Morrie Schwartz
After you have wept and grieved for your physical losses, cherish the functions and the life you have left.Collection: Sympathy
Everything that gets born dies.Collection: Death
Dying is only one thing to be sad over... Living unhappily is something else.Collection: Sad
Grieve and mourn for yourself not once or twice, but again and again.Collection: Sympathy
The little things, I can obey. But the big things - how we think, what we value - those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone - or any society - determine those for you.Collection: Society
Learn how to live and you'll know how to die; learn how to die, and you'll know how to live.
It's not too late to develop new friendships or reconnect with people.
The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.
We have a sense that we should be like the mythical cowboy... able to take on and conquer anything and live in the world without the need for other people.
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things.
It's not to late to... ask yourself if you really are the person you want to be, and if not, who you do want to be.
This is how you start to get respect: by offering something that you have.
The best way to deal with that is to live in a fully conscious, compassionate, loving way. Don't wait until you're on your deathbed to recognize that this is the only way to live.
We're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going.
I'd always been interested in psychology.
What tipped the scales was that psychology involved working with rats.
When you look at it that way, you can see how absurd it is that we individualize ourselves with our fences and hoarded possessions.
One hundred and ten years from now no one who is here now will be alive.
Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel.Collection: Motivational
Keep your heart open for as long as you can, as wide as you can, for others and especially for yourself.Collection: Heart
Do the kind 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 overhelmed with what comes backCollection: Heart
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 have touched and nurtured while you were hereCollection: Memories
You don't understand. You're not a wave. You're part of the ocean.Collection: Ocean
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.Collection: Inspirational
Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.Collection: Forgiving
Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much a better place.Collection: Responsibility
Although you may be old or sick, it's not too late to take stock and ask yourself if you really are the person you want to be, and if not, who you do want to be.Collection: Want
Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it.Collection: Believe
Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?Collection: Needs
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.Collection: Caring
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. In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Maybe you’re too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.Collection: Party
We've got a form of brainwashing going on in our country…. Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. MORE IS GOOD. MORE IS GOOD. We repeat it--and have it repeated to us--over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.Collection: Country
I believe in being fully present. That means you should be with the person you’re with.Collection: Believe
People are only mean when they're threatened… and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.Collection: Jobs
In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive. And at the end of life, we need others to survive. But here's the secret, in between, we need others as well.Collection: Secret
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.Collection: Wise
Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one anotherCollection: Tuesdays With Morrie
Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left?Collection: Disappear
What's wrong with being number two?Collection: Two
Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did we would do things differently. Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, "Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?Collection: Buddhist
The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family.Collection: People
Are you trying to be as human as you can be?Collection: Trying
Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are 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.Collection: Trust
All younger people should know something. If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.Collection: People
What is it about silence that makes people uneasy?Collection: People
If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.Collection: Culture
Build a little community of those you love and who love youCollection: Love You
All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I'm going to experience them as well.Collection: Lonely
We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives.Collection: Disillusioned