Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Quotes By Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Elder Neal A. Maxwell served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1981–2004. Among others, Elder Maxwell’s most prominent books are All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, Not My Will, but Thine and the Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book. Maxwell was known for his great mind and ability to articulate his thoughts elegantly.

You cannot have adequate faith in a Christ you do not adequately know.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book

Topics: Faith, Knowledge, Scripture Study

“I am going to preach a hard doctrine to you now. The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. It is a hard doctrine, but it is true. The many other things we give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually things He has already given us, and He has loaned them to us. But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him. And that hard doctrine lies at the center of discipleship.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Insights from My Life,” Ensign, August 2000, p. 9

Topics: Discipleship, Humility, Sacrifice

“Isn’t it marvelous, brothers and sisters, that God, who knows everything, still spends time listening to our prayers? Compared to that cosmic fact, what does the world really have to offer us? One round of applause, one fleeting moment of adulation, or an approving glance from a phantom Caesar? May God bless us to see things as they really are and as they really will be (see Jacob 4:13; D&C 93:24), and may we give the glory and honor and praise unto God.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | General Conference, April 2000

Topics: Prayer

Just as the capacity to defer gratification is a sign of real maturity, likewise the willingness to wait for deferred explanation is a sign of real faith and of trust spread over time.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Willing to Submit,” Ensign, May 1985, p. 71

Topics: Being Spiritual & Spirituality, Faith, Maturity

“Yes, you and I should count our blessings, but we should also make them count!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Apply The Atoning Blood of Christ

Topics: Attitude, Blessings, Gratitude & Thanksgiving, Short Quotes

“When we pray, we are not conveying any information to God that he does not already have. Nor, when we confess our sins before him, is it news to him that we have misbehaved. More than we realize, being honest with God in our prayers helps us to be more honest with ourselves.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Forgiveness, Repentance, Sin

“Your lives, your friendships, your marriages, your families, your neighbors and coworkers currently constitute the sample of humanity which God has given you. We are each other’s clinical material, and we make a mistake when we disregard that sober fact. . . . These special moments – one-on-one, in small groups, in corridors, hallways, or wherever – do something so subtle that we are scarcely aware that it is happening. Yet these help to further define our relationships with the Lord and with each other. It is often the one-liners that come from these special moments which have such a long shelf life and which help us long after the dispersal of those friends has occurred.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Jesus, the Perfect Mentor,” Ensign, February 2001, p. 8

Topics: Attitude, Family, Friendship, Marriage

“The laughter of the world is merely loneliness pathetically trying to reassure itself.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book

Topics: Loneliness, Secularism (Worldliness), Sin

“…the strait and narrow path, though clearly marked, is a path, not a freeway nor an escalator. Indeed, there are times when the only way the strait and narrow path can be followed is on one’s knees!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | A Brother Offended, Ensign, May 1982, 37

Topics: Adversity, Plan of Salvation, Trials

“Disciples, like diamonds, are developed in a process of time and heavy pressures, and both the disciple and the diamond reflect and magnify the light that comes through them.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward, p. 125

Topics: Discipleship

“When something is wrong, increasing its commonality cannot really confer respectability.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Secularism (Worldliness), Sex

When spiritually aligned, a poise can come, even when we do not know “the meaning of all things.” (1 Ne. 11:17) Such contented assurance produces not arrogance but quiet acceptance, which is its own form of being “anxiously engaged” but without all the bells and whistles (D&C 58:27; see also D&C 58:28).

However, this spiritual contentment rests on our accepting the Atonement of Jesus, because we “have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world” (Mosiah 4:6).

Again, brothers and sisters, seeing Alma move from wanting to be a “trump” to being a humble “instrument” and from wanting to “shake the earth” to “perhaps [bringing] some soul to repentance” is a stunning transition! (See Alma 29:1.) Furthermore, isn’t it wonderful that we are permitted to grow, whether that growth is expressed in the space of nine verses or in a lifetime?

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Content with the Things Allotted unto Us,” Ensign, May 2000, p. 72

Topics: Atonement, Repentance

“Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but that absence of courage.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Courage, Weaknesses

“Daily hope is vital, since the “Winter Quarters” of our lives are not immediately adjacent to our promised land… Those with true hope often see their personal circumstances shaken, like kaleidoscopes, again and again. Yet with the “eye of faith,” they still see divine pattern and purpose.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Brightness of Hope, Ensign, Nov. 1994

Topics: Hope, Trials

“(Cheerfulness is) a deep trust in God’s unfolding purposes—not only for all of mankind, but for each of us as individuals.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “But a Few Days” (address given to CES Religious Educators, Sept. 10, 1982), 4.

Topics: Attitude, Happiness

“The costs of discipleship cannot be paid at wholesale rates nor in one lump sum.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Men and Women of Christ, p. 24

Topics: Discipleship

“The disciple is expected to give appreciation always and to be thankful, but he is forewarned against requiring reciprocity as a condition of friendship. He is further told to pay little heed to ingratitude toward him. We can’t dwell upon another’s ingratitude without using up our time and talents unprofitably.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Things As They Really Are, p. 56

Topics: Discipleship, Gratitude & Thanksgiving

“If we will keep our covenants, our covenants will keep us spiritually safe.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Ensign, May 1987, p. 71

Topics: Being Spiritual & Spirituality, Maturity, Ordinances

“I believe it was George Macdonald who reminded us that the only door out of the dungeon of self is the love of one’s neighbor. How proud we ought to be, in a quiet way, that we are members of the church of the most selfless being who ever lived. How proud we ought to be to belong to a church that makes specific demands of us and gives us specific things to do and marks the strait and narrow way, lest we fall off one side of the precipice or the other. I am so grateful that God loves us enough to teach us specifically. Had secularists written the Ten Commandments, they might have said, “Thou shalt not be a bad person.” Note what the Ten Commandments say: “Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, thou shalt not commit adultery,” and so on. The gospel of Jesus Christ is specific because God cares specifically for each of us and, caring for us, will mark the way carefully lest we fall out of happiness.

“A vague creed is fitted only for a vague God. We have a Father who loves us specifically and gives us things to do and, because he loves us, will cause us, at times, to have our souls stretched and to be fitted for a better world by coping with life in this world.

“May God bless us with that kind of commitment, with the capacity to be serious disciples and to accept both the agendum that he has prepared for each of us because he loves us and the curriculum, prepared for each of us, which he has customized to teach us the things we most need to know, because he loves us.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “But For a Small Moment,” BYU Fireside, September 1, 1974

Topics: Discipleship

“Many in the world hold back from making the ‘leap of faith’ because they have already jumped to some other conclusions — often the conclusions of Korihor, which are: God never was nor ever will be; there is not a redeeming Christ; man cannot know the future; man cannot know of that which he cannot see; whatsoever a man does is no crime; and death is the end. (See Alma 30:13-18.) The number of modern-day adherents to the Korihor conclusions will grow.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “The Inexhaustible Gospel,” Ensign, April 1993, p. 71

Topics: Faith, Jesus Christ, Knowledge, Secularism (Worldliness)

“True faith is not to be brought about by overwhelming and intimidating intervention from God”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Not My Will, But Thine.” Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988.

Topics: Faith, Miracles, Work

“We live and teach amid a wide variety of individual personalities, experiences, cultures, languages, interests, and needs. Only the Spirit can compensate fully for such differences.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | That Ye May Believe (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1992), 39.

Topics: Mormon Culture, Spirit

“You and I cannot really expect to glide through life . . . naively petitioning, ‘Lord, give me experience but not grief, a deeper appreciation of happiness but not deeper sorrow, joy in comfort but not in pain, more capacity to overcome but not more opposition; and please do not let me ever feel perplexed while on thy errand. Then let me come quickly and dwell with thee and fully share thy joy.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Mortality, Trials

“Daily hope is vital, since the ‘Winter Quarters’ of our lives are not immediately adjacent to our promised land either. An arduous trek still awaits, but hope spurs weary disciples on.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | "Brightness of Hope," Ensign, Nov. 1994, 36

Topics: Hope, Trials

“Those who ‘live without God in the world’ anxiously glean their few and fleeting satisfactions, but they are unable to find real happiness….”Ignorant of the plan of salvation, many simply do not know what the journey of life is all about. Therefore, modern selfishness and skepticism brush aside the significance of the Savior…”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Ensign, March 1998

Topics: Plan of Salvation, Secularism (Worldliness)

“Though of themselves life’s defining moments may seem minor, our wise responses can gradually increase our traction on the demanding path of discipleship. For instance, we can decide daily, or in an instant, in seemingly little things, whether we respond with a smile instead of a scowl, or whether we give warm praise instead of exhibiting icy indifference. Each response matters in its small moment. After all, moments are the molecules that make up eternity, affecting not only ourselves but others, because our conduct even in seemingly small things can be contagious.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | The Promise of Discipleship, pg. 71

Topics: Decisions, Discipleship

“Real hope is much more than wishful musing. Hope is realistic anticipation taking the form of determination – a determination not merely to survive but to “endure . . . well” to the end. In the geometry of restored theology, hope has a greater circumference than faith. If faith increases, the perimeter of hope stretches correspondingly. Hope keeps us “anxiously engaged” in good causes even when these appear to be losing causes. Those with true hope often see their personal circumstances shaken, like kaleidoscopes, again and again. Yet with the “eye of faith,” they still see divine pattern and purpose. Whatever our particular furrow, we are to “plow in hope,” without looking back or letting yesterday hold tomorrow hostage.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Ensign, November 1994

Topics: Faith, Hope, Work

“Our faith in God must be strong, therefore, not only in behalf of ourselves and our own trials, but also upon seeing those human conditions involving human wickedness which are truly wrenching but which are permitted by God because of God-given but morally misused agency.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Agency, Trials

“Alas, in our age, some arrogantly believe that if they cannot comprehend something, then God cannot comprehend it either.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Nature of God, Wisdom

“Whether young or old, we need to be good friends, but also to pick our friends carefully. By choosing the Lord first, choosing one’s friends becomes easier and much safer. Consider the contrasting friendships in the city of Enoch compared to peers in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah! The citizens of the city of Enoch chose Jesus and a way of life, then became everlasting friends. So much depends on whom and what we seek first.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Friendship, Secularism (Worldliness), Wisdom

“How many specific things go undone because forgetfulness covers what a pencil and paper could have made into a prickly reminder?”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Deposition of a Disciple (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 33.

Topics: Goals, Remembrance

“In striving for ultimate submission, our wills constitute all we really have to give God anyway. The usual gifts and their derivatives we give to him could be stamped justifiably “Return to Sender,” with a capital S. Even when God receives this one gift in return, the fully faithful will receive “all that [He] hath.” (D&C 84:38) What an exchange rate!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Consecrate Thy Performance,” Ensign, May 2002, p. 36

Topics: Agency, Sacrifice

“We are so busy constantly checking our own temperatures, we fail to notice the burning fevers of others.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Happiness, Service

“What the secularists are increasingly demanding, in their disingenuous way, is that religious people, when they act politically, act only on secularist grounds. They are trying to equate acting on religion with establishing religion. And—I repeat—the consequence of such logic is really to establish secularism.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Peer Pressure, Remembrance, Secularism (Worldliness)

“The highest challenge we have in mortality is to use our free agency well, making right choices in the interplay of time and talents. Time is one of the blessings we are given. Generally speaking, it is we who let ourselves get fragmented too much. It is the result of not establishing (and then persisting in) certain priorities in our life. I am not denying the reality of the challenge you put, but neither do I think it is unmanageable.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Deposition of a Disciple, 68

Topics: Agency, Priorities, Spiritual Gifts

“We could not learn love in the abstract any more than we could learn patience and the other cardinal virtues. Just as we cannot know the “fellowship of his sufferings” without suffering, we also come to know real fellowship with our fellowmen only by serving them.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience

Topics: Service, Trials

“Christ’s Atonement, being the central act of human history, benefits super-sinners, sinners, and all of us makers of mistakes. Taking up the cross daily, rather than quarterly or semi-annually, helps us in the isometrics of discipleship.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Atonement, Discipleship

“. . . whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.” (C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p. 53) Hence it is so vital for us to be submissive because we’ll be puzzled when He gives us what we need in order to become more like Him and the Son, unless we are submissive in mind.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Insights from My Life,” Ensign, August 2000, p. 10

Topics: Discipleship

“Obedience is not evasion; it is an invasion – one that takes us deep into the realm of our possibilities.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Obedience

“From Gethsemane and Calvary there are many lessons we need to apply to our own lives. We, too, at times may wonder if we have been forgotten and forsaken. Hopefully, we will do as the Master did and acknowledge that God is still there and never doubt that sublime reality – even though we may wonder and might desire to avoid some of life’s experiences. We may at times, if we are not careful, try to pray away pain or what seems like an impending tragedy, but which is, in reality, an opportunity. We must do as Jesus did in that respect – also preface our prayers by saying, “If it be possible,” let the trial pass from us – by saying, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,” and bowing in a sense of serenity to our Father in heaven’s wisdom, because at times God will not be able to let us pass by a trial or a challenge. If we were allowed to bypass certain trials, everything that had gone on up to that moment in our lives would be wiped out. It is because he loves us that at times he will not intercede as we may wish him to. That, too, we learn from Gethsemane and from Calvary.

“It is interesting to me, brothers and sisters, to note that among the qualities of a saint is the capacity to develop patience and to cope with the things that life inflicts upon us. That capacity brings together two prime attributes – patience and endurance. These are qualities, in the process of giving service to mankind that most people reject or undervalue. Most people would gladly serve mankind if somehow they could get it over with once, preferably with applause and recognition. But, for the sake of righteousness, to endure, to be patient in the midst of affliction, in the midst of being misunderstood, and in the midst of suffering – that is sainthood!

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “But For a Small Moment,” BYU Fireside, September 1, 1974

Topics: Discipleship

“The Lord has said, ‘I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.’ (Isaiah 48:10, 1 Nephi 20:10). He knows, being omniscient, how we will cope with affliction beforehand. But we do not know this. We need, therefore, the refining that God gives to us, though we do not seek or crave such tribulation.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience (1980), 38

Topics: Perfection, Trials

Each of us comes to know his cross quite well. We know its configurations; we know its weight. We feel its rough edges. It would be so much easier for us to carry it if we could develop the faith which would permit us to cast our cares upon our Father in heaven, because he cares for us, as Peter reminds us. It would be so much easier to carry if we could do as Paul suggests and rid ourselves of the weights that we need not carry. We may think these are a part of carrying the cross when, in fact, they are a function of our own stupidity or our own sin. We can rid ourselves of these so that we may take up the cross and move swiftly and deliberately on to our journey.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Taking Up the Cross,” Fireside BYU, 4 Jan 1976

Topics: Sacrifice, Trials

“The more we become like Jesus, the more useful we are to Him.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Ensign, July 1993, p. 74

Topics: Becoming like God, Discipleship

“So it is that real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness,” Ensign,May 1995, 68.

Topics: Natural Man, Sacrifice

“We should not assume, however, that just because something is unexplainable by us, it is unexplainable.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Nature of God

“Brothers and sisters, the scriptures are like a developmental display window through which we can see gradual growth – along with this vital lesson: it is direction first, then velocity! Enoch’s unique people were improved “in process of time.” (Moses 7:21) Jesus “received not of the fulness at first, but received grace for grace” (D&C 93:12) and even He grew and “increased in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52).”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Not Withstanding My Weakness,” Ensign, November 1976

Topics: Growth, Patience, Perfection, Wisdom

“God is in the details of our lives. He knows us perfectly, just as Jesus knew the woman of Samaria whom He quizzed as to her belief in the Messiah. She said, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things” (John 4:25). And Jesus said, “I that speak unto thee am he” (John 4:26). She went back to her village all excited and said she’d found the Messiah, and then, significantly, she said to the villagers, “He told me all that ever I did” (John 4:39).

“God knows us perfectly. He loves us perfectly. His only begotten son, Jesus, has invited us to “come, follow me.” In a real and majestic sense, each of us has been called to serve in His holy discipleship. May we all renew our desires and efforts to do so.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Becoming a Disciple,” Ensign, June 1996

Topics: Discipleship

“Genuine discipleship also means that we are always on stage. Yes, there are private moments, but moving along the straight and narrow path is scarcely a solitary or an unobserved thing. Therefore, genuine meekness is required for enduring discipleship pursued or staged.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | "Becoming a Disciple"

Topics: Character, Discipleship

One cannot have adequate faith in a Christ whom he does not adequately know, “who is a stranger . . . far from the thoughts and intents of his heart.” (Mosiah 5:13) Instead, by laying aside “every weight” of the world and the sins which so “easily beset us,” by looking unto Jesus and by feasting upon His words, we will be able to move forward with intellectual and spiritual vigor. Otherwise, as Paul said, we can become wearied and faint in our minds. (See Heb. 12:1–3; see also 2 Ne. 31:20.) When we understand what was revealed to Adam – “[my] plan of salvation unto all men” (Moses 6:62) – then these doctrines are keenly relevant for tomorrow’s trial, Tuesday’s temptation, or next month’s surge of self-pity. After all, chastening, the trial of our faith, and patience are part of the plan. (See Mosiah 23:21.) . . .

If sought by faith (see Rom. 9:30–32), these doctrines of the radiant restoration enclose us in divine purpose during our sojourn in this “far country.” Like the prodigal son who “came to himself,” we thus receive needed perspective and direction as we also begin to “arise and go to [our] Father.” (See Luke 15:11–32.) . .

We will not be strangers in the City of God. We were there before, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy at the prospects of this stern but necessary mortal existence. (See Job 38:4–7.) . . .The trek will be proving and trying. Faith, patience, and obedience are essential (see Mosiah 23:21; Abr. 3:25), but he who completes the journey successfully will be immeasurably added upon. (See Abr. 3:26.) And he who does not will have subtracted from the sum of his possibilities. . . .

Doers, said Jesus, will know that these doctrines are of God. (See John 7:17.) Therefore, do not be surprised when nondoers scoff. Do not be surprised, either, if these doctrines unsettle some. Such was the case when the ancient Apostles filled Jerusalem with their doctrines. (See Acts 5:28.) And when Jesus focused His hearers on doctrines, “they were astonished at his doctrine.” (Matt. 22:33) The only cure for the doctrinal illiteracy of those who murmur will be to learn doctrine. (See Isa. 29:24)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Called and Prepared from the Foundation of the World,” General Conference, April 1986

Topics: Faith

“Jesus also exemplifies meekness and humility. Though ever supernal in His achievements, Christ always, always gave the glory to the Father whether in the first, second, or now in the third estate. He was and is Lord of the universe, who under the direction of the Father created “worlds without number” (Moses 1:33). Yet, He was willingly known as Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son. The Lord of the Universe. He always knew who He was! He meekly partook of history’s most bitter cup without becoming bitter…Can we, in turn, partake of our tiny, bitter cups without becoming bitter? What a wonderful way for us to witness, especially to those we love the most! Can we overcome our drives for status and preeminence or our mundane desires merely to be one up on other people?”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | BYU Women’s Conference 2002, May 3, 2002

Topics: Humility, Jesus Christ