Quotes by Mitch Albom

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

“Youre not a wave, youre a part of the ocean.”

“when all this started, I asked myself, Am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live? I decided I am going to live-or at least try to live-the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure.”

“If youre always battling against getting older, youre always going to be unhappy, because its going to happen anyhow.”

“You have to work at creating your own culture.”

“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.”

“Love lost is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end. Love doesn’t.”

“No life is a waste. The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.”

“People are only mean when theyre threatened, and thats what our culture does. Thats what our economy does.”

“Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always, they feel they are supposed to. This comes from the sad, layered stories of life, which over the centuries have seen courage confused with picking up arms, and cowardice confused with laying them down.”

“Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is aweapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. Andthe harms we do, we do to ourselves.”

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Let it come in. We think we dont deserve love, we think if we let it in well become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, Love is the only rational act.”

“You have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesnt work, dont buy it.”

“Love each other or die.”

“All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.”

“I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never realized I was doing it,”

“He thought I was just ignoring him, ... I told him that if I had gotten the letter, of course I would have called. And he just let it go as if it never happened.”

“This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun.”

“Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left? He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying.”

“Since everyone was going to die, he could be of great value, right? ... He could be research. A human textbook. Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what happens to me. Learn with me.”