Quotes from Mitch Albom

It was the first time I had seen him unshaven, the small white whiskers looking so out of place, as if someone had shaken salt neatly across his cheeks and chin. How could there be new life in his beard when it was draining everywhere else?

At I Am My Brother's Keeper, there were no dues, no drives, no singles nights. Membership grew the old-fashioned way: a desperate need for God.

How do you keep from envying? 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

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

Mitch, if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at 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.

I thought about him now and then, the things he had taught me about 'being human' and 'relating to others;, but it was always in the distance, as if from another life.. .. The people who might have told me were long forgotten, their phone numbers buried in some packed-away box in the attic.

He was making sure I absorbed this point, without embarrassing me by asking. It was part of what made him a good teacher.

Children begin by needing their parents. Over time, they reject them. Eventually, they become them.

Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine? If you are lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you will always find your way back.

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.

when all this started, I asked myself, 'Am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live?' I decided I'm going to live---or at least try to live---the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure.

But everyone knows someone who has died, I said. Why is it so hard to think about dying? "Because," Morrie continued, "most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.

But a man who can take anything will find most things unsatisfying. And a man without memories is just a shell.

Worry is something you create. Why would we create worry? To fill a void. A void of what? Faith.

It is not just humans who are musical. Animals, too. This should be obvious in the thousands of birdsongs I have spawned, or the clicking of dolphins, or the moaning of humpback whales.

if you really want it, then you'll make your dream happen.

Giving makes me feel like I'm living.

Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others." This

When someone is in your heart, they're never truly gone. They can come back to you, even at unlikely times." ? Mitch Albom, For One More Day

In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?" His voice dropped to a whisper. "But there's the secret: in between, we need others as well.

A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle." Sounds like a wrestling match, I say. "A wrestling match." He laughs. "Yes, you could describe life that way. " So which side wins, I ask? "Which side wins?" He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. "Love wins. Love always wins.

Learn to detach.

When Morrie was with you, he was really with you. He looked you straight in the eye, and he listened as if you were the only person in the world.

Part of me is scared of leaving school. Part of me wants to go so desperately.