Mitch Albom becomes one of my favorite authors now. I used to read, “
For One More Day” long ago which lent by
Nathary. And now
“Tuesdays With Morrie” is another recommended by JenJen, my former colleague. I got my copy during mission to Siem Reap a week ago, and just finished few days ago during mission to Kratie. If you’re someone who interest in life’s lesson and wisdom,
“Tuesdays With Morrie” is an exception to be recommended. It’s a last thesis together of the author,
Mitch Albom and his professor,
Morrie Schwardtz, while living but dying because of ALS disease. Please enjoy all the greatest quotes below attributed by
Morrie Schwardtz.
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Culture:- 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.
- People are only mean when they're threatened, and that's what our culture does...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.
- Every society has its own problems, The way to do it, I think, isn’t to run away. You have to work at creating your own culture
.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 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.
Love:- Love wins. Love always wins.
- Love each other or die.
-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.
- Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.
How Love Goes On: - I’ve got so many people who have been involved with me in close, intimate ways. And love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.
- Part of the problem, is that everyone in such a hurry, People haven’t found meaning in their lives, so they’re running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. They find those things are empty, too, and they keep running.
Forgiveness:- Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.
- We... need to forgive ourselves... For all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened.
- Accept what you are able to do and what you are 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’s too late to get involved.
- There is no point in keeping vengeance or stubbornness. These things I so regret in my life. Pride. Vanity. Why do we do the things we do
?Meaning into Life:- 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.
- Yet they gave up days and weeks of their lives, addicted to someone else’s drama.
Trust:-...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
.Friendship:- we’ll just hold hand... we've had thirty-five years of friendship. You don't need speech or hearing to feel that
.Feeling Sorry For Yourself:- Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people to trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too–even when you’re in the dark. Even when you’re falling.
- 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 . . .
'Death and Ambition:- ...the truth is... if you accept that you can die at any time--then you might not be as ambitious as you are.
- Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.
Family:- The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family.
- 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.’
- This is part of what family is about, not just love, but letting others know there’s someone who is watching out for them. Knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work
.Children:- There is no experience like having children. That’s all. There is no substitute for it. If you want to have the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.
Material Things:- Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent.
- You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.
Emotions:- 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.
- One day, I’m gonna show you it’s okay to cry.
- I thought about how often this was needed in everyday life. How we feel lonely, sometimes to the point of tears, but we don’t let those tears come because we are not supposed to cry. Or how feel a surge of love for a partner but we don’t say anything because we’re frozen with the fear of what those words might do to the relationship.
Dying and Living:- When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
- Don't let go too soon but, but don't hang on too long.
- Dying, is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else.
Being a Child:- We all know how to be a child. It's inside all of us. For me, it's just remembering how to enjoy it.
Youth:- ...I know what a misery being young can be, so don't tell me it's so great.
-...in addition to all the miseries, the young are not wise. They have very little understanding about life
.Aging:- Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it. You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. 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. You can’t wait until sixty-five.
- If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.
- You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue.
- How can I be envious of where you are--when I've been there myself.
Money and Power / Status and Showing Off:- These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. When you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you’re looking for, no matter how much of them you have.
- If you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.
- 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
.Marriage:- I've learned this much about marriage. You get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't.
- There are a few rules I know to be true about love and 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. Your values must be alike. And the biggest one of those values. Your belief in the importance of your marriage.
- I think marriage is a very important thing to do, and you're missing a hell of a lot if you don't try it
.Shortsightedness:- No matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don't see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can be come
.Needing Others:- In the beginning of life, when we were infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right? But here's the secret: in between, we need others as well.
Being Number Two:- What's wrong with being number two?
Important Questions:- As I see it, they have to do with love, responsibility, spirituality, awareness.
Death :- Death ends a life, not a relationship.
- The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
- Even I don’t know what ’spiritual development’ really means. But I do know we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us. The loving relationship we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.
Relationships:- As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. Death ends a life, not a relationship.
- 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.
---By the way, I’ve googled around for the summery and I found its quotations and analysis. Click here.
