Quotes from Mitch Albom

If you find one true friend in life, you're richer than most. If that one true friend is your husband, you're blessed.

We move through places every day that would never have been if not for those who came before us. Our workplaces, where we spend so much time--we often think they began with our arrival. That's not true.

If we knew what comes next, we never would have worried.

That's the thing when people leave us too suddenly, isn't it? We always have so many questions.

Your voice will come. We all go through the same thing. You cannot talk when you first arrive. He smiled. It helps you listen.

What in life can love not penetrate?

Did I lose you? Never.

A mother's voice is like no other. We recognize every lilt and whisper, every warble or shriek.

Being unheard is the ground floor of giving up, and giving up is the ground floor of doing yourself in. It's not so much, what's the point? It's more like, what's the difference?

Suddenly, details seemed extremely important. Details were something to grab on to, a way to insert myself into the story.

You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole.

YOU TAKA MY SPACE I BREAKA YOUR FACE

Secrets. We think by keeping them, we're controlling things, but all the while, they're controlling us.

People don't die because of loyalty." They don't?" She smiled. "Religion? Government? Are we not loyal to such things, sometimes to the death?" Eddie shrugged. Better," she said, "to be loyal to one another.

If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.

Time flies with you

You marked the minutes, the old man said. But did you use them wisely? To be still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted?

Tell me about your family, I said. And so she did. I listened intently as my mother went through each branch of the tree. Years later, after the funeral, Maria had asked me questions about the family - who was related to whom - and I struggled. I couldn't remember. A big chunk of our history had been buried with my mother. You should never let your past disappear that way.

My mother was French Protestant, and my father was Italian Catholic, and their union was an excess of God, guilt and sauce.

Happiness in a tablet. This is our world. Prozac. Daxil. Xanax. Billions are spent to advertise such drugs. And billions are spent purchasing them. You don't even need a specific trauma, just 'general depression' is enough, or anxiety, as if sadness is as treatable as the common cold.

Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love, and a peaceful heart.

Once heaven is done with grandma, we'd like her back, thanks.

You cannot ask things to do what they are not meant to do. Eventually, they will break.

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.