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.

“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

“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

“Just as the Lord was able to summarize His priorities so succinctly that it is his ‘work and … glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ (Moses 1:39), so we, too, will need to be able to manage our time and talents in such a way that we, too, know our real priorities and focus on them. When we are settled in our hearts on that which really matters, then our talent and time as well as our treasure will be thus deployed!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | We Will Prove Them Herewith, 66–67

Topics: Priorities, Spiritual Gifts

“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

In the same vein, God’s second commandment, love thy neighbor, clearly leaves no room for racism.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell | "Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness”

Topics: Race & Racism

“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

Imperfect people are, in fact, called by our perfect Lord to assist in His work. The Lord declared to certain associates of Joseph Smith that He knew that they had observed Joseph’s minor imperfections. Even so, the Lord then testified that the revelations given through the Prophet were true! (See D&C 67:5, 9.)

Unsurprisingly, therefore, we do notice each other’s weaknesses. But we should not celebrate them. Let us be grateful for the small strides that we and others make, rather than rejoice in the shortfalls. And when mistakes occur, let them become instructive, not destructive.

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

Topics: Forgiveness, Joseph Smith

“…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

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

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Topics: Secularism (Worldliness), Sex