Bruce C. Hafen > Quotes

“We can have eternal life if we want it, but only if there is nothing else we want more. ”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“In the long run, our most deeply held desires will govern our choices, one by one and day by day, until our lives finally add up to what we have really wanted most--for good or otherwise. We can indeed have eternal life, if we really want it, so long as we don't want something else more.”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“The deep hurt is the mirror image of the deep joy that still awaits you.”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“While no other success of ours can compensate for our failures within or outside our homes, there is a success that can compensate when we cannot, after we conscientiously do all we can. That success is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which can mend what for us is beyond repair.”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“You must realize that the true desire to express affection can be motivated by things other than true love.... In short, one might simply say: save your kisses--you might need them someday. And when anyof you--men and women--are given entrance to the heart of a trusting young friend, you stand on holy ground. In such a place you must be honest with yourself--and with your friend--about love and the expression of it's symbols.”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“The Savior asks us to repent not just to repay him for paying our debt to justice, but also to induce us to undergo the personal development that will purify our very nature. The ‘natural man’ will remain an enemy to God forever—even after paying for his own sins—unless he also ‘becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.’ (Mosiah 3:19.)”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“…Between the poles of sin and adversity, lie such intermediate points as unwise choices and hasty judgments. In these cases, it may be unclear just how much personal fault we bear for the bitter fruits we may taste or cause others to taste. Bitterness may taste the same, whatever its source, and it can destroy our peace, break our hearts, and separate us from God. Could it be that the great ‘at-one-ment’ of Christ could put back together the broken parts and give beauty to the ashes of experience such as this? I believe that it does, because tasting the bitter in all its forms is a deliberate part of the great plan of life. This consequence of the Fall was not just a terrible mistake; rather, it gives mortality its profound meaning: ‘They taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good’ (Moses 6:55)”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“Looking back, Colleen and Neal have somewhat different perspectives. . . . She remembers she "was impressed that he seemed to have so much charisma. People were looking to him for answers and just had a great regard for him." Then Neal adds, "So much charisma [that] she turned me down when I first asked her for a date." Fortunately for both, he called again, and this time she said yes. . . .

Colleen found herself increasingly drawn to him. She found him "really cute and interesting," even if he did lack just a little social polish. He didn't care for dancing and didn't like small talk, both of which were more important to other people than they were to her. He "was so knowledgeable and such a good speaker, even though he did talk fast. But if you could listen fast you could learn a lot." As Neal came to know her better, he was impressed with her maturity, her sensitivity to other people, and the depth of her spiritual convictions. He began feeling a "spiritual impetus that this was a young woman out of the ordinary." . . .

Emma remembered, "Our first introduction to Colleen was when you came home one night and said, 'I've got to see more of that girl. She has some thinking under her hood.'" . . . "I knew I was not dealing with an eighteen-year-old co-ed who was so anxious to please me that I'd have my way when I shouldn't," he said. "We hadn't been married long before I knew I had a kind of Gibraltar--someone who would be tough and strong in the storms of life.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple's Life: The Biography of Neal A. Maxwell

“knowledge constrained by obedience to God and then fulfilled by the grace of God leads to meaning, sanctification, and eternal joy.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, Bruce C. Hafen on the Heart

“Properly understood, then, the scriptures counsel us to be virtuous not because romantic love is bad, but precisely because romantic love is so good. It is not only good; it is pure, precious, even sacred and holy.”
― Bruce C. Hafen

“the firmament. / And tho we ne’er may reach it, / we have tried / and in the trying / have learned, perchance / to make an orbit of our own.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, Faith Is Not Blind

“Young Neal also needed to work on his attitude toward sacrament meetings. He had come alive with his excitement for fresh gospel teachings, both as a missionary and from his discovery as a student that the gospel could illuminate so many other issues. With his engine running in such high gear, he sometimes found it frustrating, or perhaps a little boring, to sit through classes and meetings that fell short of what he thought the gospel really had to say. As a result, when a sacrament meeting seemed to drag a little, Neal, sitting in the congregation, would quietly pull out his scriptures and start reading about some topic that held his interest more.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple's Life

“Along with Neal's discoveries about secular and religious learning, his attitudes toward institutions including the Church also developed during his student years. His tendency toward what he called his "institutional chafing" had earlier made him impatient about the quality of classes and meetings in his home ward, about the United States military bureaucracy, about waiting for his bishop to approach him with a mission call, or about missionary teaching resources. Part of Neal's chafing came from his inborn impatience. "I thought, All right, Heavenly Father, if I've got to be more patient, let's get it over with right now.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple's Life