Powerful Quotes from Tuesdays with Morrie By Mitch Albom

There is a very charming simplicity to this memoir. The lessons and values Morrie imparts while battling the disease are very heartfelt, given with the intent to better the life of another even while dying.

Everybody is getting old, but this book will teach you that how you grow old is your choice. The book reflects on the beautiful and life-changing relationship between a teacher and their student.

I offer a summary of the book in the form of quotes directly from the book.

What is Tuesdays with Morrie About?

Back in college, Morrie Schwartz was Mitch’s favorite sociology professor. After graduating, Mitch lost touch with him while living his own life. Morrie in his sunset years fell ill with ALS, an incurable disease that attacks the nervous system. Mitch was reminded of the professor when he saw a TV interview of his former professor.

He went back to meet him, albeit with a guilty feeling that he had not reached out in all these years. But the professor hugged him joyously when he saw his former student. Then they together began a project to meet every Tuesday and talk. Talk about each other's problems and life. And Mitch began recording these sessions and that is how this book was born.

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Inspiring Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes About Life

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

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

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

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

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

6. “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...”

7. “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.”

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

9. “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.”

10. “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."

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

12. “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."

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

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

15. "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.”

Inspiring Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes About Love

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

17. “Love wins, love always wins.”

18. “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.”

19. “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.”

20. “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.”

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

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

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

Best Tuesdays with Morrie Quotes About Death

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

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

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

27. “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.”

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

29. 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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

36. “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?

37. “Embrace aging.”

38. “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?”