The gross size of our talent inventories is less important than the net use of our talents? Neal A. Maxwell More Quotes by Neal A. Maxwell More Quotes From Neal A. Maxwell Those who turn against the Church do so to play to their own private gallery, but when, one day, the applause has died down and the cheering has stopped, they will face a smaller audience, the judgment bar of God. Neal A. Maxwell cheerchurchplay Mercy can purge the soul of sin, making room for a fresh start. Truth is vital in order that we have an unvarying standard by which to determine what we are to be and to do and what we are to rid ourselves of. All the cardinal virtues, therefore, carry their own intrinsic as well as outward reward. A merciful man does do good to his own soul. Neal A. Maxwell soulmenorder Unproductive worry - like Parkinson's proverbial law - tends to expand to fill the time available. Neal A. Maxwell lawworrytime I thank the Savior personally; for bearing all which I added to His hemorrhaging at every pore for all humanity in Gethsemane. I thank Him for bearing what I added to the decibels of His piercing soul cry atop Calvary. Neal A. Maxwell piercingssoulhumanity Those who believe for a while make only a brief tour in the kingdom, though thereafter they often feel qualified to inform those who know even less about the Church; but the fact is they were really only tourists - not natives who really knew the kingdom's countryside. Neal A. Maxwell touristschurchbelieve Some find it easier to bend their knees than their minds. Exciting exploration is preferred to plodding implementation; speculation seems more fun than consecration, and so is trying to soften the hard doctrines instead of submitting to them. Worse still, by not obeying, these . . . lack real knowing. Lacking real knowing, they cannot defend their faith and may become critics instead of defenders! Neal A. Maxwell realfaithfun Endurance involves much more than putting up with a situation; Patient Endurance is more than pacing up and down within the cell of circumstance. True Enduring represents not merely the passage of time, . . . but the Passage of Soul. Neal A. Maxwell endurancecellssoul Without gospel truths, man's efforts to reach his goals are like the northbound explorer who drove his dog sled feverishly northward on an ice pack that was flowing southward - only to find himself farther from his destination at the end of a hard day's journey than he had been at dawn! Neal A. Maxwell journeydogmen Defectors often cause more difficulty than disinterested disbelievers. Neal A. Maxwell difficultydisbelieverscauses One simply cannot come to a cause like the kingdom of God, with its celestial concepts, and not appreciate and identify with what Ammon said: "Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." Neal A. Maxwell appreciatecausesappreciation I thank the Father that His Only Begotten Son did not say in defiant protest at Calvary, "My body is my own!" I stand in admiration of women today who resist the "fashion of abortion, by refusing to make the sacred womb a tomb!" Neal A. Maxwell fashionfatherson The submissive will make it through to that final scene, for the word of God will lead the man and woman of Christ "in a straight and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery . . . and land their souls . . . at the right hand of God in the kingdom, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers" (Helaman 3:30) "who have been ever since the world began . . . to go no more out." Neal A. Maxwell menfatherhands I assume, gladly, that in the allocation to America of remarkable leaders like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, the Lord was just as careful. After all, if you've got only one Abraham Lincoln, you'd better put him in that point in history when he's most needed-much as some of us might like to have him now. Neal A. Maxwell leadershipmightamerica There is also the very real possibility that, in the justice of God, one of the reasons He uses the weak and the foolish of the world is so that no argument could be made later that certain people were advantaged in some unfair way by that which was unearned-either in the premortal life or here. Hence it seems prudent for us to realize that just because one is set apart or ordained to a certain calling or assignment he or she must not expect to be set apart from the stresses of life. There appear to be no immunities. Neal A. Maxwell justice-of-godstressreal Listen to these wounds of pain put in the form of questions to me by a young woman who had had two abortions: "I wonder about the spirits of those I had aborted, if they were there, if they were hurt? I was under three months each time, but a mother feels life before she feels movement." "I wonder if they are lost and alone?" "I wonder if they will ever have a body?" "I wonder if I will ever have a chance again to bring those spirits back as mine?" Alas, brothers and sisters, "wickedness never was happiness" (Alma 41:10). Neal A. Maxwell hurtmotherlife Those few members who desert the cause are abandoning an oasis to search for water in the desert. Neal A. Maxwell oasisdesertwater The good life is the best preparation for bad times. Neal A. Maxwell good-lifepreparationlife-is How can we truly understand who we are unless we know who we were and what we have the power to become? Neal A. Maxwell who-we-areknows Most of our suffering comes from sin and stupidity; it is, nevertheless, very real, and growth can occur with real repentance. But the highest source of suffering appears to be reserved for the innocent who undergo divine tutorial training. Neal A. Maxwell stupiditygrowthreal Satan delights to have us put ourselves down. Self-contempt is of Satan. There is no such thing in heaven. Neal A. Maxwell delightself-esteemheaven
