I’m currently reading Tuesdays with Morrie. I think its fantastic.
Massive wisdom. For those who don’t know, the book is a series of conversations that Mitch Albom has with his friend and mentor Morrie Schwartz as Morrie is suffering a fatal disease.
Here are some quotes from the book that I particularly liked:
Know you’re going to die, and be prepared for it at any time.
Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent
If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.
Albom also says that America has become a “Persian Bazaar of self-help”. ha ha ha.
A few more quotes: p 127:
Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
You notice there’s nothing in there about a salary.
pg 127:
Mitch, if you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at 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.
pg 149:
Is there some kind of rule to know if a marriage is going to work?
Morrie smiled. “Things are not that simple, Mitch.”
I know.
“Still,” he said, “there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don’t have a common set of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike.
And the biggest one of those values, Mitch?
Your belief in the importance of your marriage.
People are only mean when they’re threatened,” he said later that day, “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.
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