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we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality--and, in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization.
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Mitch Albom |
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I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I could not move quickly enough.
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Mitch Albom |
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It's funny. I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes. "The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature," he said. "You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up."
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Mitch Albom |
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Giving makes me feel like I'm living.
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Mitch Albom |
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When Morrie was with you, he was really with you. He looked you straight in the eye, and he listened as if you were the only person in the world.
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Mitch Albom |
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You know how it is--you get used to something, people rely on you, one day you wake up and you can't tell Tuesday from Thursday. You're doing the same boring stuff, you're a 'ride man
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Mitch Albom |
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Ask yourself, 'Why did God create but one man?'" the Reb said, wagging a finger. "Why, if he meant for there to be faiths bickering with each other, didn't he create that from the start? He created trees, right? Not one tree, countless trees. Why not the same with man? "Because we are all from that one man--and all from that one God. That's the message."
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Mitch Albom |
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Accept the past as the past, without denying it or discarding it.
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Mitch Albom |
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Life is a series of back and forth...' 'So which side wins, I ask?' 'Love wins. Love always wins.
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Mitch Albom |
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Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Somethings hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle. Which side wins? Love wins. Love always wins.
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Mitch Albom |
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The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
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Mitch Albom |
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The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Love is the only rational act.
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Mitch Albom |
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Sarah Lemon: "It just felt like... the end." Dor: "Ends are for yesterdays, not tomorrows."
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live-on
inspirational-attitude
inspiring
live-life
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Mitch Albom |
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But today is not yesterday, and the Reb could do nothing but listen to the worst imaginable words--We couldn't save her--told to him by a doctor he had never met before that night. How could this happen? She had been perfectly normal earlier in the day, a playful child, her whole life before her. We couldn't save her? Where is the logic, the order of life?
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Mitch Albom |
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Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be an answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future." " What's that?" "Hope."
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live-on
look-forward-to-life
time
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Mitch Albom |
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The culture we have does not make people feel ood about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." -Morrie-"
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life
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Mitch Albom |
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Have I told you about the tension of opposites?" he says. The tension of opposites? "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 you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle."
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Mitch Albom |
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Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved
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Mitch Albom |
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The way I see it, that's what we're getting here, soldier. That's what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays."
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Mitch Albom |
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Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices.
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Mitch Albom |
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Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else.
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Mitch Albom |
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The lust for power is combustible thing
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Mitch Albom |
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Is this what comes at the end, I wondered? Maybe death is the great equaliser, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another.
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equaliser
empathy
shed
feel
tear
stranger
equal
end
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Mitch Albom |
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The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Let it come in. We think we don't deserve love, we think if we let it in we'll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, 'Love is the only rational act."
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enter
life
love
give
receive
rational
wise
soft
important
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Mitch Albom |
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Scenery without solace is meaningless
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Mitch Albom |
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Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?' " He turned his head to his shoulder as if the bird were there now."
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Mitch Albom |
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I wasn't there when you died." "That's not your fault." "I never said good-bye." "Such a needless word," she said, "when you love somebody."
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Mitch Albom |
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Hurting ourselves to inflict pain on others is just another cry to be loved
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Mitch Albom |
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Holding on things will only break your heart
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Mitch Albom |
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Some of these things I understand, some I do not. It makes no difference. The discussions give me an excuse to talk to him, fatherly conversations I cannot have with my father, who would like me to be a lawyer.
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fatherly
figure
own
discussion
other
difference
excuse
understand
talk
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Mitch Albom |
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Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.
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Mitch Albom |
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And slowly a discussion begins - as Morrie has wanted all along - about the effect of silence on human relations. Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?
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relation
silence
human
embarrass
effect
discuss
quiet
noise
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Mitch Albom |
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One afternoon, I am complaining about the confusion of my age, what is expected of me versus what I want for myself. "Have I told you about the tension of opposites?" he says. "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 when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tensio..
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pull
live
life
opposites
tension
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Mitch Albom |
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A wrestling match.. Yes, you could describe life that way." So which side wins, I ask? He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. "Love wins. Love always wins."
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tug-of-war
wrestle
live
life
love
win
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Mitch Albom |
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Sully did this now, finished unfinished sentence, believing that the words people do not speak are louder than the ones they do
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Mitch Albom |
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He draped himself in her sad memory, because it was the closest thing to having her around.
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Mitch Albom |
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Katherine would later reason that if anything were going to take away her beautiful, funny, precious older sister, it would be that her heart was so big, it exploded.
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Mitch Albom |
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But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.
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Mitch Albom |
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Once you learn how to die, you learn how to survive.
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Mitch Albom |
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Without love, we are birds with broken wings.
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Mitch Albom |
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Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? If so, then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back. What if you got it back?
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Mitch Albom |
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But I can sit here with my dwindling days and look at what I think is important in life. I have both the time - and the reason - to do that.
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ill
time
reason
life
important
think
end
dying
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Mitch Albom |
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Why is it so hard to think about dying? "Because," Morrie continued, "most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do." And facing death changes all that? "Oh, yes. You strip away all that stuff and you focus on the essentials. When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently."
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Mitch Albom |
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Mankind is connected in ways it does not understand--even in dreams. Just
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Mitch Albom |