I’ve always loved this book, and I find myself re-reading it over and over again. I thought I’d share some awesome quotes that I hold to my heart:
———–
Believe what you don’t see
“you closed your eyes. That was the difference. 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.” – p.61
Reversing Regret
“What if today were my last day on earth? … the culture doesn’t encourage you to think about such things until you’re about to die. We’re so wrapped up with egotistical 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? … You need someone to probe you in that direction. It just won’t happen automatically.”
‘I knew what he was saying. We all need teachers in our lives.’ – p.65
Preparing for Death
“But there’s a better approach. To know you’re going to die, and to be *prepared* for it at any time That’s better. That way you can actually be *more* involved in our life while you’re living.”
How can you ever be prepared to die?
“Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, ‘Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?’”
…
“once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” – p.81
Detachment
“What I’m doing now is detaching myself from the experience.”
Detaching yourself?
“Yes. Detaching yourself. And this is important – not just for someone like me, who is dying, but for someone like you, who is perfectly healthy. Learn to detach.”
…
But wait, I said. Aren’t you always talking about experiencing life? All the good emotions, all the bad ones?
“Yes.”
Well, how can you do that if you’re detached?”
“… 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.
…
Take any emotion – love for a woman, or grief for a loved one…. if you hold back on the emotions – if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them – you can never get to being detached, you’re too busy being afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief. You’re afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.
But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. … I have experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.”
…
“Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely – but eventually be able to say, ‘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.” – p.104
Existence
[Morrie worked at a mental hospital, describing his experience with a patient]
One of the patients, a middle-aged woman, came out of her room every day and lay facedown on the tile floor, stayed there for hours, as doctors and nurses stepped around her. Morrie watched in horror. He took notes, which is what he was there to do. Every day, she did the same thing [on the floor, ignoring everyone]. [Morrie] began to sit on the floor with her, even lay down alongside her, trying to draw her out of her misery. Eventually, he got her to sit up and even return to her room. What she mostly wanted, he learned, was the same thing many people want – someone to notice she was there.
…
Morrie observed that most of the patients there had been rejected and ignored in their lives, made to feel that they didn’t exist. They also missed compassion – something the staff ran out of quickly. And many of these patients were well-off… their wealth did not buy them happiness or contentment. – p.110
Meaning of age
Yes, I said, but if aging were so valuable, why do people alwas say, “Oh, if I were young again.” You never hear people say, “I wish I were sixty-five.”
He smiled. “You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can’t wait until sixty-five…” – p.119
Forgiveness
‘… We also need to forgive ourselves.”
Ourselves?
“Yes. For all the things we didn’t do. All the things we should have done. You can’t get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened. That doesn’t help you when you get to where I am.
I always wished I had done more with my work; I wished I had written more books. I used to beat myself up over it. Now I see that never did any good. Make peace. You need to make peace with yourself and everyone around you.” – p.167
thank you so much for extracting the beautiful parts of that amazing book.
I love this book.. It helps me to change my life..
Book Review of
Tuesdays with Morrie
Author: Mitch Albon
By: Gerald Abel
The action takes place in Morrie’s home, once a week,” by a widow in his study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink flowers”. This scene makes every Tuesday class solemn and serious. While Morrie, in this place are spending the last days of his life. Mitch is still starting to harvest the seedlings that he will soon plant and care for in his life. This is, somehow, serious that adds to the simplicity of the story. Though small narrow, the room has been part of Mitch life and thousand of people that watched Morrie’s life through a television program.
The story begins with a brief summary of “the final class” of Mitch, the student and Morrie, his former University professor. Mitch Albom establish the background of the situation and gives the reader a preview of what’s going to happen next and how the story begins with that entrance.
Mitch Albom’s based-on-true-experience-novel undoubted caught the attentions of all the readers. It is in account of this “final class” with Morrie Schwartz, his former University professor.
Their Tuesday classes were held at Morrie’s house. No grades were given yet their were oral exam each week. No books were required yet a number of topics were briefly discussed in each lesson. And at the end, a final project a long paper is to be produced and this book is in fact the “last thesis” of the only student in the class, Mitch.
Morrie and Mitch had spent quality time with each other, back when Mitch was still in college. They separate ways after graduation and continue their lives as different individual forgetting the tie that bond the greatly.
Later in the story while watching the program “ABC-TV” nightline, Mitch found out that Morrie, after a rich life field with family and friends was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) a crippling illness that the neurological system. The saddest part is that it has no cure but, Morrie looked at it as the chance for him to walk the “final bridge between life and death”.
Knowing what his mentor feels, Mitch constantly visit Morrie and they both decided to have class once again. Every Tuesday afternoon, Mitch and Morrie talked about the greatest lessons in life such as death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness and meaningful life. They had fourteen sessions before Morrie finally said goodbye. I was in their final Tuesday when Mitch became too emotional when she said his final words with his professor, although it was hard from him he knew that life has to move on.
Morrie wished to die serenely and he did. He was buried in a slope near a hill. That moment was to solemn, quiet enough for everyone to intently remember all the things they learned from Morrie.
Mitch through Morrie, learned that death “death ends a life, but not relationship.” It was Morrie who opened their minds that only from experiencing death that they will learn how to live.
The story is told in the first person. The narrator, which is Mitch Albom shares his experiences with his mentor in the story. The narrator excellently presented the significant events which contribute to the full development of the story. Also, the important situation and descriptions was implicitly presented well. Even the story of Morrie, were presented the same way that the narrator describes his own situation.
The novel’s central theme is “the meaning of life” though his days are
already numbered, Morrie still tried his best to teach Morrie, and the world, the previous things about life. Also, the word death given emphasis in the story. Morrie presented a different meaning of death as he himself is fast approaching the end of his days. In the novel, the issue of life and death are best explained; this novel is an “extraordinary contribution to the literature of death”. Every event in the story contributes to its theme. The dying man “getting a second chance to discover life through the death of a friend, Morrie’s house and family all have hidden symbol that add to the simple yet complex theme of the story.
The tone and style of the story is very universal because it involves,
serious, light, emotional, and humor. There are times when on will laugh and oftentimes the readers will cry. But throughout, the story, the major character present approval of the situations of their lives, they keep up positive views despite tragedies in their lives. Many words and phrases are repeated throughout the work “Dear Coach… Dear Player” is so touching that one also dream to find someone that is suitable to be coach a player. Also death ends a life after death and that it is only in dying that we can come back to life
The main characters of the story are Mitch Albom and his former University professor, Morrie Schwartz. The thing that makes Morrie extraordinary among others who are facing death is his attitude towards it. Based on all his teachings, he is so mindful, courageous, and influential. He saw himself on the young Mitch. On the other hand, Mitch is so appreciative, open-minded and explicitly hooked by his teachers lessons. The story presented some cruel realities in their lives and how they had managed to somehow, steadfastly facing them all. The characters say anything that one another need to hear. They are both sensitive to each others feeling and careful to their actions towards one another. Sometimes they do not talk but, oftentimes their actions speak louder than words but they are still as exact as if they are accompanied by words.
The characters are fully developed. In the case of Mitch, until the end of the story, he still shows how is moved and changes by Morrie. While Morrie until the end of his life shows how he can still change other persons. The major characters learned from experience with one another. Mitch learned that death ends a life but not a relationship. He also realized that he had to take everything as if it is the last. Most importantly, he gains the most important award in his class the meaning of life. Morrie, also gain something from the fourteen sessions. He received something that only few can achieve-a person of influence.
Mitch Albom was Morrie’s former student at Brandeis University, and
the narrator of the book. After having abandoned his dreams of becoming a
Famous musician, he is disgusted by his desired for financial success and
Material wealth though neither fill the void and happiness he feels. He has been
working himself nearly to death and suddenly finds himself out of a job when the staff at the newspaper he writes for decides to strike. Each Tuesday, he learns from Morrie, his that he needs to reassess his life, and to value love over money, and happiness over success.
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