Neal A. Maxwell Quotes

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

“I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He has accomplished and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His Friends”

“Faith in God includes Faith in God's timing.”

“Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity.”

“If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do.”

“In the economy of Heaven, God does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough, or a prophet if a priest can do the job.”

“God, as a loving Father, will stretch our souls at times. The soul is like a violin string: it makes music only when it is stretched…. God will tutor us by trying us because He loves us, not because of indifference!”

“The submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar. The many other things we 'give' are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us.”

“God's extraordinary work is most often done by ordinary people in the seeming obscurity of a home and family.”

“When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed”

“Truly we work and live on a streetful of splendid people, whom we are to love and serve even if they are uninterested in us!”

“No love is ever wasted. Its worth does not lie in reciprocity.”

“The acceptance of the reality that we are in the Lord's loving hands is only a recognition that we have never really been anywhere else.”

“Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus!”

“If, in the end, you have not chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.”

“Let us have integrity and not write checks with our tongues which our conduct cannot cash.”

“Never give up what you want most for what you want today.”

“We cannot improve the world if we are conformed to the world.”

“Coming unto the Lord is not a negotiation, but a surrender.”

“When we rejoice in beautiful scenery, great art, and great music, it is but the flexing of instincts acquired in another place and another time.”

“Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity.”

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

“We, more than others, should carry jumper and tow cables not only in our cars, but also in our hearts, by which means we can send the needed boost or charge of encouragement or the added momentum to mortal neighbors.”

“What we insistently desire, over time, is what we become.”

“Ultimate hope and daily grumpiness are not reconcilable.”

“Patience is… clearly not fatalistic, shoulder-shrugging resignation. It is the acceptance of a divine rhythm to life; it is obedience prolonged. Patience stoutly resists pulling up the daisies to see how the roots are doing.”

“Beware not to get caught up in the thick of thin things.”

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

“There are certain mortal moments and minutes that matter. Certain hingepoints in the history of each human. Some seconds are so decisive they shrink the soul, while others are spent, so as to stretch the soul.”

“Thus worshiping, serving, studying, praying, each in its own way squeezes selfishness out of us; pushes aside our preoccupations with the things of the world.”

“Being popular can become narcotic. We can come to crave it and to need the frequent ""fixes"" brought by the world’s praise and caresses of recognition. A turned head bows much less easily.
Popularity is dangerous especially because it focuses us on ourselves rather than keeping us attentive to the needs of others. We become preoccupied with self and with being noticed, letting those in real need ""pass by"" us, and we ""notice them not"".”

“Mostly, brothers and sisters, we become the victims of our own wrong desires. Moreover, we live in an age when many simply refuse to feel responsible for themselves. Thus, a crystal-clear understanding of the doctrines pertaining to desire is so vital because of the spreading effluent oozing out of so many unjustified excuses by so many. This is like a sludge which is sweeping society along toward "the gulf of misery and endless wo". Feeding that same flow is the selfish philosophy of "no fault," which is replacing the meek and apologetic "my fault." We listen with eager ear to hear genuine pleas for forgiveness instead of the ritualistic "Sorry. I hope I can forgive myself."”

“Indeed, one of the most cruel games anyone can play with self is the "not yet" game—hoping to sin just a bit more before ceasing; to enjoy the praise of the world a little longer before turning away from the applause; to win just once more in the wearying sweepstakes of materialism; to be chaste, but not yet; to be good neighbors, but not now. One can play upon the harp-strings of hesitations and reservations just so long, and then one faces that special moment—a moment when what has been sensed, mutely, suddenly finds voice and cries out with tears, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."”

“A few little flowers will spring up briefly in the dry gulley through which torrents of water pass occasionally. But it is steady streams that bring thick and needed crops. In the agriculture of the soul that has to do with nurturing attributes, flash floods are no substitute for regular irrigation.”

“I have on my office wall a wise and useful reminder by Anne Morrow Lindbergh concerning one of the realities of life. She wrote, "My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds." That's good counsel for us all, not as an excuse to forgo duty, but as a sage point about pace and the need for quality in relationships.”

“The good life is the best preparation for bad times.”