Tuesdays with Morrie is one of those rare books that changes how you see everything.

Mitch Albom reconnects with his dying college professor, Morrie Schwartz, and visits him every Tuesday. What follows are conversations about life's biggest questions—love, work, family, aging, forgiveness, and death.

Morrie was diagnosed with ALS, an incurable disease that slowly took his body but never touched his spirit. In his final months, he chose to teach one last class—not in a university, but in his living room. The subject? The meaning of life.

These 45 quotes capture Morrie's wisdom. Some will comfort you. Some will challenge you. All of them will stay with you.

I've organized them by theme so you can find exactly what you need.

1. “There is no such thing as 'too late' in life.”

2. “I know I cannot undo this. None of us can undo what we’ve done, or relive a life already recorded.”

3. “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.”

4. “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."

5. “I give myself a good cry if I need it, but then I concentrate on all good things still in my life.”

6. “Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.”

7. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

8. “There is a big confusion in this country over what we want verses what we need...you need food. You want a chocolate sundae.”

9. “There is no point in keeping vengeance or stubbornness. These things" -he sighed- "these things I so regret in my life. Pride. Vanity. Why do we do the things we do?

10. “Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it.” 

11. "Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it."

12. "Don't assume that it's too late to get involved."

13. "I seemed to slip into a time warp when I visited Morrie, and I liked myself better when I was there."

14. “Love wins, love always wins.”

15. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."

16. "He took a breath, then added his mantra: "Love each other or die.”

17. “Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

18. "I like myself better when I'm with you.”

19. "Love is the only rational act."

20. “Don't cling to things because everything is impermanent.”

21. “Accept who you are; and revel in it.”

22. “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...”

23. “Without love we all like birds with broken wings.”

24. “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 don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levin said it right. He said, “Love is the only rational act.”

25. “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

26. “The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

27. “Everyone knows they're going to die,' he said again, 'but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”

28. “Learn how to live and you'll know how to die; learn how to die, and you'll know how to live.”

29. “We all have same beginning (BIRTH), and we will have same ending (DEATH). So how different can we be?”

30. “Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else.”

31. “It’s not contagious, you know. Death is as natural as life. It’s part of the deal we made.”

32. “All I was afraid of is saying good-bye.”

33. “People are only mean when they are threatened.”

34. “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.”

35. “Be compassionate," Morrie whispered. And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place."

36. "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."

37. "Turn on the faucet. Wash yourself with the emotion. It won't hurt you. It will only help.

38. "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."

39. “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”

40. “We need to forgive ourselves. 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.”

41. "It's not just other people we need to forgive, Mitch. We also need to forgive ourselves."

42. "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.”

43. “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? Is today the day I die?”

44. "A little wave is bobbing along in the ocean and he's having a grand time. Then he notices other waves in front of him crashing against the shore. 'Oh no,' he says, 'we're all gonna crash.' Another wave says, 'Why do you look so sad?' And the little wave says, 'Because we're gonna be nothing.' And the other wave says, 'You don't understand. You're not a wave. You're part of the ocean.'"

45. "Don't let go too soon, but don't hold on too long.”

46. “This is part of what a family is about, not just love. It's knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work.”

47. "Dying is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappily is something else. So many of the people who come to visit me are unhappy."

Tuesdays with Morrie began as a series of visits and ended as a publishing phenomenon.

When Mitch Albom saw his old college professor Morrie Schwartz on a TV interview—frail, dying, but still radiating warmth—he felt compelled to reconnect. What followed were fourteen Tuesdays of conversations that Mitch recorded, initially just to preserve Morrie's wisdom.

Those recordings became this book, which has sold over 17 million copies worldwide and been translated into 45 languages.

The lessons cover everything Morrie had learned in 78 years of living:

• How to face death without fear
• Why love matters more than success
• The trap of chasing money and status
• How to forgive yourself and others
• What family really means

It's a short book (under 200 pages) that you can read in an afternoon. But you'll think about it for years.

This book is perfect for you if:

• You're going through a difficult transition or loss
• You feel caught up in the "busyness" of life and want perspective
• You want to think more deeply about what matters
• You're looking for a meaningful gift for someone facing challenges
• You simply want a book that will make you feel something real

Not for you if: You prefer plot-driven fiction or can't handle emotional reads.

Read the Book

If these quotes moved you, the full book will stay with you forever.

• Get Tuesdays with Morrie on Amazon 

• Also available as an audiobook on Audible.

More Quote Collections You'll Love

• 100 Powerful Quotes from Classic Literature

• 100 Best Quotes from Black Authors

• 40 Quotes from Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

• 50 Best Good Vibes Good Life Quotes by Vex King

• Naval Ravikant Quotes

Books Like Tuesdays with Morrie

If you loved this book, try these:

1. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
2. When Breath Becomes Airaul Kalanithi
3. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
4. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
5. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Which quote hit you the hardest? Let me know in the comments—I'd love to hear which one resonated with you. And don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter!