Nine years after its publication in 1997, Tuesdays with Morrie became the bestselling memoir of all time. In 2000, the book topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers List for 23 consecutive weeks and stayed on the list for four years.
To date, the book remains very popular around the world mainly because of its rich content and powerful quotes. If you want to have a taste of what this book offers, this article offers you 44 powerful Tuesdays with Morrie quotes to help you reflect.
Tuesdays with Morrie Introduction
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As noted above, Tuesdays with Morrie is a memoir written by Mitch Albom – a renowned American author – about his regular visits to his former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz after he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Albom started visiting Schwartz weekly after seeing him on Nightline. He called him after the show and agreed to visit him later.
Since Albom was a famous sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press and there was a major newspaper strike at the time, Albom had enough free time to visit his former professor every week, as the disease gradually took a toll on him. For fourteen consecutive weeks, the two met at Schwartz’s house and had long chats, most of which are captured in the book. During these visits, Schwartz took time to give Albom his final lessons in life.
The book is divided into 14 different parts, each representing a visit to Morrie’s house and the discussions they had. Throughout the 14 days, the two discussed various topics, all of which revolved around the importance of life and existence. The book also contains Albom’s memories of his former professor and his wise counsel.
44 Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes
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Intense Tuesdays with Morrie Characterization Quotes
1. “The little things, I can obey. The big things—how we think, what we value—are those you must choose yourself. You can’t let anyone—or any society—determine those for you.”
2. “Giving to other people makes me feel alive. Not my car or my house. Not what I look like in the mirror. When I give my time when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad…”
3. “The truth is you don’t get satisfaction from those things. Do you know what really gives you satisfaction? … Offering others what you have to give.”
4. “Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward.”
5. “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.”
6. “There’s a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need.”
7. “Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place.”
8. “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.”
9. “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.”
Thoughtful Tuesdays with Morrie Death Quotes
10. “Once you learn how to live, you learn how to die.”
11. “We all have the same beginning (BIRTH), and we will have the same ending (DEATH). So how different can we be?”
12. “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”
13. “Aging is not just decaying, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”
14. “Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else.”
15. “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
16. “It’s not contagious, you know. Death is as natural as life. It’s part of the deal we made.”
17. “Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it.”
Beautiful Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes about Love
18. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
19. “Love each other or perish.”
20. “I like myself better when I’m with you.”
21. “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.”
22. “We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft – Love is the only rational act.”
23. “Accept who you are; and revel in it.”
24. “Without love, we are birds with broken wings.”
25. “Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.”
26. “People are only mean when they are threatened.”
27. “As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away.”
28. “Love wins, love always wins.”
Brilliant Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes about Family
29. “There is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family.”
30. “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. Love is so supremely important.”
31. “Knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work.”
32. “Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a small community of those you love and who love you.”
Strong Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes about Life
33. “Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent.”
34. “I give myself a good cry if I need it, but then I concentrate on all good things still in my life.”
35. “Don’t let go too soon, but don’t hang on too long.”
36. “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.”
37. “Every society has its own problem… you have to work at creating a new culture.”
38. “If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. The status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.”
39. “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.”
40. “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.”
41. “Everyone is in such a hurry… People haven’t found meaning in their lives, so they’re running all the time looking for it.”
42. “It’s not just other people we need to forgive. We also need to forgive ourselves. For all the things we didn’t do. All the things we should have done.”
43. “Life is a series of pulls back and forth. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. Most of us live somewhere in the middle.”
44. “There is no such thing as too late in life.”
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