Quotes from Neal A. Maxwell

There is also a dimension of patience which links it to a special reverence for life. Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance. Put another way, too much anxious opening of the oven door and the cake falls instead of rising. So it is with us. If we are always selfishly taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we will not be.

A patient willingness to defer dividends is a hallmark of individual maturity.

He is conscious of the past and present injustices, but he knows that real remedies are to be found in contemporary Christian compassion, and not in compensatory justice.

Letting off steam always produces more heat than light.

Though events set up the defining moments which can evoke profiles in righteousness, outward commotions cannot excuse any failure of inward resolve, even if some seem to unravel so easily.

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.

Giving up on God and on oneself constitutes simultaneous surrender to the natural man.

Faith in God includes faith in His timing.

To be cheerful when others are in despair, to keep the faith when others falter, to be true even when we feel forsaken—all of these are deeply desired outcomes during the deliberate, divine tutorials which God gives to us—because He loves us.

It takes faith, too, and obedience, to conquer selfishness, that unsubmissive characteristic which, if unchecked, produces profound personal melancholy and solitariness. Selfishness is a form of self-worship, and we have been told, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).

While weak hope leaves us at the mercy of our moods and events, 'brightness of hope' produces illuminated individuals. Their luminosity is seen, and things are also seen by it!

It follows, then, that you and I cannot really expect to glide through life, coolly air-conditioned, while 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 thine errand. Then let me come quickly and dwell with thee and fully share thy joy.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12:27.)

He did not let yesterday hold tomorrow hostage. There was a willingness on his part to forget. Forgetting facilitates the generosity that springs from Christlike charity.

believing in Jesus Christ brings out the individual tallents of men in a way that is not otherwise possible, ... I percieve that those who worship the Creator are exceedingly creative.

Humility is not the disavowal of our worth; rather, it is the sober realization of how much we are valued by God.

ours has been a time of relative affluence in which we have allowed full generations to be nurtured on the notion that, somehow, they are the center of the universe, and that meeting their needs should become the priority task of others - others who are expected to be very devoted. Some expect to receive - indeed, they demand - unilateral love.

Never have so many been schooled so much as to their rights while, at the same time, being taught that there are no behavioral wrongs. If we can but realize that Satan is selfishness at the end of its journey, then we can see where our selfish society is headed.

Perhaps our difficulties with receiving justified reproof stem from out thinking of love as being all sweetness. Love surely includes sweetness. But love must sometimes be tough love, sinew as well as sweetness. So it is with loving communication, also.

It is strange that when one is remodeling a portion of his house, he expects visitors to be tolerant of improvements that are so obviously underway. Ye while one is remodeling his character, we often feel obligated to call attention to the messy signs of remodeling, or feel called upon to remember aloud things as they were. Forgetting is such a necessary part of forgiving.

Speaking on not always understanding the counsel of God's prophets, nor finding it easy to take] ... even though it is true that there must be an "opposition in all things," none of us has the personal obligation to provide that opposition.

One may be stripped of accustomed luxury so that the malignant mole of materialism may be removed. One may be scorched by humiliation so that pride can be melted away. Whatever we lack will get attention, one way or another.

When we "pass by" others and "notice them not," a degree of deprivation occurs. (Mormon 8:39.)

One of the ways, therefore, we will be "proved herewith" is our determination as to whether or not we love others enough to give and to receive such vital communications. We may quickly say that communicating thusly with those close to us is difficult; indeed, it is, but with whom else is it really possible? Are not the people proximate to us our tiny portion of humanity, given to us by God as our social stewardship?