Quotable Quotes from Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie
Hi, before I go any further I'd like to thank Mitch Albom for writing this beautiful book, that has given me so much to think about. All quotes are from his book Tuesdays with Morrie, and I'm only quoting his writing out of the deepest respect and to share with others.
" 'Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left?' He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying. Instead, he would make death his final project, the centre point of his days" - P10
"He told his friends that if they really wanted to help him, they would treat him not with sympathy but with visits, phone calls, a sharing of their problems..." - P12
"I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I would not move quickly enough." - 15
"I told her - and myself - that we would one day start a family, something she wanted very much. But that day never came. Instead, I buried myself in accomplishments..." - P17
"Accept what you're able to do and what you're not able to do.
"Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it.
"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.
"Don't assume that it is too late to get involved." - P18
"His philosophy was that death should not be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose." - P21
"I decided I'm going to live - or at least try to live - the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humour, with composure." - P21
"I did what I had become best at doing: I tended to my work, even while my dying professor waited on his front lawn." - P27
"I seek my identity in toughness - but it is Morrie's softness that draws me, and because he does not look at me as a kid trying to be something more than I am, I relax." - P30
"I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never even realised I was doing it." - P33
"My days were full, yet I remained, much of the time, unsatisfied. What had happened to me?" - P34
"Well for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it. They're more unhappy than me - even in my current condition. I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that? - P35-36
"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even though you know you should never take anything for granted." - P40
"Love. Love always wins." - P40
"... while I spent so many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally: movie stars, super models, the latest noise out of Princess Di or Madonna or John F. Kennedy." - P42
"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to the community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." - P43
"I was stunned at how easily things went on without me." - P45
"Maybe, death is the great equaliser. The one thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another." - P51
"The most important thing in life is to give out love, and to let it come it." - P52
"Love is the only rational act" - P52
"I give myself a good cry when I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life." - P56
"Sometimes you cannot believe what you see. You have to believe what you feel. And if you're ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too - even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling." - P61
"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." - P82
"There is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family." - P90
"Without love, we are birds with broken wings." -P92
"There is no experience like having children. That's all. There is no substitute for it." - P93
"Detach yourself. Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent." - P103
"Take any emotion - love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions - if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them - you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.
"But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say,'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognise that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.' " - P103-104
"Human beings want(ing) to feel that they mattered." - P112
"When our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads - none of us ever got enough of that." - P116
"Aging is not decay, you know. It's growth." - P118
"Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more." - P118
"You have to find what is good and true and beautiful in your life right now." - P120
"You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship." - P125
"Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." - P128
"Love is how you stay alive, even after you're gone." - P133
"They don't know what they want in a partner. They don't even know who they are themselves - so how can they know who they are marrying?" - P148
"Friends are great, but friends are not going to be here on a night when you're coughing and can't sleep and someone has to sit up all night with you, comfort you, try to be helpful." - P148
"In marriage, you get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accomodate or don't." - P149
"In marriage, if you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble." - P149
"People are only mean when they are threatened. And that's what our culture does." - 154
"Don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long." - P162
"Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others." - P164
"The closer he got to the end, the more he saw it as a mere shell, a container for the soul." - P171
"As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on - in the hearts of everyone you touched and nurtured while you were here." - P174
"Death ends a life, not a relationship." - P174
"There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like." - P178
"Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own." - P178
"There is no such thing as 'too late' in life." - P190
" 'Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left?' He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying. Instead, he would make death his final project, the centre point of his days" - P10
"He told his friends that if they really wanted to help him, they would treat him not with sympathy but with visits, phone calls, a sharing of their problems..." - P12
"I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I would not move quickly enough." - 15
"I told her - and myself - that we would one day start a family, something she wanted very much. But that day never came. Instead, I buried myself in accomplishments..." - P17
"Accept what you're able to do and what you're not able to do.
"Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it.
"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.
"Don't assume that it is too late to get involved." - P18
"His philosophy was that death should not be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose." - P21
"I decided I'm going to live - or at least try to live - the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humour, with composure." - P21
"I did what I had become best at doing: I tended to my work, even while my dying professor waited on his front lawn." - P27
"I seek my identity in toughness - but it is Morrie's softness that draws me, and because he does not look at me as a kid trying to be something more than I am, I relax." - P30
"I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never even realised I was doing it." - P33
"My days were full, yet I remained, much of the time, unsatisfied. What had happened to me?" - P34
"Well for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it. They're more unhappy than me - even in my current condition. I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that? - P35-36
"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even though you know you should never take anything for granted." - P40
"Love. Love always wins." - P40
"... while I spent so many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally: movie stars, super models, the latest noise out of Princess Di or Madonna or John F. Kennedy." - P42
"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to the community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." - P43
"I was stunned at how easily things went on without me." - P45
"Maybe, death is the great equaliser. The one thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another." - P51
"The most important thing in life is to give out love, and to let it come it." - P52
"Love is the only rational act" - P52
"I give myself a good cry when I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life." - P56
"Sometimes you cannot believe what you see. You have to believe what you feel. And if you're ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too - even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling." - P61
"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." - P82
"There is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family." - P90
"Without love, we are birds with broken wings." -P92
"There is no experience like having children. That's all. There is no substitute for it." - P93
"Detach yourself. Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent." - P103
"Take any emotion - love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions - if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them - you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.
"But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say,'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognise that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.' " - P103-104
"Human beings want(ing) to feel that they mattered." - P112
"When our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads - none of us ever got enough of that." - P116
"Aging is not decay, you know. It's growth." - P118
"Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more." - P118
"You have to find what is good and true and beautiful in your life right now." - P120
"You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship." - P125
"Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." - P128
"Love is how you stay alive, even after you're gone." - P133
"They don't know what they want in a partner. They don't even know who they are themselves - so how can they know who they are marrying?" - P148
"Friends are great, but friends are not going to be here on a night when you're coughing and can't sleep and someone has to sit up all night with you, comfort you, try to be helpful." - P148
"In marriage, you get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accomodate or don't." - P149
"In marriage, if you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble." - P149
"People are only mean when they are threatened. And that's what our culture does." - 154
"Don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long." - P162
"Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others." - P164
"The closer he got to the end, the more he saw it as a mere shell, a container for the soul." - P171
"As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on - in the hearts of everyone you touched and nurtured while you were here." - P174
"Death ends a life, not a relationship." - P174
"There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like." - P178
"Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own." - P178
"There is no such thing as 'too late' in life." - P190
posted by ekkie at 12:23 am
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