I feel as though I am among the honorable of the earth when I am here [in Utah Territory]; and when I get mixed up with the people abroad, and mingle with the great people in the world, I feel otherwise. I have seen and deplored the weakness of men—their folly, selfishness, and corruption. I do not know how they feel, but I have witnessed a great deal of ignorance and folly, I think there is a great deal of great littleness about them. There is very little power among them, their institutions are shattered, cracked, and laid open to the foundation. It is no matter what principle you refer to—if to their religion, it is a pack of nonsense; if to their philosophy and politics, they are a mass of dark confusion; their governments, churches, philosophy, and religion, are all darkness, misery, corruption, and folly. I see nothing but Babylon wherever I go—but darkness and confusion, with not a ray of light to cheer the sinking spirits of the nations of the earth, nor any hope that they will be delivered in this world, or in the world to come.
– John Taylor, 8/22/1852