Tuesdays with Morrie
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Read between May 6 - October 31, 2017
17%
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I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never even realized I was doing it.
17%
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I once promised myself I would never work for money, that I would join the Peace Corps, that I would live in beautiful, inspirational places. Instead, I had been in Detroit for ten years now, at the same workplace, using the same bank, visiting the same barber. I was thirty-seven, more efficient than in college, tied to computers and modems and cell phones. I wrote articles about rich athletes who, for the most part, could not care less about people like me. I was no longer young for my peer group, nor did I walk around in gray sweatshirts with unlit cigarettes in my mouth. I did not have long ...more
19%
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The tension of opposites? “Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. “A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.” Sounds like a wrestling match, I say. “A wrestling match.” He laughs. “Yes, you could describe life that way. ” So which side wins, I ask? “Which side wins?” He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. ...more
20%
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“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.”
21%
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“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.”
25%
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Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another.
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We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, ‘Love is the only rational act.’
26%
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Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?
27%
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How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day.
29%
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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.”
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“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
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He was making sure I absorbed this point, without embarrassing me by asking. It was part of what made him a good teacher.
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As our great poet Auden said, ‘Love each other or perish.’ ”
43%
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“This is part of what a family is about, not just love, but letting others know there’s someone who is watching out for them.
58%
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This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.
59%
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Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
59%
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if you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at 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.
Nilesh Khade
seriously, have already experienced it.
59%
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“Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.”
Nishant Nori liked this
63%
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When Morrie was with you, he was really with you. He looked you straight in the eye, and he listened as if you were the only person in the world.
69%
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marriage: If you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don’t have a common set of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike.
69%
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“Your belief in the importance of your marriage.”
75%
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“Don’t let go too soon, but don’t hang on too long.”
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“I’m bargaining with Him up there now. I’m asking Him, ‘Do I get to be one of the angels?’ ”
77%
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We also need to forgive ourselves.” Ourselves? “Yes. 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. That doesn’t help you when you get to where I am.
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“There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like.
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“In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Maybe you’re too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.
88%
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there is no such thing as “too late” in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye.
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Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine? If you are lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you will always find your way back. Sometimes it is only in your head. Sometimes it is right alongside their beds.
95%
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NO STORY SITS by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.