Mitchell David "Mitch" Albom | May 1958 - | American
() "Death ends a life, not a relationship.
()"Holding anger is a poison...It eats you from inside...We think that by hating someone we hurt them...But hatred is a curved blade...and the harm we do to others...we also do to ourselves.
"When someone is in your heart, they're never truly gone. They can come back to you, even at unlikely times.
() "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. 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.
"Accept who you are; and revel in it.
() "Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? If so, then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.
() "The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
() "When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.
() "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 heard even, you experience them fully and completely.
"Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to.
"Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know.
() "You have peace," the old woman said, "when you make it with yourself.
() "Death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed.
"...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. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.
() "This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for.
() "The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.
() Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have.
( "Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. ()
"Don't let go too soon, but don't hold on too long.