“It’s horrible to watch my body slowly wilt away to nothing. But it’s also wonderful because of all the time I get to say good-bye. Not everyone is so lucky.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 57)
“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.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 57)
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. 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.'”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 52)
“Now that I’m suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims… and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don’t know any of these people. But—how can I put this?—I’m almost… drawn to them.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 50)
“It is a mistake to think that there are times when you can safely address a person without love. You can work with objects without love—cutting wood, baking bricks, making iron—but you cannot work with people without love. In the same way as you cannot work with bees without being cautious, you cannot work with people without being mindful of their humanity. It is the quality of people as it is of bees: if you are not very cautious with them, then you harm both yourself and them. It cannot be otherwise, because mutual love is the major law of our existence.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 124)
“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. The way you get 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.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 43)
“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.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 42)
“The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated: in the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. It is up to you to set your own price. Ask for less and that is just what you will get. Ask for more, however, and you send a signal that you are worth a king’s ransom. Even those who turn you down respect you for your confidence, and that respect will eventually pay off in ways you cannot imagine.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 142)
“He had refused fancy clothes or makeup for this interview. His philosophy was that death should not be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose.”
Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 21)
“He was intent on proving that the word ‘dying’ was not synonymous with ‘useless.'”
Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 12)
“Mankind has never achieved greatness but through suffering.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 122)
“Ignorance in itself is neither shameful nor harmful. Nobody can know everything. But pretending that you know what you actually do not know is both shameful and harmful.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 121)
“Many good opportunities are ruined for the dream of slightly better ones. Would you have a more successful career if you had taken that other job or moved cities? Possibly. But your actual career will definitely suffer if you don’t commit to doing it to the best of your ability. Would you be 10% happier in a different relationship? Maybe. Maybe not. But you’ll definitely be unhappy in the one you have if you spend all day thinking about what else is out there. The surefire way to end up worse off is to agonize over unchosen options and fail to make the most of the one you selected. Every minute spent yearning for your unlived lives is a moment you can’t invest in the one you actually have. Choices matter, but so does your level of commitment.”
James Clear, Blog
“Some of the most religious people in Russia have an interesting habit: they make a low bow to persons to whom they are introduced for the first time. They say they do this to acknowledge the divine spirit that every person has within himself. This is not a widespread tradition, but its foundations are very deep.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 116)
“they both know that they are not together to complete each other, that their happiness is their own to create. nevertheless, their ethereal bond serves a great purpose; it gives them the time and space to love each other well enough to release the tension of their unloved hearts. their love for one another is not the end but rather a means to an end. it is a humble tool of healing and nourishment that can strengthen their minds and make their spirits mighty, so that they may both travel as far within themselves as possible, so that they may both release all that limits the flow of their happiness, so that they may both swim freely in the waters of wisdom and universal understanding.”
Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 207)
“just because someone was wrong once, it doesn’t mean they are going to be wrong forever. similarly, just because we may perceive someone as wrong, it does not necessarily mean that we are right. in most cases we lack the perfect information required to form an objective and universal perspective. it is important to remember that we are all imperfect and that we all live through the limited perspective of ego. striving to learn as much as we can from one another without making harsh and permanent judgments is a sign of wisdom.”
Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 183)
“Because humans are social creatures by nature, power depends on social interaction and circulation. To make yourself powerful, place yourself at the center of things, make yourself more accessible, seek out old allies and make new ones, force yourself into more and more difference circles.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 136)
“everyone is a teacher, but that does not mean everyone is correct.”
Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 183)
“loneliness
will not
go away
if we remain
far away
from ourselves”
Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 180)
“A man is wise who does three things: first, he does by himself those things which he advises others to do; secondly, he does not do anything that contravenes the truth; and thirdly, he is patient with the weaknesses of those who surround him.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 116)