Quotes from Will Schwalbe

If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary—the world really would be a better place.

was just that she felt you were missing the main point—you were focused on one thing when you should have been focused on another.

That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves." Mom

they would soon be old enough to read The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, and eventually Iris Murdoch and Alan Bennett. They could all be readers, and maybe even uncommon ones.

Connelly writes, "As long as there is paper, people will write, secretly, in small rooms, in the hidden chambers of their minds, just as people whisper the words they're forbidden to speak aloud." In

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally," writes Kabat-Zinn. "This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality.

Mom had always taught all of us to examine decisions by reversibility—that is, to hedge our bets. When you couldn't decide between two things, she suggested you choose the one that allowed you to change course if necessary. Not the road less traveled

Mom had always taught all of us to examine decisions by reversibility—that is, to hedge our bets. When you couldn't decide between two things, she suggested you choose the one that allowed you to change course if necessary. Not the road less traveled but the road with the exit ramp.

Often we feel the need to say that a book isn't just about a particular time or place but is about the human spirit. People say this of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, or Night by Elie Wiesel, or A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.

The Etiquette of Illness, a book from 2004 by a social worker and psychotherapist named Susan Halpern,

When we denigrate mediocrity, we discourage ourselves and others from trying new things. It would be great to be a great painter, but it's also great just to paint. Or sing or throw pots or knit scarves or play chess.

We're all in the end-of-our-life book club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one.

The Etiquette of Illness, a book from 2004 by a social worker and psychotherapist named Susan Halpern, who is herself a cancer survivor. The subtitle is What to Say When You Can't Find the Words. But it's really about what to do when you feel scared that doing something, if it turns out to be the wrong thing, might be worse than doing nothing at all.

book called The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch,

We can't do much for the people we've lost, but we can remember them and we can read for them: the books they loved, and books we think they might have chosen. Maybe the reading can help us answer the questions they would have asked us if they were still here to ask them. Maybe the reading can help us figure out how to honor their lives and continue their legacies.

Halpern wants the reader to think about the difference between asking "How are you feeling?" and "Do you want me to ask how you're feeling?

The thing about Americans," she said, "is that you're very concerned about everything all the time." Mom

Everything would be all right, everything would be possible, anything could be salvaged or averted, as long as we all kept running around.

I'm on a search—and have been, I now realize, all my life—to find books to help me make sense of the world, to help me become a better person, to help me get my head around the big questions that I have and answer some of the small ones while I'm at it.

3. You don't have to talk all the time. Sometimes just being there is enough.

The greatest thing about a nap is that it gives you two days for the price of one. You have the whole day before the nap, and when you wake up you have a whole day ahead of you.

one character thought, was that they'd never had love and patience at the same time.

Reading is the best way I know to learn how to examine your life. By comparing what you've done to what others have done, and your thoughts and theories and feelings to those of others, you learn about yourself and the world around you. Perhaps that is why reading is one of the few things you do alone that can make you feel less alone. It is a solitary activity that connects you to others.

Mom's reaction to this chaos isn't a surprise. No matter how high the bill that she is paying or that Medicare is paying for her, she will say to me or herself: "What happens to all the people who can't afford this? It's just not fair." Universal