Leo Buscaglia Quotes

Compassion is an act of tolerance where kindness and forgiveness reign. When we make the compassionate choice, we enhance the dignity of each individual, which is the very essence of loving them.

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

To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naive.

Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever.

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

We don't love to be loved in return; we love to love.

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

We treat our encounters with them with carefree casualness. We are certain that our relationships will naturally take care of themselves.

Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in.

After all, the wrong is done. It is past and cannot be changed. We have only the present and the future upon which to move forward.

Learn to bend. It's better than breaking.

Love and the self are one and the discovery of either is the realization of both.

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.

I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and say, 'No, I won't do it, I won't behave his way anymore. I'm lonely and I need people around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving,' and then you do it.

A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.

The greatest risk is to risk nothing at all

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

I love to think that the day you're born, you're given the world as a birthday present.

There are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.

...the opposite of love is not hate - it's apathy. It's not giving a damn. If somebody hates me, they must "feel" something ... or they couldn't possibly hate. Therefore, there's some way in which I can get to them.

There is nothing quite so satisfying, and so healing, as a good cry.

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.

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

Each of us is responsible for creating an environment of warmth and consideration for those we love. I have always tried to define a good day not in terms of one in which all things were made right and comfortable for me but rather, as a day in which I have been able to make another's day more loving and special for them. We must treat each other with dignity. Not because we merit it but because we grow best in thoughtfulness.

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 order to learn, you have to be free. You have to be free to experiment, free to try, free to make mistakes.

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.

Why do we protect children from life? It's no wonder that we become afraid to live. We're not told what life really is. We're not told that life is joy and wonder and magic and even rapture, if you can get involved enough. We're not told that life is also pain, misery, despair, unhappiness, and tears. I don't know about you, but I don't want to miss any of it. I want to embrace life, and I want to find out what it's all about. I wouldn't want to go through life without knowing what it is to cry.

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

If you want to learn to love, then you must start the process of finding out what it is, what qualities make up a loving person and how these are developed. Each person has the potential for love. But potential is never realized without work.

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.

What do years have to do with age?

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

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.

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.

Like any other living, growing thing, love requires effort to keep it healthy.

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

Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance

There are all kinds of symbols. Verbal language is only one. Sometimes by opening our mouths, we make dreadful errors. It's often so much nicer just to look at somebody and vibrate.

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

When love is accompanied with deep intimacy, it raises us to the highest level of human experience. In this exalted space, we can surrender our egos, become vulnerable and know levels of joy and well-being unique among life experiences. We attain a glimpse of the rapture that can be ours. Boundaries are blurred, there are no limitations and we rejoice in union. We become one and, at the same time, both.

It doesn't matter who you have hurt, if you've learned not to hurt again. It doesn't matter what mistakes you've made as long as you don't make them again. As long as you learn, as long as you're willing to take your life in your hands, and kiss it and go from there. Then there is growth. There there is life!