Quotes from Mitch Albom

I'm better than I'm gonna be tom-orrrrr-ow…

How did you do it, Benji? How did you survive all that way alone? I was never alone, the man said

She is my wife—because ever since they were children she was like the sky to him, forever around.

night, in a moment of grace, we witnessed something otherworldly. It was after midnight. As I slept, I felt a sensation through my closed lids, as if someone had turned on the lights. I heard a gasp, and I opened my eyes to witness an utterly amazing sight. The entire sea was aglow.

My grandparents did these things. My parents, too. If I take the pattern and throw it out, what does that say about their lives? Or mine? From generation to generation, these rituals are how we remain…" He rolled his hand, searching for the word. Connected? I said.

Do you know what causes wind? High pressure meeting low pressure. Warm meeting cold. Change. Change causes wind. And the bigger the change, the stronger the wind blows. (The Next Person You Meet in Heaven)

If earthly mortals were being contacted by souls in heaven, Tess, a Catholic, had been the first.

But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.

Holding anger is a poison.

As happens with all miracles, once life goes on, those who believe retell them with wonder. Those who do not, do not.

He stayed that way for a while, fallen man, porcelain angel, as if the two of them waited for a bus.

Then you came along, Chika. And maybe because I'm older now, or maybe because your eyes were so much wider than mine, or maybe because it'ssimply different when the child is in your care, something stirred. I began to lean over to see tiny miracles the way you saw them.

that moment, I sensed my insignificance more than at any other moment in my life. It takes so much to make you feel big in this world. It only takes an ocean to make you feel tiny.

This was the story he told himself, and the stories we tell ourselves long enough become our truths.

the end, there is the sea and the land and the news that happens between them. To spread that news, we tell each other stories. Sometimes the stories are about survival. And sometimes those stories, like the presence of the Lord, are hard to believe. Unless believing is what makes them true.

feel happy because there is fish to eat. But sad because I kill it. I don't want to be in this world anymore, Benji, taking things. I want the last thing I do to be giving. You and others please, eat the fish. Stay alive. I want to be with my Bernadette. I know she is safe. I think last night she let me see Heaven. She is saying God waits for me. I pray you get home. I leave

My dad barely moved. He never asked what happened. But to this day, I can still feel his waist in my wet grip, and the comfort it gave me. For many years, that was my peception of fatherhood, a place where a child can find sanctuary. Perhaps this is why I took over the orphanage. Perhaps I've grown into my father that way.

you were really God," I seethed, "you would have stopped him.

The old darkness has taken a seat alongside him. He is used to it by now, making room for it the way you make room for a commuter on a crowded bus.

God starts things," he said. "Man stops them.

He kept the outside world at bay by keeping the inside world at hand.

When someone passes, Benjamin, people always ask, 'Why did God take them?' A better question would be 'Why did God give them to us?' What did we do to deserve their love, their joy, the sweet memories we shared?

My friedns, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight. We will never wallow in the agony of 'I could have, I should have.' We can sleep in a storm. And when it's time, our good-byes will be complete.

ALL CHILDREN KEEP SECRETS. All parents do the same. We mold the version we want others to believe, boosting the disguise and tucking away the truth. It is how we can be loved by our closest family members and still, at times, elude them.