Leo Buscaglia

“Live,love and learn”

“The easiest thing in the world is to be what you are, what you feel. The hardest thing to be is what other people want you to be.”

“If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails.”

“to love is to risk, not being loved in return. to hope is to risk pain. to try is to risk failure. but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in my life is to risk nothing.”

“A life lived in love will never be dull.”

“We all need each other.”

“Happiness and love are just a choice away.”

“Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.”

“When we cling to pain, we end up punishing ourselves.”

“What we need to know about loving is no great mystery. We all know what constitutes loving behavior; we need but act upon it, not continually question it. Over-analysis often confuses the issue and in the end brings us no closer to insight. We sometimes become too busy classifying, separating, and examining, to remember that love is easy. It's we who make it complicated.”

“Live now. When you are eating, eat. When you are loving, love. when you are talking with someone, talk. When you are looking at a flower, look. Catch the beauty of the moment!”

“Definition of a relationship - an enduring, mutually-agreed upon connection or union, which fulfills certain needs of the individuals involved and the society in which they live.”

“Even after centuries of human interacting, children still continue to rebel against their parents and siblings. Young marrieds look upon their in-laws and parents as obstacles to their independence and growth. Parents view their children as selfish ingrates. Husbands desert their wives and seek greener fields elsewhere. Wives form relationships with heroes of soap operas who vicariously bring excitement and romance into their empty lives. Workers often hate their bosses and co-workers and spend miserable hours with them, day after day. On a larger scale, management cannot relate with labour. Each accuses the other of unreasonable self-interests and narrow-mindedness. Religious groups often become entrapped, each in a provincial dogma resulting in hate and vindictiveness in the name of God. Nations battle blindly, under the shadow of the world annihilation, for the realization of their personal rights. Members of these groups blame rival groups for their continual sense of frustration, impotence, lack of progress and communication. We have obviously not learned much over the years. We have not paused long enough to consider the simple truth that we humans are not born with particular attitudinal sets regarding other persons, we are taught into them. We are the future generation's teachers. We are, therefore, the perpetrators of the confusion and alienation we abhor and which keeps us impotent in finding new alternatives. It is up to us to diligently discover new solutions and learn new patterns of relating, ways more conducive to growth, peace, hope and loving coexistence. Anything that is learned can be unlearned and relearned. In this process called change lies our real hope.”

“Loving relationships, though necessary for life, health, and growth, are among the most complicated skills. Before we can be successful at achieving relationships, it is necessary that we broaden our understanding of how they work, what they mean and how what we do and believe can enhance or destroy them. We can accomplish this only if we are willing to put in the energy and take the time to study failed relationships as well as examine successful ones. Loving relationships cannot be taken lightly. Unless we are looking for pain, they must not be forever approached in a trial and error fashion. Too many of us have experienced the cost of these lackadaisical approaches in terms of tears, confusion and guilt.”

“....though modern Marriage is a tremendous laboratory, its members are often utterly without preparation for the partnership function. How much agony and remorse and failure could have been avoided if there had been at least some rudimentary learning before they entered the partnership....And that statement is equally valid for all relationships.”

“There comes a time in some relationships when no matter how sincere the attempt to reconcile the differences or how strong the wish to recreate a part of the past once shared, the struggle becomes so painful that nothing else is felt and the world and all its beauty only add to the discomfort by providing cruel contrast.”

“If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.”

“Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever.”

“Love is not a thing, it is not lost when given. You can offer your love completely to hundreds of people and still retain the same love you had originally.”

“We created time, and now we have become the slave of time.”

“In the end you have only you.”

“Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love.”

“Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance”

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.”

“Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?”

“Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.”

“What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.”

“Every moment spent in unhappiness is a moment of happiness lost.”

“A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself -- to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart”

“To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatesthazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love.”

“Don't walk in my head with your dirty feet.”

“The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.”

“A wonderful realization will be the day you realize that you are unique in all the world. There is nothing that is an accident. You are a special combination for a purpose -- and don't let them tell you otherwise, even if they tell you that purpose is an illusion. (Live an illusion if you have to). You are that combination so that you can do what is essential for you to do. Don't ever believe that you have nothing to contribute. The world is an incredibly unfulfilled tapestry. And only you can fulfill that tiny space that is yours.”

“There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.”

“Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.”

“The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.”

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”

“After all, the wrong is done. It is past and cannot be changed. We have only the present and the future upon which to move forward.”

“When we give ourselves in love we become our most vulnerable. We are never safe. We become open to disappointment and hurt.”

“We treat our encounters with them with carefree casualness. We are certain that our relationships will naturally take care of themselves.”

“Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.”

“To love others you must first love yourself.”

“Relish love in your old age! Aged love is like aged wine; it becomes more satisfying, more refreshing, more valuable, more appreciated and more intoxicating!”

“It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.”

“Life is a paradise for those who love many things with a passion.”

“Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.”

“Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.”

“You are the only you ... You are the best you. You will always be the second best anyone else.”

“If you don't like the scene you're in, if you're unhappy, if you're lonely, if you don't feel that things are happening, change your scene. Paint a new backdrop.”

“You can only give away what you have ... If you have love, you can give it. If you don't have it, you don't have it to give.”