Morrie Schwartz
Morrie Schwartz
Morris "Morrie" S. Schwartzwas a sociology professor at Brandeis University and an author. He was the subject of the best-selling book Tuesdays with Morrie, which was written by Mitch Albom, a sportswriter who was a former student of his, and published in 1997. The book was followed by a film version based on the book that was made for television...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth20 December 1916
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Acceptance is not a talent you either have or don't have. It's a learned response. My meditation teacher made a great point about the difference between a reaction and a response: You may not have control over your initial reaction to something, but you can decide what your response will be. You don't have to be at the mercy of your emotions, and acceptance can be your first step toward empowerment . . . For me, acceptance has been the cornerstone to my having an emotionally healthy response to my illness.
I'd always been interested in psychology.
Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are 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.
There is no experience like having children...If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.
Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer more than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims....and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But - how can I put this? I'm almost......drawn to them.
We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives.
Grieve and mourn for yourself not once or twice, but again and again.
Build a little community of those you love and who love you
Life is like a wrestling match- we struggle to fight but we never know that the only side that wins is the one with great love in it.
Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.
Once you learn how to die you learn how to live
I believe in being fully present. That means you should be with the person you’re with.
My contention is that as long as you have other faculties-the emotional, psychological, intuitive faculties-you haven't lost yourself or even diminished yourself. Don't be ashamed when you're physically limited or dysfunctional; don't think that you're any less because of your condition. In fact, I feel I am even more myself than I was before I got this illness because I have been able to transcend many of the psychological and emotional limitations I had before I developed ALS.
Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much a better place.