Quotes from work

Tuesdays with Morrie

“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.”

“There is a big confusion in this country over what we want verses what we need… you need food. You want a chocolate sundae.”

“Learn how to live and you'll know how to die; learn how to die, and you'll know how to live.”

“I am every age, up to my own.”

“Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.”

“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? Is today the day I die?”

“Don't hang on too long, but don't let go too soon.”

“Be compassionate… and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be a better place.”

“All I was afraid of is saying good-bye.”

“Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?”

“Death: the only true emotion felt in an apathetic world”

“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.”

“What is it about silence that makes people uneasy?”

“As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty-two, you'd always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

“If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.”

“When you're in bed, you're dead”

“You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you’ve find meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward.”

“If we can remember the feeling of love we once had, we can die without ever going away.”

“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.”