Morrie Schwartz Quotes

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.

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

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

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

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.

You don't understand. You're not a wave. You're part of the ocean.

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

Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it.

Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer more than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims....and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But - how can I put this? I'm almost......drawn to them.

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.

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

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

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.

Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.

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

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

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

What's wrong with being number two?

When you learn to die, you learn to live.

In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive. And at the end of life, we need others to survive. But here's the secret, in between, we need others as well.

Build a little community of those you love and who love you

Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?

Are you trying to be as human as you can be?

All younger people should know something. If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.

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.

I believe in being fully present. That means you should be with the person you’re with.

The truth is, part of me is every age. I delight in being a child when it’s appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it’s appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own.

Well, the truth is, if you really listen to that bird on your shoulder, if you accept that you can die at any time–then you might not be as ambitious as you are.

What is it about silence that makes people uneasy?

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.

I'd always been interested in psychology.

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.

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.

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

Everything that gets born dies.

The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family.

If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things.

Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel.

Although you may be old or sick, it's not too late to take stock and ask yourself if you really are the person you want to be, and if not, who you do want to be.

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.

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

Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too - even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling.

My contention is that as long as you have other faculties-the emotional, psychological, intuitive faculties-you haven't lost yourself or even diminished yourself. Don't be ashamed when you're physically limited or dysfunctional; don't think that you're any less because of your condition. In fact, I feel I am even more myself than I was before I got this illness because I have been able to transcend many of the psychological and emotional limitations I had before I developed ALS.

People are only mean when they're threatened… and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.

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.

Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much a better place.

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.