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Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Portrait of Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

AUTHOR PROFILE

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Neal A. Maxwell served as an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1981 until his death in 2004. He was known for careful language and for connecting discipleship to patience, humility, and trust in Jesus Christ. His talks and books give context to many of the quotes gathered below.

FEATURED QUOTE
“A good friend, who knows whereof he speaks, has observed of trials, ‘if it is fair, it is not a true trial.’ That is, without the added presence of some inexplicableness and some irony and injustice, the experience may not stretch or lift us sufficiently. The crucifixion of Christ was clearly the greatest injustice in human history, but the Savior bore up under it with majesty and indescribable valor.”
— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Biography at a glance

  • Born: July 6, 1926, in Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Died: July 21, 2004, in Salt Lake City
  • Church service: Assistant to the Twelve beginning in 1974; member of the Presidency of the Seventy; apostle beginning in 1981
  • Other work: University administrator, writer, and teacher
  • Recurring themes: Discipleship, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, prayer, and endurance

Education and public service

Maxwell’s path to Church leadership included military service, higher education, and work in university administration. His experience as a teacher and writer became part of the distinctive way he addressed Church audiences: closely reasoned ideas expressed in memorable language. The BYU Religious Studies Center’s account traces his early years and professional work.

Apostle and teacher

Maxwell became an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1974, served in the Seventy, and was called to the Twelve in 1981. His ministry repeatedly turned to the practical demands of following Christ: choosing faith, accepting correction, and serving others without seeking attention. The Church’s biographical timeline records the dates of his Church assignments, while BYU Speeches offers many of his addresses in fuller context.

Illness and enduring witness

After a leukemia diagnosis, Maxwell continued to teach and serve. His public reflections on suffering carried the weight of that experience, without reducing faith to a promise that trials would disappear. He died in 2004. The Church’s account of his life and service describes his later years and the breadth of his work.

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Sources and further reading

Quotes by Neal A. Maxwell

100 quotes

One’s life . . . cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free. . . . Therefore, 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!” . . .Real faith . . . is required to endure this necessary but painful developmental process.

“Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds,” Ensign, May 1991, pp. 88, 90

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“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.”

General Conference, April 2000

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“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.”

“Insights from My Life,” Ensign, August 2000, p. 9

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“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.”

“Jesus, the Perfect Mentor,” Ensign, February 2001, p. 8

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“Petitioning in prayer has taught me, again and again, that the vault of heaven with all its blessings is to be opened only by a combination lock. One tumbler falls when there is faith, a second when there is personal righteousness; the third and final tumbler falls only when what is sought is, in God’s judgment – not ours – right for us. Sometimes we pound on the vault door for something we want very much and wonder why the door does not open. We would be very spoiled children if that vault door opened any more easily than it does. I can tell, looking back, that God truly loves me by inventorying the petitions He has refused to grant me. Our rejected petitions tell us much about ourselves but also much about our flawless Father. By inventorying our insights, from time to time, it will surprise us what the Lord has done in teaching us. What we have learned in the past can help us to persist in the present. By tallying the truths and keeping such before us, we can also avoid lapsed literacy in spiritual things. If we will let Him, the Holy Ghost will bring all the important insights to our remembrance.”

“Insights,” New Era, April 1978, p. 6

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

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