Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
c56a0a9	Have you found someone to share your heart with?" he asked. "Are you giving to your community? "Are you at peace with yourself? "Are you trying to be as human as you can be?"		Mitch Albom
638ebce	meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.		Mitch Albom
49d4e9b	That was the end of his driving.. That was the end of his walking free.. That was the end of his privacy.. And that was the end of his secret.	change disease end ill life normal terminal	Mitch Albom
36be36a	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.	disease ill left terminal thoughts time	Mitch Albom
75f14e2	Holding him like that moved me in a way I cannot describe, except to say I felt the seeds of death inside his shrivelling frame, and as I laid him in his chair, adjusting his head on the pillows, I had the coldest realisation that our time was running out.	death dying hold ill move realise run-out time	Mitch Albom
294d6e2	Nurses came to his house to work with Morrie's withering legs.. bending them back and forth as if pumping water from a well.. He met with meditation teachers, and closed his eyes and narrowed his thoughts until his world shrunk down to a single breath, in and out, in and out.	exercise mediate prolong thoughts	Mitch Albom
4f4c7bb	How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then		Mitch Albom
5595150	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 - the way they had always.. because Morrie had always been a wonderful listener.	help life listen share sympathy	Mitch Albom
9fcbed2	If some mystical clarity of thought came when you looked death in the eye, then I knew Morrie wanted to share it. And I wanted to remember it for as long as I could.	death dying ill memory remember share thought time	Mitch Albom
729b85a	Mitch," he said, "the culture doesn't encourage you to think about such things until you're about to die. We're so wrapped up in egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks - we're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want?..	die ego encourage life missing reflect think	Mitch Albom
ad9643d	I buried myself in accomplishments, because with accomplishments, I believed I could control things, I could squeeze in every last piece of happiness before I got sick and died.. which I figured was my natural fate.	achieve control death fate happy life perspective thought	Mitch Albom
a6432b3	I thought about him now and then, the things he had taught me about 'being human' and 'relating to others;, but it was always in the distance, as if from another life.. .. The people who might have told me were long forgotten, their phone numbers buried in some packed-away box in the attic.	busy forget life remember taught work	Mitch Albom
141b86c	I remembered what Morrie said during our visit: "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."		Mitch Albom
681cf11	I seemed to slip in a time warp when I visited Morrie, and I liked myself better when I was there.	like self time-warp visit	Mitch Albom
cbced9a	I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life. On the people who are coming to see me. On the stories I'm going to hear. On you - if it's Tuesday. Because we're Tuesday people.	cry dying good life need people self story tuesday	Mitch Albom
8ca0c80	It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses		Mitch Albom
d3493a2	someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed. "You say you should have"		Mitch Albom
97076ea	Dying," Morris suddenly said, "is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappily is something else."		Mitch Albom
ea94c4b	ALS is like a lit candle: it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax.. you cannot support yourself standing.. you cannot sit up straight. By the end, if you are still alive.. your soul, perfectly awake, is imprisoned inside a limp husk.. like something from a science fiction movie, the man frozen inside his own flesh.	candle disease ill nerves soul terminal	Mitch Albom
64bf831	What a waste.. All those people saying all those wonderful things, and Irv never got to hear any of it.	death funeral life tribute	Mitch Albom
f0a3326	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.		Mitch Albom
8d66278	Well, I have to look at life uniquely now. Let's face it. I can't go shopping, I can't take care of the bank accounts, I can't take out the garbage. 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." So, I said, in a reflexively cynical response, I guess the key to finding the meaning of life is to stop taking out the garbage?"		Mitch Albom
4d664e0	The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family. It's become quite clear to me as I've been sick. If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. Love is so supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, 'Love each other or perish.'		Mitch Albom
39275d2	And on a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined in his home by a small group of friends and family for a 'living funeral'. Each of them spoke and paid tribute.. Some cried. Some laughed. One woman read a poem: 'My dear and loving cousin.. Your ageless heart as you ,love through time, layer on layer, tender sequoia..' .. And all the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day.	death funeral life living living-funeral tribute	Mitch Albom
ca67019	The years after graduation hardened me into someone quite different from the strutting graduate.. headed for New York City, ready to offer the world his talent. The world, I discovered, was not all that interested. I wandered around my early twenties, paying rent and reading classifieds and wondering why the lights were not turning green for me.	fresh graduate life struggle world young	Mitch Albom
f096cff	A wrestling match." He laughs. "Yes, you could describe life that way." So which side wins, I ask? " Which side wins?" He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. "Love wins. Love always wins."		Mitch Albom
86f2213	After the funeral, my life changed. I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I could not move quickly enough. No more playing music at half-empty night clubs. No more writing songs in my apartment, songs that no one would hear.	funeral life perspective precious time urgency	Mitch Albom
23d8367	I was cranked to a fifth gear, and everything I did, I did on a deadline.	fast life pace work workaholic	Mitch Albom
fcab2ca	The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience. The teaching goes on.		Mitch Albom
cbbf16d	Had it not been for "Nightline," Morrie would have died without ever seeing me again. I had no good excuse for this, except the one that everyone these days seems to have. I had become too wrapped up in the siren song of my life. I was busy."	death excuse friend ill life workaholic	Mitch Albom
4b37f8f	He had refused fancy clothes or makeup for this interview. His philosophy was that death should to be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose.	embarrass ill makeup perspective point-of-view	Mitch Albom
3f0b8de	The eighties happened. The nineties happened. Death and sickness and getting fat and going bald happened. I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never even realized I was doing it. Yet here was Morrie talking with the wonder of our college years, as if I'd simply been on a long vacation. "Have you found someone to share your heart with?" he asked. "Are you giving to your community? "Are you at peace with yourself? "Are you try..		Mitch Albom
c6cb9a8	Morrie's doctors guessed he had two years left. Morrie knew it was less. But my old professor had made a profound decision, one he began to construct the day he came out of the doctor's office with a sword hanging over his head. Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left? he had asked himself. He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying. Instead, he would make death his final project, the center point of h..		Mitch Albom
0668802	The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves.	last shed time window	Mitch Albom
d173a05	Then he commandeered the floor, shooting back and forth like some hot Latin lover. When he finished, everyone applauded. He could have stayed in that moment forever.	dance emotion forever love moment	Mitch Albom
7c4079d	Morrie had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Lou Gehrig's disease, a brutal, unforgiving illness of the neurological system. There was no known cure.	cure ill nerves sick terminal	Mitch Albom
029a897	A human textbook. Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what happens to me. Learn with me. Morrie would walk that final bridge between life and death, and narrate the trip.	final learn life watch	Mitch Albom
1310446	Having more does not keep you from wanting more. And if you always want more--to be richer, more beautiful, more well known--you are missing the bigger picture, and I can tell you from experience, happiness will never come.		Mitch Albom
352fd44	There are some mornings when I cry and cry and mourn for myself. Some mornings, I'm so angry and bitter. But it doesn't last too long. Then I get up and say, 'I want to live..' 'So far, I've been able to do it. Will I be able to continue? I don't know. But I'm betting on myself I will.' Koppel seemed extremely taken with Morrie. He asked about the humility that death induced.	bitter choice cry death decision humility life live mourn	Mitch Albom
a6f445f	When you are born, you cried while the world rejoiced.Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice.		Mitch Albom
0788f8e	Do you prefer Mitch? Or is Mitchell better?'.. .. Mitch, I say. Mitch is what my friends called me. 'Well, Mitch it is then,' Morrie says, as if closing a deal. 'And, Mitch?' Yes? 'I hope one day you will think of me as your friend.	hope introduction name nickname professor student	Mitch Albom
b40fb47	heaven is always and forever around us and no soul remembered is ever really gone.		Mitch Albom
fede91b	And on a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined in his home by a small group of friends and family for a 'living funeral'. Each of them spoke and paid tribute.. Some cried. Some laughed. One woman read a poem: 'My dear and loving cousin.. Your ageless heart as you move through time, layer on layer, tender sequoia..' .. And all the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day.	celebrate death life living-funeral love share	Mitch Albom
d00b666	I drive a beat-up Mercury Cougar, with the windows down and the music up. I seek my identity in toughness - but it is Morrie's softness that draws me, and because he doesn't look at me as a kid trying to be something more than I am, I relax.	close identity image kid music soft tough windows	Mitch Albom

c56a0a9

Have you found someone to share your heart with?" he asked. "Are you giving to your community? "Are you at peace with yourself? "Are you trying to be as human as you can be?"

Mitch Albom

638ebce

meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Mitch Albom

49d4e9b

That was the end of his driving.. That was the end of his walking free.. That was the end of his privacy.. And that was the end of his secret.

change disease end ill life normal terminal

Mitch Albom

36be36a

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.

disease ill left terminal thoughts time

Mitch Albom

75f14e2

Holding him like that moved me in a way I cannot describe, except to say I felt the seeds of death inside his shrivelling frame, and as I laid him in his chair, adjusting his head on the pillows, I had the coldest realisation that our time was running out.

death dying hold ill move realise run-out time

Mitch Albom

294d6e2

Nurses came to his house to work with Morrie's withering legs.. bending them back and forth as if pumping water from a well.. He met with meditation teachers, and closed his eyes and narrowed his thoughts until his world shrunk down to a single breath, in and out, in and out.

exercise mediate prolong thoughts

Mitch Albom

4f4c7bb

How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then

Mitch Albom

5595150

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 - the way they had always.. because Morrie had always been a wonderful listener.

help life listen share sympathy

Mitch Albom

9fcbed2

If some mystical clarity of thought came when you looked death in the eye, then I knew Morrie wanted to share it. And I wanted to remember it for as long as I could.

death dying ill memory remember share thought time

Mitch Albom

729b85a

Mitch," he said, "the culture doesn't encourage you to think about such things until you're about to die. We're so wrapped up in egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks - we're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want?..

die ego encourage life missing reflect think

Mitch Albom

ad9643d

I buried myself in accomplishments, because with accomplishments, I believed I could control things, I could squeeze in every last piece of happiness before I got sick and died.. which I figured was my natural fate.

achieve control death fate happy life perspective thought

Mitch Albom

a6432b3

I thought about him now and then, the things he had taught me about 'being human' and 'relating to others;, but it was always in the distance, as if from another life.. .. The people who might have told me were long forgotten, their phone numbers buried in some packed-away box in the attic.

busy forget life remember taught work

Mitch Albom

141b86c

I remembered what Morrie said during our visit: "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."

Mitch Albom

681cf11

I seemed to slip in a time warp when I visited Morrie, and I liked myself better when I was there.

like self time-warp visit

Mitch Albom

cbced9a

I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life. On the people who are coming to see me. On the stories I'm going to hear. On you - if it's Tuesday. Because we're Tuesday people.

cry dying good life need people self story tuesday

Mitch Albom

8ca0c80

It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses

Mitch Albom

d3493a2

someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed. "You say you should have"

Mitch Albom

97076ea

Dying," Morris suddenly said, "is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappily is something else."

Mitch Albom

ea94c4b

ALS is like a lit candle: it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax.. you cannot support yourself standing.. you cannot sit up straight. By the end, if you are still alive.. your soul, perfectly awake, is imprisoned inside a limp husk.. like something from a science fiction movie, the man frozen inside his own flesh.

candle disease ill nerves soul terminal

Mitch Albom

64bf831

What a waste.. All those people saying all those wonderful things, and Irv never got to hear any of it.

death funeral life tribute

Mitch Albom

f0a3326

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.

Mitch Albom

8d66278

Well, I have to look at life uniquely now. Let's face it. I can't go shopping, I can't take care of the bank accounts, I can't take out the garbage. 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." So, I said, in a reflexively cynical response, I guess the key to finding the meaning of life is to stop taking out the garbage?"

Mitch Albom

4d664e0

The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family. It's become quite clear to me as I've been sick. If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. Love is so supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, 'Love each other or perish.'

Mitch Albom

39275d2

And on a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined in his home by a small group of friends and family for a 'living funeral'. Each of them spoke and paid tribute.. Some cried. Some laughed. One woman read a poem: 'My dear and loving cousin.. Your ageless heart as you ,love through time, layer on layer, tender sequoia..' .. And all the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day.

death funeral life living living-funeral tribute

Mitch Albom

ca67019

The years after graduation hardened me into someone quite different from the strutting graduate.. headed for New York City, ready to offer the world his talent. The world, I discovered, was not all that interested. I wandered around my early twenties, paying rent and reading classifieds and wondering why the lights were not turning green for me.

fresh graduate life struggle world young

Mitch Albom

f096cff

A wrestling match." He laughs. "Yes, you could describe life that way." So which side wins, I ask? " Which side wins?" He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. "Love wins. Love always wins."

Mitch Albom

86f2213

After the funeral, my life changed. I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I could not move quickly enough. No more playing music at half-empty night clubs. No more writing songs in my apartment, songs that no one would hear.

funeral life perspective precious time urgency

Mitch Albom

23d8367

I was cranked to a fifth gear, and everything I did, I did on a deadline.

fast life pace work workaholic

Mitch Albom

fcab2ca

The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience. The teaching goes on.

Mitch Albom

cbbf16d

Had it not been for "Nightline," Morrie would have died without ever seeing me again. I had no good excuse for this, except the one that everyone these days seems to have. I had become too wrapped up in the siren song of my life. I was busy."

death excuse friend ill life workaholic

Mitch Albom

4b37f8f

He had refused fancy clothes or makeup for this interview. His philosophy was that death should to be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose.

embarrass ill makeup perspective point-of-view

Mitch Albom

3f0b8de

The eighties happened. The nineties happened. Death and sickness and getting fat and going bald happened. I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never even realized I was doing it. Yet here was Morrie talking with the wonder of our college years, as if I'd simply been on a long vacation. "Have you found someone to share your heart with?" he asked. "Are you giving to your community? "Are you at peace with yourself? "Are you try..

Mitch Albom

c6cb9a8

Morrie's doctors guessed he had two years left. Morrie knew it was less. But my old professor had made a profound decision, one he began to construct the day he came out of the doctor's office with a sword hanging over his head. Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left? he had asked himself. He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying. Instead, he would make death his final project, the center point of h..

Mitch Albom

0668802

The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves.

last shed time window

Mitch Albom

d173a05

Then he commandeered the floor, shooting back and forth like some hot Latin lover. When he finished, everyone applauded. He could have stayed in that moment forever.

dance emotion forever love moment

Mitch Albom

7c4079d

Morrie had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Lou Gehrig's disease, a brutal, unforgiving illness of the neurological system. There was no known cure.

cure ill nerves sick terminal

Mitch Albom

029a897

A human textbook. Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what happens to me. Learn with me. Morrie would walk that final bridge between life and death, and narrate the trip.

final learn life watch

Mitch Albom

1310446

Having more does not keep you from wanting more. And if you always want more--to be richer, more beautiful, more well known--you are missing the bigger picture, and I can tell you from experience, happiness will never come.

Mitch Albom

352fd44

There are some mornings when I cry and cry and mourn for myself. Some mornings, I'm so angry and bitter. But it doesn't last too long. Then I get up and say, 'I want to live..' 'So far, I've been able to do it. Will I be able to continue? I don't know. But I'm betting on myself I will.' Koppel seemed extremely taken with Morrie. He asked about the humility that death induced.

bitter choice cry death decision humility life live mourn

Mitch Albom

a6f445f

When you are born, you cried while the world rejoiced.Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice.

Mitch Albom

0788f8e

Do you prefer Mitch? Or is Mitchell better?'.. .. Mitch, I say. Mitch is what my friends called me. 'Well, Mitch it is then,' Morrie says, as if closing a deal. 'And, Mitch?' Yes? 'I hope one day you will think of me as your friend.

hope introduction name nickname professor student

Mitch Albom

b40fb47

heaven is always and forever around us and no soul remembered is ever really gone.

Mitch Albom

fede91b

And on a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined in his home by a small group of friends and family for a 'living funeral'. Each of them spoke and paid tribute.. Some cried. Some laughed. One woman read a poem: 'My dear and loving cousin.. Your ageless heart as you move through time, layer on layer, tender sequoia..' .. And all the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day.

celebrate death life living-funeral love share

Mitch Albom

d00b666

I drive a beat-up Mercury Cougar, with the windows down and the music up. I seek my identity in toughness - but it is Morrie's softness that draws me, and because he doesn't look at me as a kid trying to be something more than I am, I relax.

close identity image kid music soft tough windows

Mitch Albom