Inspirational Quotes from Elder Neal A Maxwell

I have always enjoyed listening to talks and reading books by Elder Neal A. Maxwell. He definitely has a way with words. Some times I have to listen to them several times to get the meaning. The meanings are often deep inside the words. Here are a few to ponder:

"If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead."

"We cannot improve the world if we are conformed to the world."

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

Some facts about Neal A. Maxwell: He was born in 1926 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He served a full-time mission to Canada in 1945.

Maxwell was very educated. He earned his bachelors and masters degrees in political science from the University of Utah. He also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Utah, an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Westminster College, Salt Lake City, an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah and others.

He married Colleen Hinckley and they had four children. He was called to be a Regional Representative of the Twelve Apostles in 1967. He served as an Assistant to the Twelve Apostles from 1974 to 1976. He served in the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1976 to 1981 and was ordained an Apostle and sustained to the Twelve Apostles in 1981. He passed away in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2004.

Things As They Really Are, is a book written by Neal A Maxwell (July 6, 1926 – July 21, 2004) who was an apostle and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1981 until his death.

Here are some excerpts from his book.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

A highly developed capacity to love others will be essential equipment in the celestial kingdom.

Many adults in the midst of our unappreciated and unacknowledged divine blessings are like the fishes swimming in a bowl; heedless of who changes the water and who puts in the food pellets.

The fine young man who had lived well could not bring himself to sell all he had and to give to the poor; he traded a chance for discipleship for an inventory of perishables.

The masses feel it is easy to flee from reality when it is the most difficult thing in the world.

We must endure the contempt of others without reciprocating that contempt.

Whether or not we admit it, we are counting on God’s being a God, even if we fail to measure up as his sons and daughters.

Mankind is always struggling to make our home in the world; we have not yet succeeded. We are not at home in it, because we are not at home with the Lord of the house, the Father of the family, not one with our Elder Brother who is His right hand.

Scientists study and then praise the order of things in the universe marveling how it brought itself into being and ignoring the cause of it all who made the scientist’s little puddles of knowledge possible.

How quickly the devil moves in even where people have had special spiritual experiences, seeking to get people who have seen signs to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen.