Hugh Nibley was a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University and a prolific author of books and articles on Mormon scripture, culture, and history. He was a prominent defender of the faith and a popular speaker at BYU, where he taught for almost 50 years. He was a major influence in the modern study of the Book of Mormon and other ancient texts.
What is the most famous quote by Hugh Nibley ?
Only if you reach the boundary will the boundary recede before you. And if you don't, if you confine your efforts, the boundary will shrink to accommodate itself to your efforts. And you can only expand your capacities by working to the very limit.
— Hugh Nibley
What can you learn from Hugh Nibley (Life Lessons)
- Hugh Nibley taught that life is a journey, not a destination, and that we should take the time to enjoy the journey and learn from it.
- He also taught that we should strive to be better people and to serve others, as this will bring us greater joy and fulfillment.
- Finally, he believed that we should never stop learning and growing, as this is the key to a meaningful and fulfilling life.
The most stunning Hugh Nibley quotes to discover and learn by heart
Following is a list of the best quotes, including various Hugh Nibley inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Hugh Nibley.
True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but zeal often does.
If you pray for an angel to visit you, you know what he'll do if he comes.
He'll just quote the scriptures to you - so you know you're wasting your time waiting for what we already have. I'm quite serious about that.
Indolent and unworthy the beggar may be—but that is not your concern: It is better, said Joseph Smith, to feed ten impostors than to run the risk of turning away one honest petition.
And the issue is never the merits of the evidence but always the jealous rivalry of the contestants to see which would be the official light unto the world. Right down to the present day we have been the spectators of a foolish contest between equally vain and bigoted rivals.
The Book of Mormon is an inexhaustible encyclopedia of knowledge.
Knowledge can be heady stuff, but it easily leads to an excess of zeal! -- to illusions of grandeur and a desire to impress others and achieve eminence . . . Our search for knowledge should be ceaseless, which means that it is open-ended, never resting on laurels, degrees, or past achievements.
Beauty is whatever gives joy.
Work is, after all, not a busy running back and forth in established grooves, though that is the essence of our modern business and academic life, but the supreme energy and disciplined curiosity required to cut new grooves.
Mormon scholarship quotes by Hugh Nibley
It is throwing our life away, to think of the wrong things.
Well, I have a testimony, I may be ignorant, but I am not lost.
All scholarship, like all science, is an ongoing, open-ended discussion in which all conclusions are tentative forever, the principal value and charm of the game being the discovery of the totally unexpected.
In this crucible of wickedness the true greatness of Mormon shines like a star.
Things that appear unlikely, impossible, or paradoxical from one point of view often make perfectly good sense from another.
Wherever we look in the ancient world the past has been controlled, but nowhere more rigorously than in the history of the Christian church. The methods of control, wherever we find them, fall under three general heads which might be described as (a) the invention, (b) the destruction, and (c) the alteration of documents.
As knowledge increases, the verdict of yesterday must be reversed today, and in the long run the most positive authority is the least to be trusted.
Being self-taught is no disgrace; but being self-certified is another matter.
Quotations by Hugh Nibley that are lds apologetics and cultural analysis.
No matter where we begin, if we pursue knowledge diligently and honestly, our quest will inevitably lead us from the things of the earth to the things of heaven.
The tragedy of the Book of Mormon is not what became of the Nephites but what the Nephites became.
Nobody loves the rat race, but nobody can think of anything else—Satan has us just where he wants us.
The unique value of Christianity lies in those things which would never in a million years occur to men if left to themselves.
Why read the Book of Mormon? Because angels do not come on trivial errands.
The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances.
The very helplessness of the public which makes it necessary for them to consult the experts also makes it impossible for them to judge how expert they are.
Don't be like anybody else. Be different. Then you can make a contribution. Otherwise, you just echo something; you're just a reflection.
Competitiveness always rests on the assumption of a life-and-death struggle.
Why do people feel guilty about TV? What is wrong with it? Just this: it shuts out all the wonderful things of which the mind is capable, leaving it drugged in a state of thoughtless stupor.
Careerism is the determination to reign in hell rather than serve in heaven.
[Eve] sees through Satan's disquise of clever hypocrisy, identifies him, and exposes him for what he is...[ever since Satan has] had it in for women.
What on earth have a man's name, degree, academic position, and of all things, opinions, to do with whether a thing is true?
At UCLA I quickly learned the knack of getting grades, a craven surrender to custom, since grades had little to do with learning.
No matter what happens, it will, then, always remain secret: only I know exactly the weight and force of the covenants I have made -- I and the Lord with whom I have made them -- unless I choose to reveal them. If I do not, then they are secret and sacred no matter what others may say or do. Anyone who would reveal these things has not understood them, and therefore that person has not given them away. You cannot reveal what you do not know!
You can only expand your capacities by working to the very limit
Joseph Smith could not have picked a better year to start The Book of Mormon than 600 B.C.
Man's dominion is a call to service, not a license to to exterminate.
The gas-law of learning: . . . any amount of information no matter how small will fill any intellectual void no matter how large.
Every way of life produces its own environment and in turn is influenced by that environment.