they come with faith, and carry away in its place skepticism? Did they come with patriotism, and replace it with cynicism? Did they come free from any binding habits, and now leave with an addiction? Did they arrive aspiring for marriage, a home, and a family, and now have abandoned those aspirations? And critically important, did they come with virtue and moral purity, and now must admit to themselves that while they were here they have lost it? How did this happen? Was that an essential price to pay for an occupation or for broadened cultural horizons? The intangibles they carry away may not equal in value the intangibles they may be leaving behind.” (Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Dilligently, p. 219 - 220. 1975.)

“Moral values are being neglected and prayer expelled from public schools on the pretext that moral teaching belongs to religion. At the same time, atheism, the secular religion, is admitted to class, and our youngsters are proselyted to a conduct without morality.

“World leaders and court judges agree that the family must endure if we are to survive. At the same time, they use the words freedom and choice as tools to pry apart the safeguards of the past and loosen up the laws on marriage, abortion, and gender. In so doing, they promote the very things which threaten the family.…

“The distance between the church and a world set on a course which we cannot follow will steadily increase.” (Boyd K. Packer, The Father and the Family, Conference Report, April 1994.)

“I submit that the atheist has no more right to teach the fundamentals of his sect in the public school than does the theist. Any system in the schools or in society that protects [permits?] the destruction of faith and forbids, in turn, the defense of it must ultimately destroy the moral fiber of the people.” (Boyd K. Packer, speech delivered to Utah State University baccalaureate services June 8, 1973.)

“President Harold B. Lee told me once of a conversation he had with Elder Charles A. Callis of the Quorum of the Twelve. Brother Callis had remarked that the gift of discernment was an awesome burden to carry. To see clearly what is ahead and yet find members slow to respond or resistant to counsel or even rejecting the witness of the apostles and prophets brings deep sorrow.…

There are limits to what the Spirit permits us to say.” (Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, October 1996.)