Morality

Morality

Only a schizoid society could sanction the delusion that there is a private morality apart from public morality. There are not "indoor" and "outdoor" sets of Ten Commandments! (Deposition of a Disciple, p. 21.)

Those committed to the keeping of the stern but sweet seventh commandment in a time of increasing immorality will need to be special. Average won't do now, anymore than average was adequate in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Ensign, February 1986, p. 19.)

Diminished moral cleanliness means diminished service to mankind, because uncleanliness dulls the tastebuds of the soul and renders us less sensitive to others, to the beauties of life, and to the promptings of the Spirit. (Ensign, February 1986, p. 19.)

Sexual immorality is not only wrong itself, but, as few things do, it nurtures the deadly virus of selfishness. (Ensign, February 1986, p. 19.)

If Jesus were only a man, albeit a very good man, His counsel is merely that of a meridian moralist. It is quite another thing, however, for the Creator of multiple worlds, whose central concern is our individual happiness, to command, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Our task, therefore, is to "reconcile [ourselves] to the will of God, and not to the will of … the flesh" (2 Ne. 10:24). (Ensign, May 1987, p. 70.)

Our commerce must be the commerce of Christ, for the morals of the marketplace matter and do find their way into families. (Of One Heart, p. 20.)

The old mountains of individual morality have been worn down. This erosion has left mankind in a sand-dune society, in a desert of disbelief, where there are no landmarks, no north, no east, no west, and no south. There is only the windblown dust of despair! (Deposition of a Disciple, p. 80.)

We spend billions for the rightful rehabilitation of victims of plagues, but only comparative pennies to preach prevention. Jeers even greet those who advocate healthy abstention from various self-destructive acts. (That Ye May Believe, p. 76.)

Moral uncertainty always leads to behavioral absurdity, and prescriptions that are value-free always prove finally to be so costly. Yet absurdity about immorality is achieving a certain momentum today. (Notwithstanding My Weakness, p. 91.)



(Cory H. Maxwell, ed., The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997], 216.)