Hugh Nibley

It is significant that in the oldest traditions and records of the human race all those men who turned against God and man are represented at the same time as making war against the animals, the birds, and the fishes, and destroying the forests and defiling he pure waters.

approaching zion, p. 13

The Lord alone knows who are the true church; he alone stands at the gate, “and he employeth no servant there (2 Nephi 9:41), as he takes each one by the hand and speaks each name.

approaching zion, p. 173

A list of the best books [see D&C 88:118] had not yet been supplied. We must find these ourselves by diligently searching. If the scriptures bind the worlds together, the writings of man bind together the generations and dispensations.

approaching zion, p. 296

These are books written by fools, and therefore they will help us. It is not just wisdom we are looking for, it is the experience that men have had, and we can find this in the record.

approaching zion, p. 297

The first rule of economics is that everyone should provide, as far as possible, for himself. The second, which receives vastly more attention in the scriptures, is that man’s wants are few. “Having food and raiment,” says Paul, “let us be therewith content” (1 Timothy 6:8). “If we have our hundreds or thousands,” says Brother Brigham, “we may foster the idea that we have nothing more than we need; but such a notion is entirely erroneous, for our real wants are very limited. What do we absolutely need? I possess everything on the face of the earth that I need, as I appear before you on this stand.” With our real wants thus modest, there is plenty on earth for everyone, “for the earth is full and there is enough and to spare” (D&C 104:17), and no excuse whatever for competitive grabbing—“wherefore the world lieth in sin” (D&C 49:20). To take more than we need is to take what does not belong to us.

approaching zion, p. 49

A community which can at tolerable expense eliminate human distress but refrains from doing so either must believe that it benefits from unemployment or poverty, or that the poor and unemployed are bad people, or that other more important values will be impaired by attempts to help the lower orders—or all of these statements.

approaching zion, p. 515

Our gifts and talents are to be put at the disposal of the human race, not used to put the race at our disposal.

approaching zion, p. 52

The test for this life is not for knowledge; it is not for intelligence, or for courage, or for anything like that. That would be a huge joke. None of us knows very much, none of is very brake, none of us is very strong, non of us is very smart. We would flunk those tests terribly. As Alma said, we are only to be tested on one thing—the desires of our heart (Alma 41:3); that is what we are really after.

approaching zion

Leaders are movers and shakers, original, inventive, unpredictable, imaginative, full of surprises that discomfit the enemy in war and the main office in peace. For the managers are safe, conservative, predictable, conforming organizational men and team players, dedicated to the establishment. The leader, for example, has a passion for equality. We think of great generals from David and Alexander on down, sharing their beans or maza with their men, calling them by their first names, marching along with them in the heat, sleeping on the ground, and being first over the wall?. For the manger, on the other hand, the idea of equality is repugnant and indeed counter-productive. Where promotion, perks, privilege, and power are the name of the game, awe and reverence for rank is everything, the inspiration and motivation of all good men. Where would management be without the inflexible paper processing, dress standards, attention to proper social, political, and religious affiliation, vigilant watch over habits and attitude, etc., that gratify the stock-holders and satisfy Security?

leaders to managers the fatal shift

[T]he rise of management always marks the decline, alas, of culture. If the management does not go for Bach, very well, there will be no Bach in the meeting. If management favors vile sentimental doggerel verse extolling the qualities that make for success, young people everywhere will be spouting long trade—journal jingles from the stand. If the management’s taste in art is what will sell—trite, insipid, folksy kitsch—that is what the public will get. If management must reflect the corporate image in tasteless, trendy new buildings, down come the find old pioneer monuments.

leaders to managers the fatal shift

“Condescending” means settling for inferior goods to avoid effort and tension. Brigham hated that: “The diffidence or timidity we must dispense with. When it becomes our duty to talk, we ought to be willing to talk. Interchanging our ideas and exhibiting that which we believe and understand affords an opportunity for detecting and correcting errors”—the expanding mind must be openly and frankly critical, come hell or High Council; without that we get ``too much of a sameness in this community—“I am not a stereotyped Latter-day Saint, and do not believe in the doctrine. Are we going to stand still? Away with stereotyped ‘Mormons’!”

nibley on the timely and the timeless, p. 245

Sin is waste. It is doing one thing when you should be doing other and better things for which you have the capacity.

nibley on the timely and the timeless, p. 264

True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but zeal often does.

nibley on the timely and the timeless, p. 268

We think it more commendable to get up at 5:00 A.M. to write a bad book than to get up at nine o’ clock to write a good one—that is pure zeal that tends to breed a race of insufferable, self-righteous prigs and barren minds. One has only to consider the present outpouring of “inspirational” books in the Church which bring little new in the way of knowledge: truisms, and platitudes, kitsch, and cliches have become our everyday diet.

nibley on the timely and the timeless, p. 271

God did not hold it against these men [Abraham, Ezra, Enoch] that they questioned him, but loved them for it: it was because they were the friends of men, even at what they thought was the terrible risk of offending him, that they became friends of God.

nibley on the timely and the timeless, p. 283

God is willing to discuss things with men as an equal: “In their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.” (D&C 1:24.) Note that God, far from demanding blind obedience, wants us to understand his commandments. A discussion with God is not a case of agreeing or disagreeing with him—who is in a position to do that?—but of understanding him. What Abraham and Ezra and Enoch asked was, “Why?” Socrates showed that teaching is a dialogue—a discussion. As long as the learner is in the dark he should protest and argue and question, for that is the best way to bring problems into focus, while the teacher patiently and cheerfully explains, delighted that his pupil has enough interest and understanding to raise questions—the more passionate the more promising. There is a place for discussion and participation in the government of the kingdom; it is men who love absolute monarchies, it was the Israelites, the Jaredites, the Nephites, who asked God to give them a king, overriding the objections of his prophets who warned them against the step.

nibley on the timely and the timeless, p. 284