Mitch Albom

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”

“With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have”

“Sitting high above the city, Father Time realized that knowing something and understanding it were not the same thing.”

“Why do you want to die?'I shivered. For a second I couldn't breathe.'You knew...?'She gave a sad smile.'I'm your mother.”

“I meant no disrespect. It's just that I had always felt that rabbis, priests, pastors, any cleric, really, lived on a plane between mortal ground and heavenly sky. God up there. Us down here. Them in between.”

“We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.”

“The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction? ...Offering others what you have to give.”

“It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.”

“Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive, that you understand going to die, and you live a better life because of it.”

“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.”

“With no loss or sacrifice, we can't appreciate what we have.”

“O amor perdido não deixa de ser amor. Apenas assume uma forma diferente. Não conseguimos ver o sorriso da pessoa amada, ou levar-lhe comida, ou mexer-lhe nos cabelos, ou rodopiar com ela numa pista de dança. Mas quando esses sentimentos enfraquecem, há outro que se sublime. A memória. A memória torna-se nossa companheira. Alimenta-nos. A vida tem um fim. Mas o Amor não.”

“He was near tears, 'Who do I blame?' he kept asking me. 'There is no God.I can only blame myself.'" The Reb's face tightened, as if in pain. "That," he said, softly, "is a terrible self-indictment." Worse than an unanswered prayer? "Oh yes. It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody's out there.”

“Behind all your stories is always your mother's story. Because hers is where yours begin.”

“Perdonare"Forgive Yourself)”

“Eddie looked again at the graveside gathering. He wondered if he'd had a funeral. He wondered if anyone came. He saw the priest reading from the bible and the mourners lowering their heads. This was the day the Blue Man had been buried, all those years ago. Eddie had been there, a little boy, fidgeting through the ceremony, with no idea of the role he'd played in it."I still don't understand," Eddie whispered. "What good came from your death?""You lived," the Blue Man answered."But we barely knew each other. I might as well have been a stranger."The Blue Man put his arms on Eddie's shoulders. Eddie felt that warm, melting sensation."Strangers," the Blue Man said, "are just family you have yet to come to know.”

“There are many things in my life that I wish I could take back. Many moments I would recast.”

“So many times I feel I'm using the same words over and over, like a woman wearing the same dress every day. So boring!”

“If you hold back on the emotions—if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them—you can never get to being detached, you’re too busy being afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief. You’re afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.”

“we’re half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we haveto do.”

“If you really want it, then you'll make your dream happen.”

“you should never take anything for granted.”

“Tears are okay”

“Kadang-kadang kita tak boleh percaya kepada yang kita lihat, kita harus percaya kepada yang kita rasakan. Dan jika ingin orang lain percaya kepada kita, kita harus merasa bahwa kita dapat mempercayai mereka juga--bahkan meskipun kita sedang dalam kegelapan. Bahkan ketika kita sedang terjatuh.”

“How do people choose their final words? Do they realize their gravity? Are they fated to be wise?”

“What about a man who sits down to wonderWhy life has cheated him?Thinks about his situationHangs his head and criesWill we pretend, his problems don't exist?He's reaching out for help-will we selfishly resist?What about your brother? He's cryingWhat about your brother? He's dyingWhat about your brother?”

“Pengorbanan. Kau membuat pengorbanan. Aku membuat pengorbanan. Kita semua membuat pengorbanan. Tapi kau merasa marah atas pengorbanan yang kau berikan. Kau selalu memikirkan apa yang telah kau korbankan. Kau belum mengerti. Pengorbanan adalah bagian kehidupan. Harusnya begitu. Bukanlah sesuatu untuk disesali. Tapi sesuatu untuk didambakan.”

“The more you defend a lie, the angrier you become.”

“You count the hours you could have spent with your mother, it's a lifetime in itself.”

“What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked it's hard to believe you ever were a child?”

“When you're rotten about yourself, you become rotten to everyone else, even thoseyou love.”

“In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?’ His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘But here’s the secret: in between, we need others as well.”

“We all know how to be a child. It's inside all of us. For me, it's just remembering how to enjoy it.”

“When you come to the end, that's where God begins.”

“Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do. Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it. Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others. Don't assume that it's too late to get involved.”

“I made the wrong choice ," I whispered. My mother shook her head."A child should never have to choose.”

“Small towns are like metronomes; with the slightest flick, the beat changes.”

“As I crossed the street, my sister yelled out the window, "Do you want us to bring you a cone?" and I thought, You're so stupid, Roberta, cones melt.”

“What if I lose you?""You can't lose your mother, Charley.”

“It was sad, the imbalance of it all. Why do kids assume so much from one parent and hold the other to a lower, looser standard?”

“Kids chase the love that eludes them, and for me, that was my father's love. He kept it tucked away, like papers in a briefcase. And I kept trying to get in there.”

“Mothers support certain illusions about their children, and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did. When she passed away, so did that idea.”

“but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were floating down some side branch of a river.”

“This is a story about a family and, as there is a ghost involved, you might cal it a ghost story. But every family is a ghost story. The dead sit at out tables long after they have gone.”

“I love you every day,Mom”

“Silence is worse when you know it won't be broken.”

“I still don't understand," Eddie whispered. "What good came from your death?" "You lived," the Blue Man answered. "But we barely knew each other. I might as well have been a stranger."..."Strangers," the Blue Man said, "are just family you have yet to come to know.”

“This is the story of a man named Eddie and it starts at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It may seem strange to start a story with and ending, but all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.”

“Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another.”

“She cared. She gave a crap. When I lacked even the self-respect to keep myself alive, she dabbed my cuts and I fell back into being a son; I fell as easily as you fall into your pillow at night. And I didn’t want it to end. That’s the best way I can explain it. I knew it was impossible. But I didn’t want it to end.”