Twice

by Mitch Albom

“Suspicion and belief can’t share the same bed.”

did most of these things to see what it was like, to feel the breath of God or the devil or whatever awaits me when this life is over.

When you are lonely and you suddenly find a friend, it fills up your world.

The truth is, you never do as much good as you could.

When we’re young, we want to satisfy every desire. When we’re old, our greatest desire is to not die alone.

“I want, and you want, and God does what God wants.” ✶

Perhaps dallying with death was a way of feeling closer to where they’d gone. I don’t know. It doesn’t always make sense, the way you miss somebody. Sometimes, hurt seeks hurt.

There are years you think about for moments, and moments you think about for years.

The Truth About True Love: what we yearn for, deep down, is a heart that will embrace us after we make a fool of ourselves.

“Some of the biggest things in life happen over the smallest turns in the day.”

How simple, if you knew the consequences, to avoid the dumb mistakes you make in life.

Our best choices often come when we have no choice.

Afterward, lying next to her, I felt as full as I’d ever felt after my best meal, as rested as after my best sleep.

“At some point, you get tired of reliving the past. You’re ready for what comes next.”

“I want, and you want, and God does what God wants.” “That’s what Mom told me.” “Well.” She smiled. “Who do you think told her?”

“Good,” he said. “Suspicion and belief cannot share the same bed.”

What was it they said about passion and rocket fuel? They both burn fast?

That’s a selfish view, one I am ashamed to share. But selfishness is always clearer when you’re looking back on it.

What is it about time and love that turns us from red with desire to pale with familiarity?

And I learned another Truth About True Love: it doesn’t have to cost you anything. Even when it might cost you everything.

Spare yourself. When I wipe a slate, I wipe it clean.

Secrecy is a loan against your better judgment. You pay the interest in regret.

the time that followed—was forged in guilt, perhaps the world’s strongest motivator for man’s temporary good behavior.

And what you tell yourself long enough becomes, like new paint on an old wall, the only color you see.

What is it about guilt that shades even the simplest phrase?

A single thought can change every part of you. How you walk, how you smile, how you listen, how you breathe.

Some events in life you process as they happen. Others take a lifetime to understand.

This was when I still believed that a heart could be distracted from itself.

understood another Truth About True Love: it makes you feel like you belong someplace.

But I have already made my case about moments: how you forget so many over a lifetime, yet a lifetime can turn on a single one.

Sadly, when you lose yourself, you don’t realize who else you’re losing, too.

What is it about love that makes us think we can tame it, when all the while it is taming us?

And it is strange that you’d rather make yourself attractive for the possibility of a love, than for one you already have. I suppose all of it goes back to the grass is always greener. I looked up that phrase once. Did you know it dates to a Greek poet in the first century BC? That’s how long we’ve been making fools of ourselves.

We invent all kinds of theories about how our hearts get broken, when we’re the ones who drop them on the floor.

He said his understanding of females only extended to their pleasure. When it came to their pain, he didn’t want to know.