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
In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive. And at the end of life, we need others to survive. But here's the secret, in between, we need others as well.
When you look at it that way, you can see how absurd it is that we individualize ourselves with our fences and hoarded possessions.
Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left?
What tipped the scales was that psychology involved working with rats.
If we can remember the feeling of love we once had, we can die without ever going away.
We're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going.
We have a sense that we should be like the mythical cowboy... able to take on and conquer anything and live in the world without the need for other people.
All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I'm going to experience them as well.
Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it.
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.