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Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did we would do things differently. Do what the Buddhists do. 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?

Morrie Schwartz

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Morrie Schwartz
Age: 78 †
Born: 1916
Born: December 20
Died: 1995
Died: November 4
Professor
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Would
Person
Nobody
Little
Ready
Buddhists
Need
Asks
Shoulder
Needs
Dies
Differently
Going
Everyone
Buddhist
Every
Littles
Believes
Believe
Today
Shoulders
Things
Persons
Bird

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We're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going.
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If you don’t have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don’t have much at all.
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The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
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The best way to deal with that is to live in a fully conscious, compassionate, loving way. Don't wait until you're on your deathbed to recognize that this is the only way to live.
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Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.
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Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much a better place.
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When you learn to die, you learn to live.
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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.
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All younger people should know something. If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.
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Once you learn how to die you learn how to live.
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You don't understand. You're not a wave. You're part of the ocean.
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When you look at it that way, you can see how absurd it is that we individualize ourselves with our fences and hoarded possessions.
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After you have wept and grieved for your physical losses, cherish the functions and the life you have left.
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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.
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Do the kind 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 overhelmed with what comes back
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Well, the truth is, if you really listen to that bird on your shoulder, if you accept that you can die at any time–then you might not be as ambitious as you are.
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What's wrong with being number two?
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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.
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The little things, I can obey. But the big things - how we think, what we value - those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone - or any society - determine those for you.
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Grieve and mourn for yourself not once or twice, but again and again.
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