Quotes About Acceptance

If the only thing wrong with Moses is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with Jesus is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with mosques, Lent, chanting, Mecca, Buddha, confession, or reincarnation is that they're not yours - well, maybe the problem is you.

These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness

Love comes when you least expect it. Love comes when you most need it. Love comes when you are ready to receive it or can no longer deny it... Love comes when it comes.

A little wave is moving up and down and a big wave says to him why it looked so sad? The little wave says sadly what's the point of being happy when we're all just going to crash into the rock? The big wave then tells the little wave to not be so sad about that because it is not just a little wave, but a part of the ocean.

It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.

Death has a way of doing that. "The truth is, Mitch," he said, "once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.

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. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.

Everyone knows they're going to die,' he said again, 'but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.

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. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.

None of us can undo what we've done, or relive a life already recorded.

I seemed to slip in a time warp when I visited Morrie, and I liked myself better when I was there.

All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I'm going to experience them as well.

The day he learned that he was terminally ill was the day he lost interest in his purchasing power.

I watched him now, his hands working gingerly, as if he were learning to use them for the first time. He could not press down hard with a knife. His fingers shook. Each bite was a struggle; he chewed the food finely before swallowing.. The skin from his wrist to his knuckles was dotted with age spots, and it was loose, like skin hanging from a chicken soup bone.

You said it so innocently, so matter-of-factly, that it robbed us of our breath. And while we recovered to offer the standard adult response, that love doesn't care about sickness or health, inside we were trembling, because we saw in you something, with your disease, that we were terrified of seeing in ourselves. Acceptance.

Everyone knows they're going to die, he said again, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.

How can you ever be prepared to die? Do what the Buddhists do. 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?

philosophy was that death should not be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose.

Learn how to die, and you learn how to live." I

I was astonished by his complete lack of self-pity. Morrie, who could no longer dance, swim, bathe, or walk; Morrie, who could no longer answer his own door, dry himself after a shower, or even roll over in bed. How could he be so accepting? I watched him struggle with a fork, picking at a piece of tomato, missing it the first two times - a pathetic scene, and yet I could not deny that sitting in his presence was almost magically serene, the same calm breeze that soothed me back in college.

Accept what you are able to do what you are not able to do Accept the 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

Have you ever known a man of faith? Did you run the other way? If so, stop running. Maybe sit for a minute. For a glass of ice water. For a plate of corn bread. You may find there is something beautiful to learn, and it doesn't bite you and it doesn't weaken you, it only proves a divine spark lies inside each of us, and that spark may one day save the world.

Do you remember when I told Ted Koppel that pretty soon someone was gonna have to wipe my ass? Well, I think that day is coming. That one bothers me. - Why? - Because it's the ultimate sign of dependency. Someone wiping your bottom. But I'm working on it. I'm trying to enjoy the process. - Enjoy it? - Yes. After all, I get to be a baby one more time.

I asked Morrie if he felt sorry for himself. Sometimes, in the mornings, he said. That's when I mourn. I feel around my body, I move my fingers and my hands - whatever I can still move - and I mourn what I've lost. I mourn the slow, insidious way in which I'm dying. But then I stop mourning.