Morrie Quotes

If we can remember the feeling of love we once had, we can die without ever going away. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air-until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. "My God, this is terrible," the wave says. "Look what's going to happen to me!"
Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, "Why do you look so sad?"
The first wave says, "You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?"
The second wave says, "No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

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. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

My writing circle isn't too full of people who fall into the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Tuesdays With Morrie" category. ~ Alissa Nutting

You can find joy in practically any situation if you are open to the experience of happiness. ~ Morrie Schwartz

Grieve and mourn for yourself not once or twice, but again and again. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

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." And facing death changes all that? "Oh, yes. You strip away all that stuff and you focus on the essentials. When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently. ~ Mitch Albom

The elks live up in the hills and in the spring they come down for their annual convention. It is very interesting to watch them come down to the water hole. And you should see them run when they find that it's only a water hole. What they're looking for is elk-ohole. ~ Morrie Ryskind

We see things not as they are, we see them as WE are. ~ Morrie Camhi

Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another ~ Morrie Schwartz.

The culture doesn't encourage you to think about such things until you're about to die. We're so wrapped up with egostical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks. We're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going . So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing? ~ Morrie Schwartz.

My ancestors came over on the boat. Oh, not the Mayflower, but the boat after that. What did your ancestors come over on, Godfrey? ~ Morrie Ryskind

I like myself better when I'm with you. I think you bring out the best in me, Kendall - a side I haven't seen for a really long time. Kinda forgot that part of me even existed anymore until you got on my plane. ~ Penelope Ward

We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Dying is only one thing to be sad over ... Living unhappily is something else. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

The little things, I can obey. But the big things - how we think, what we value - those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone - or any society - determine those for you. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

I believe that even though each person has an individual and unique self, the self means nothing outside the context of community or meaningful contact with other people. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on - in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Money will never make you happy and happy will never make you money. ~ Morrie Ryskind

Keep your heart open for as long as you can, as wide as you can, for others and especially for yourself. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

This was a smokescreen. Morrie made that obvious. 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. ~ Anonymous

Morrie closed his eyes to absorb the notes. As my wife's loving voice filled the room, a crescent smile appeared 0n his face. And while his body was stiff as a sandbag, you could almost see him dancing inside it. ~ Mitch Albom

In the beginning of life, we need others to survive. At the end of life, we need others to survive. In between, we need others as well. ~ Morrie Schwartz

There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like. In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Maybe you're too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Tears are okay

[Morrie Schwartz] ~ Mitch Albom

The best preparation for living fully and well is to be prepared to die at any time, because impending death inspires clarity of purpose, a homing in on what really matters to you. ~ Morrie Schwartz

I'd always been interested in psychology. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Dying," Morrie suddenly said, "is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappily is something else. So many of the people who come to visit me are unhappy." Why?
"Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it. They're more unhappy than me-even in my current condition.
"I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that? ~ Mitch Albom

One hundred and ten years from now no one who is here now will be alive. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

The trouble was, all their eyes came to me when I opened the door and Morrie grinned a my-girl's-gonna-get-herself-some grin. Colt looked like he wanted someone to tear his own fingernails out by the roots. And Cal looked like he was having trouble not busting a gut laughing. ~ Kristen Ashley

For me, living means I can be responsive to the other person. It means I can show my emotions and my feelings. Talk to them. Feel with them ... ~ Morrie Schwartz.

I don't mean you disregard every rule of your community. I don't go around naked, for example. I don't run through red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things- how we think, what we value- those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone-or any society- determine those for you. ' -Morrie Schwartz ~ Mitch Albom

When you look at it that way, you can see how absurd it is that we individualize ourselves with our fences and hoarded possessions. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

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? ~ Mitch Albom

It is 1979, a basketball game in the Brandeis gym. The team is doing well, and the student section begins a chant, "We're number one! We're number one!" Morrie is sitting nearby. He is puzzled by the cheer. At one point, in the midst of "We're number one!" he rises and yells, "What's wrong with being number two?" The students look at him. They stop chanting. He sits down, smiling and triumphant. ~ Mitch Albom

Life is like a wrestling match- we struggle to fight but we never know that the only side that wins is the one with great love in it. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

We've got a form of brainwashing going on in our country ... . Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. MORE IS GOOD. MORE IS GOOD. We repeat it
and have it repeated to us
over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Every society has its own problems," Morrie said, lifting his eyebrows, the closest he could come to a shrug. "The way to do it, I think, isn't to run away. You have to work at creating your own culture. ~ Mitch Albom

When people die, you always hear the expression, "You can't take it with you. ~ Morrie Schwartz

Once you learn how to diw, you learn how to live ~ Morrie Schwartz.

The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it ~ Morrie Schwartz.

There is no point in keeping vengeance or stubbornness. These things" -he sighed- "these things I so regret in my life. Pride. Vanity. Why do we do the things we do?
Morrie Schwartz ~ Mitch Albom

All this emphasis on youth - I don't buy it. Listen, I know what a misery being young can be, so don't tell me it's so great. All these kids who came to me with their struggles, their strife, their feelings of inadequacy, their sense that life was miserable, so bad they wanted to kill themselves ... and in addition to all the miseries, the young are not wise. They have very little understanding about life. Who wants to live everyday when you don't know what's going on? When people are manipulating you, telling you to buy this perfume and you'll be beautiful, or this pair of jeans and you'll be sexy - and you believe them! It's such nonsense. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it. ~ Mitch Albom

With pictures of Patsy, Morrie, and the three ~ Stephen King

You don't have to be nice all the time - just most of the time. ~ Morrie Schwartz

After you have wept and grieved for your physical losses, cherish the functions and the life you have left. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

I remembered what Morrie said during our visit: "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."

"Morrie true to these words, had developed his own culture – long before he got sick. Discussion groups, walks with friends, dancing to his music in the Harvard Square church. He started a project called Greenhouse, where poor people could receive mental health services. He read books to find new ideas for his classes, visited with colleagues, kept up with old students, wrote letters to distant friends. He took more time eating and looking at nature and wasted not time in front of TV sitcoms or "Movies of the Week." He had created a cocoon of human activities– conversations, interaction, affection–and it filled his life like an overflowing soup bowl. ~ Mitch Albom

I've decided I don't want to play any more games treating human beings as objects. It's kind of sordid when you think about it, when you think it over. ~ Morrie Ryskind

Don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

I dropped my eyes, kneading the dying flesh of his feet between my fingers. For a moment, I felt afraid, as if accepting his words would somehow betray my own father. But when I looked up, I saw Morrie smiling through tears and I knew there was no betrayal in a moment like this. All ~ Mitch Albom

The real beauty of democracy is that the average man believes he is above average. ~ Morrie Brickman

Ness-that Morrie was looking at life from some very different place than anyone else I knew. A healthier place. A more sensible place. And he was about to die.
But it was also becoming clear to me- through his courage, his humor, his patience, and his openIf some mystical clarity of thought came when you looked death in the eye, then I knew Morrie wanted to share it. ~ Mitch Albom

On this site we're going to build an Eye and Ear Hospital. This is going to be a sight for sore eyes. ~ Morrie Ryskind

What tipped the scales was that psychology involved working with rats. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Acceptance is not a talent you either have or don't have. It's a learned response. My meditation teacher made a great point about the difference between a reaction and a response: You may not have control over your initial reaction to something, but you can decide what your response will be. You don't have to be at the mercy of your emotions, and acceptance can be your first step toward empowerment ... For me, acceptance has been the cornerstone to my having an emotionally healthy response to my illness. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

We have a sense that we should be like the mythical cowboy ... able to take on and conquer anything and live in the world without the need for other people. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Morrie talked about his most fearful moments, when he felt his chest locked in heaving surges or when he wasn't sure where his next breath would come from. These horrifying times, he said, and his first emotions were horror, fear, anxiety. But once he recognized the feel of those emotions, their texture, their moisture, the shiver down the back, the quick flash of heat that crosses your brain - then he was able to say, Okay,. This is fear. Step away from it. Step away. ~ Mitch Albom

He would close his eyes and with a blissful smile begin to move to his own sense of rhythm. It wasn't always pretty. But then, he didn't worry about a partner. Morrie danced by himself. ~ Mitch Albom

Do the kind of things that come from the heart, When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overhelmed with what comes back ~ Morrie Schwartz.

I don't know whether the world is full of smart men bluffing or imbeciles who mean it. ~ Morrie Brickman

He mentioned a dear friend Morrie had, Maurie Stein, who had first sent Morrie's aphorisms to the Boston Globe. They had been together at Brandeis since the early sixties. Now Stein was going deaf. Koppel imagined the two men together one day, one unable to speak, the other unable to hear. What would that be like?
"We will hold hands," Morrie said. "And there'll be a lot of love passing between us. Ted, we've had thirty-five years of friendship. You don't need speech or hearing to feel that. ~ Mitch Albom

If we can make peace with dying, we can finally make peace with living. ~ Morrie Schwartz

Be compassionate," Morrie whispered. And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place."
He took a breath, then added his mantra: "Love each other or die. ~ Mitch Albom

There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need," Morrie said. "You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car, you don't need the biggest house. The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction? ... Offering others what you have to give ... I don't mean money, Mitch. I mean your time. Your concern. Your storytelling. It's not so hard. ~ Mitch Albom

A woman's reputation is her worth ... IT is the way it is. You may hate me for saying so, but there is the truth. Do you not remember that this is how our mother died? She would still be here and Father would be well and none of this would ever have happened if she had simply lived according to the time-trusted codes of society.'
Perhaps it proved impossible. Perhaps she could not fit within so tight a corset. Perhaps I am the same.'
One does not have to like the rules, Gemma. But one does need to adhere to them. That is what makes civilization. Do you think I agree with every ... decision made by my superiors ~ Libba Bray

The tension of opposites:
Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.
A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

There are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike.' - Morrie Schwartz ~ Mitch Albom

We're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

Morrie closed his eyes. "I know, Mitch. You mustn't be afraid of my dying. I've had a good life, and we all know it's going to happen. I maybe have four or five months. ~ Mitch Albom

Morrie might have died without ever seeing me again. I had no good excuse for this, except the one that everyone these days seems to have. I had become too wrapped up in the siren song of my own life. I was busy. ~ Mitch Albom

Devareux also made mention of finding "angel hair" that melted when touched but was so radioactive as to break a Geiger counter, as well as having been shot with lasers coming from the graves in the Jewish Cemetery. As a lapsed Episcopalian, Jasmine might have been vague as to the details of Jewish burials, but felt confident no Goldstein on record had consented to laser turrets atop their dearly departed Uncle Morrie. ~ Thomm Quackenbush

Finally, on the fourth of November, when those he loved had left the room just for a moment - to grab coffee in the kitchen, the first time none of them were with him since the coma began - Morrie stopped breathing. ~ Mitch Albom

Morrie," Koppel said, "that was seventy years ago your mother died. The pain still goes on?"
"You bet," Morrie whispered. ~ Mitch Albom

The best way to deal with that is to live in a fully conscious, compassionate, loving way. Don't wait until you're on your deathbed to recognize that this is the only way to live. ~ Morrie Schwartz.

We're Tuesday people, he said. Tuesday people, I repeated. Morrie smiled. ~ Mitch Albom

Oh, you have a kitchen! I'm gonna like this place very much. ~ Morrie Ryskind

Mitch, I don't allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears, and that's all."
I thought about all the people I knew who spent many of their waking hours feeling sorry for themselves. How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few minutes, then on with the day. And if Morrie could do it, with such a horrible disease . . . ~ Mitch Albom

But everyone knows someone who has died, I said.
Why is it so hard to think about dying?
'Because,' Morrie continued, 'most of us 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.'
And facing death changes all that?
'Oh, yes. You strip away all that stuff and you focus on the essentials. When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently.'
He sighed. 'Learn how to die, and you learn how to live. ~ Mitch Albom

..And because he was still able to move his hands - Morrie always spoke with both hands waving - he showed great passion when explaining how you face the end of life. ~ Mitch Albom