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.

“In the physical eye, an astigmatism occurs when light fails to converge or focus on a single point. No wonder some, unfocused, are forever ‘looking beyond the mark.'”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Discipleship

“Perfect love is perfectly patient.”

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

Topics: Love, Patience

“To boast ‘I can handle it’ without any inner meekness is to set oneself up for failure. The adversary doubtless noses any superficial boasts by women and men alike. Because he was and is so perfectly meek and lowly, Jesus submitted his will to the Father’s will. For us, truly doing likewise may seem so out of reach, partly because we ironically insist on attaching hindering conditions to our submission. There is too much hesitance and holding back.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Failure, Humility

“One scientist, who probably doesn’t believe in divine design, nevertheless noted that ‘As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known we were coming.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Science

“Does all this mean that in letting go of the world, it will be easy to set priorities? No! It is often harder, for now we choose, not between task A, which is a tainted task, and B, which is good; but now we must allot time and talent between C, which is important and good, and D, which is good and important.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward, 19

Topics: Priorities, Time

“Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God’s purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Faith, Patience

“This is a gospel of great expectations, but God’s grace is sufficient for each of us if we remember that there are no instant Christians.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Christian, Conversion, Gospel, Grace, Patience

“Now may I speak . . . to those buffeted by false insecurity, who, though laboring devotedly in the Kingdom, have recurring feelings of falling forever short. . . This feeling of inadequacy is . . . normal. There is no way the Church can honestly describe where we must yet go and what we must yet do without creating a sense of immense distance. . . .This is a gospel of grand expectations, but God’s grace is sufficient for each of us.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | “Notwithstanding My Weakness,” Ensign, November 1976

Topics: Grace, Jesus Christ

“How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, ‘Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then, let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!’ ”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | "Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds," Ensign, May 1991, 88

Topics: Mortality, Trials

“The less love, the less service.”

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

Topics: Charity, Love, Service