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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

“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…When we are impatient, we are neither reverential nor reflective because we are too self-centered. Whereas faith and patience are companions, so are selfishness and impatience. It is so easy to be confrontive without being informative; so easy to be indignant without being intelligent; so easy to be impulsive without being insightful. It is so easy to command others when we are not in control of ourselves.”

Patience, BYUDA 11/79

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Meanwhile, ultimate hope makes it possible to say the same three words used centuries ago by three valiant men. They knew God could rescue them from the fiery furnace, if He chose. “But if not,” they said, nevertheless, they would still serve Him! (Dan. 3:18) Unsurprisingly the triad of faith, hope, and charity, which brings us to Christ, has strong and converging linkage: faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, hope is in His atonement, and charity is the “pure love of Christ”! (See Ether 12:28; Moro. 7:47.) Each of these attributes qualifies us for the celestial kingdom (see Moro. 10:20–21; Ether 12:34). Each, first of all, requires us to be meek and lowly (see Moro. 7:39, 43). Faith and hope are constantly interactive, and may not always be precisely distinguished or sequenced. Though not perfect knowledge either, hope’s enlivened expectations are “with surety” true (Ether 12:4; see also Rom. 8:24; Heb. 11:1; Alma 32:21). In the geometry of restored theology, hope has a greater circumference than faith. If faith increases, the perimeter of hope stretches correspondingly. Just as doubt, despair, and desensitization go together, so do faith, hope, and charity. The latter, however, must be carefully and constantly nurtured, whereas despair, like dandelions, needs so little encouragement to sprout and spread. Despair comes so naturally to the natural man!

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Conference Report, October 1994

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“The doctrines of the Church and its authority are not just partially true, but true as measured by divine standards. The Church is not, therefore, conceptually compromised by having been made up from doctrinal debris left over from another age, nor is it comprised of mere fragments of the true faith. It is based upon the fulness of the gospel of him whose name it bears, thus passing the two tests for proving his church that were given by Jesus during his visit to the Nephites.”

Things As They Really Are

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“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.”

“Notwithstanding My Weakness,” Ensign, November 1976

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“Another great advantage of joy, contrasted with pleasure, is that joy overrides routine, which, otherwise, could make us bored. We don’t know, for instance, how many times Heavenly Father has been through the plan of salvation before with other of His children elsewhere before our particular sequence on this planet. God even hints at the repetitiveness of His redemption when He says, “[My] course is one eternal round” (see 1 Nephi 10:19; Alma 7:20; D&C 3:2). Yet God is never bored by what might seem mere routine. Why? Because of His perfect love for His children! What He calls “my work and my glory” brings abundant and pure joy! (see Moses 1:39).”

“Brim with Joy” (Alma 26:11), BYU Devotional, January 23, 1996

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“Jacob, in 2 Nephi 9:41, in speaking of the straight and narrow, reminds us that ‘the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel’ and that Jesus ‘employeth no servant there.’ The emphasis rightly is on the fact that Jesus ‘cannot be deceived.’ There is another dimension of reassurance, too: not only will the ultimate judgment not be delegated in order to serve the purposes of divine justice, but also divine mercy can best be applied by him who knows these things what only he can know.”

For the Power Is in Them (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970), 37.

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“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!”

We Will Prove Them Herewith, 66–67

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“When the time comes, young men, make your career choices. Know that whether one is a neurosurgeon, forest ranger, mechanic, farmer, or teacher is a matter of preference not of principle. While those career choices are clearly very important, these do not mark your real career path. Instead, brethren, you are sojourning sons of God who have been invited to take the path that leads home. There, morticians will find theirs is not the only occupation to become obsolete. But the capacity to work and work wisely will never become obsolete. And neither will the ability to learn. Meanwhile, my young brethren, I have not seen any perspiration-free shortcuts to the celestial kingdom; there is no easy escalator to take us there.”

“Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel”

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Future revelations, brothers and sisters, will include astounding events as well as great and important truths. So much so, that Moses’ and Israel’s exulting song after safely crossing the Red Sea (see Ex. 15) and the Prophet Joseph’s 1842 litany will gladly give way to the crescendo of glorious events associated with Christ’s coming in majesty and power. The valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman will ring again – this time with the sounds of dispensational reunion, as it glows with gathering (see Dan. 7:13-14; D&C 107:53-57; D&C 116:1)! Those of Enoch’s utterly unique city of “one heart” will greet those of the New Zion with holy embraces and holy kisses amid the sounds of sweet sobbing (see Moses 7:62–63)! The “hills shall tremble” at the presence of the lost tribes, and hearts, as well as ice, will melt, as they come “filled with songs of everlasting joy” (see D&C 133:26–33). And it will all occur at the direction of the “Redeemer of Israel, our only delight.” Hence, “as children of Zion, good tidings for us. . . . The hour of redemption is near” (Hymns, 1985, no. 6)

“God Will Yet Reveal,” Ensign, November 1986

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

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.

“A Brother Offended,” Ensign, May 1982, p. 37

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

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