Leo Buscaglia Quotes

Live nutty. Just occasionally. Just once in a while. And see what happens. It brightens up the day.

Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.

We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ourselves.

To that there is an answer.

You have choice. You can select joy over despair. You can select happiness over tears. You can select action over apathy. You can select growth over stagnation. You can select you. And you can select life. And it's time that people tell you you're not at the mercy of forces greater than yourself. You are, indeed, the greatest force for you.

Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time ... It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.

The hardest battle you're ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.

Man seldom questions the fact that ugliness and evil are to be found in the world. But he's never as ready to accept that life also offers unlimited beauty and potential for joy as well as endless opportunities for pleasure.

We need to learn to let go as easily as we grasp and we will find our hands full and our minds empty.

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.

It's not enough to have lived.
We should be determined to live for something.
May I suggest that it be creating joy for others,
sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind,
bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.

A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself
to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart

The lover must often say, "I love because I must, because I will it. I love for myself, not for others. I love for the joy it gives me - and incedentally, only - for that joy it gives to others. If they reinforce me it will be good. If they do not, it also will be good, for I will to love."

Love is not some complex, mystical abstraction. It is something accessible and human that we learn through our everyday experience, as often at times of failure as in moments of ecstasy ...

The heart is the place where we live our passions. It is frail and easily broken, but wonderfully resilient. There is no point in trying to deceive the heart. It depends upon our honesty for its survival.

To this day I cannot see a bright daffodil, a proud gladiola, or a smooth eggplant without thinking of Papa. Like his plants and trees, I grew up as a part of his garden.

Celebrate your humanness, celebrate your craziness, celebrate your inadequacies, celebrate your loneliness ... but celebrate YOU!

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot
learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free.

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.

Happiness is intrinsic, it's an internal thing. When you build it into yourself, no external circumstances can take it away.

One must never be satisfied with his ability to love. No matter where he is, it is always just a beginning.

As soon as the love relationship does not lead me to me, as soon as I in a love relationship do not lead another person to himself, this love, even if it seems to be the most secure and ecstatic attachment I have ever experienced, is not true love. For real love is dedicated to continual becoming.

All of my youth growing up in my Italian family was focused around the table. That's where I learned about love.

It's amazing - you may not realize it, but so much of what you are not is because you are literally standing in your own way of becoming. And what I'm pleading with you about is, get the hell out of your own way.

We are born for love, but it will die if not nurtured.

Love creates an "us" without destroying the "me".

Labels are distancing phenomena. They push us away from each other.

Don't over analyze your relationships.

My rule is always, People first and things second.

Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

If one wishes to be a lover he must start by saying 'YES' to love.

Things omitted are often more deadly than errors committed.

The only thing of value we can give kids is what we are, not what we have.

Child development: Most damaging course of action is attempting to keep children from experience or protect them from pain, for it is this time that children learn that life is a magic thing, if "not a rose garden." The parent's role is primarily to stand by with a good supply of band-aids.

I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.

There comes a time in some relationships when no matter how sincere the attempt to reconcile the differences or how strong the wish to recreate a part of the past once shared, the struggle becomes so painful that nothing else is felt and the world and all its beauty only add to the discomfort by providing cruel contrast.

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.

You are the only you ... You are the best you. You will always be the second best anyone else.

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don't over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.

What we need to know about loving is no great mystery. We all know what constitutes loving behavior; we need but act upon it, not continually question it. Over-analysis often confuses the issue and in the end brings us no closer to insight. We sometimes become too busy classifying, separating, and examining, to remember that love is easy. It's we who make it complicated.

When it comes to giving love, the opportunities are unlimited, and we are all gifted.

One cannot give what he does not possess. To give love you must possess love. To love others you must love yourself.

Experience seems to convince us that only fools trust, that only fools believe and accept all things. If this is true, then love is most foolish. For if it is not founded on trust, belief and acceptance, it's not love.

In love, each man is his own personal challenge.

Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?

Value yourself. The only people who appreciate a doormat are people with dirty shoes.

To live in love is to live in life, and to live in life is to live in love

We have to get children to understand that not only do they have this incredible uniqueness, but they also have something that sometimes we forget about. They are also potentiality. They are much more undiscovered than they are discovered. And there's the wonder of it. It doesn't matter where they are, they're only just beginning and the big magical trip of life is digging it all out and discovering the wonderful you.

Love revels in and grows in the moment and the joy of the moment.

We are so ruled by what people tell us we must be that we have forgotten who we are.

Learn to bend. It's better than breaking.

To live in love is life's greatest challenge. It requires more sublety, flexibility, sensitivity, understanding, acceptance, tolerance, knowledge and strength than any other human endeavor.

Love always creates, it never destroys. In this lies man's only promise.

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?

To love others you must love yourself ... You can only give to others what you have yourself.

Definition of a relationship - an enduring, mutually-agreed upon connection or union, which fulfills certain needs of the individuals involved and the society in which they live.

You can only give away what you have ... If you have love, you can give it. If you don't have it, you don't have it to give.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel that it's my vehicle that is essential. I don't know about you, but I don't feel that it's my education that is essential. I don't think what is essential about me is my house or my car or my clothes. What is essential about me? Well, I think what is essential is that I live and embrace life right now, wherever I am. I grab it in my arms! Don't spend time crying about yesterday-yesterday is over with! I forgive my past. I forgive the people who've hurt me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life blaming and pointing a finger.

Ninety per-cent of what we worry about never happens, yet we worry and worry. What a horrible way to go through life! What a horrible thing to do to your colon!

The way to anybody's heart is through a thoughtfully-prepared, beautifully-executed, lovingly-presented meal.

A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world.

To love oneself is to struggle to rediscover and maintain your uniqueness

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.

There is only the moment. The now. Only what you are experiencing at this second is real.

Each man lives love in his limited fashion and does not seem to relate the resultant confusion and loneliness to his lack of knowledge about love.

Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.

The hardest battle you are ever going to have to fight is the battle to be just you.

You have the choice. You can choose joy over despair, happiness over tears, action over apathy, growth over stagnation.

Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness. -Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998)

There is a good deal of excellent research on child's play. It has shown conclusively that through play, with the freedom of action it allows and the stressless environment in which it occurs, children discover, relate to and define themselves and their world ... It is, therefore, paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play.

A life without passion is not living, it's merely existing

To the extent to which you know yourself, and we are all more alike than different, you can know others. When you love yourself, you will love others. And to the depth and extent to which you can love yourself, only to that depth and extent will you be able to love others.

Life is meant to be a celebration! It shouldn't be necessary to set aside special times to remind us of this fact. Wise is the person who finds a reason to make every day a special one.

I think we need to teach children the importance of others, and that they cannot grow in this world without taking in others. The more worlds they take in, these unique worlds, the more they can become. We need to teach them to trust others again, because we're all frightened to death of each other. We're building higher and higher walls, stronger and stronger locks. Tear down the walls! Every day I see how we're distrusting and it hurts.

He who remains calm while those around him panic probably doesn't know what's going on.

If you don't like the scene you're in, if you're unhappy, if you're lonely, if you don't feel that things are happening, change your scene. Paint a new backdrop.

The person who risk nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.

The only people who become wealthy by being concerned with the future are insurance companies.

Nine times out of ten, when you extend your arms to someone, they will step in, because basically they need precisely what you need.

I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate - it's apathy. It's not giving a damn.

To love others you must first love yourself.

I am often accused of being childish. I prefer to interpret that as child-like. I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things. I tend to exaggerate and fantasize and embellish. I still listen to instinctual urges. I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. I never water my garden without soaking myself. It has been after such times of joy that I have achieved my greatest creativity and produced my best work.

He must understand that if he is the world's finest plum and someone he loves does not like plums, he has the choice of becoming a banana. But he must be warned that if he chooses to become a banana, he will be a second rate banana. But he can always be the best plum.

Most of us remain strangers to ourselves, hiding who we are, and ask other strangers, hiding who they are, to love us.

Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk.

I've learned that you learn best by modeling. If you want people to learn, do it!

We live in a small world. Not a leaf falls that doesn't affect a myriad of things. When we reach out to someone in love and the effect is made - everyone, everything which comes in contact
with the person we've effected is better for it. Of course, the converse is true, too.

Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt,
but it is the only way to live life completely.

The most unfortunate thing that happens to a person who fears failure is that he limits himself by becoming afraid to try anything new.

God made mud, God made dirt, God made boys so girls could flirt.

Loving yourself involves the discovery of the true wonder of you; not only the present you, but the many possibilities of you. It involves the continual realization that you are unique, like no other person in the world, that life is, or should be, the discovery, the development and the sharing of this uniqueness.

"To be is to do," says the existentialist. "One only becomes real (human) at the point of action."

Hugs make you feel psychologically more secure and together.

Every moment spent in unhappiness is a moment of happiness lost.

You can be a follower of Muhammad or Jesus or Buddha or whomever. Always, they said that the most essential factor is to love your neighbor. And to love you.

The life and love we create is the life and love we live.

Choose the way of life. Choose the way of love. Choose the way of caring. Choose the way of goodness. It's up to you. It's your choice.

There are many miracles in the world to be celebrated and, for me, garlic is the most deserving.