I'm sure that most of you have been forced to read Mitch Albom in high school - at least at mine we had to, reading one of his more well-known books, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Most people hardly give him a thought after that, because while the book was pretty good, I'd have to say it wasn't his best (personally I think his nonfiction is way better, but maybe that's just me). But Mitch Albom's books speak deeply about important issues, and listed below are few of his more superb quotes that just sample how fantastic this man is.

From: The Time Keeper

Man 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.

This quote highlights a very human fear - a loss of time. As people we try to control literally everything in our lives, but the one thing we have no control over (at least, no actual control) is time. Yet we measure it, harp on it, keep ourselves constantly in tune with it, and here Albom poses the question: is it better this way, really?

Why did you measure the days and nights?
To know.
Sitting high above the city, Father Time realized that knowing something and understanding it were not the same thing.

Ah, but do we ever really understand this concept? Again he's talking about time, and how we focus so closely on it in an attempt to control it, but we just don't understand. And really, the quote applies to anything - knowing and understanding are two completely different concepts.


"There is a reason God limits our days."
"Why?"
"To make each one precious."

Cliche right to the end! I know, but I still love this quote. We only get so many days in our lives so that we find it harder to take each one for granted.

From: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

"No life is a waste," the Blue Man said. "The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone."

This is a kind of strange book in general, but I really do like this quote. The idea that nothing can be a waste in our lives unless we believe there's nothing more than just us, that we are alone and fighting on our own. It's comforting.

From: For One More Day

"A child embarrassed by his mother," she said, "is just a child who hasn't lived long enough."

A shout out to all the parents out there - eventually we figure out that you have been right all along.. it just takes us some time to stop being embarrassed of how weird you can be, and start realizing just how awesome and important you are.

From: Tuesdays with Morrie

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

Death as the "great equalizer" has always seemed so right to me. In the end, we all come to an end, and maybe, despite all our differences as human beings, that can be the thing that draws us all together. Food for thought, huh?


Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too - even when you are in the dark. Even when you're falling.

I've always found this passage powerful. There are people in this world that have to have facts to believe, and there are some people who just... know. And trust has everything to do with that feeling because the truth is that you can never prove a person to be trustworthy, and in the deepest, scariest, darkest moments of your life, you have to go out on a limb and trust someone. If you can't do that, you'll never have anyone trust you in return.


"Everyone knows they're going to die," he said again, "but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently."

Wouldn't you? If the doctor gave you two months to live, wouldn't you live differently? I know I would. I wouldn't be watching a full season of Glee in three days - no, I'd be living! Doing things I'd never had the courage to do before. And the sad thing is that our time could come up at any moment, but we don't live that way. We live thinking we have a hundred years, when we could have only moments.

These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works.

It never works. We want things to satisfy us, but they won't. Only relationships can fill the void. You can't be hugged by your things.

"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."

Wiser words have never been spoken. We spend so much time pretend that we can be independent and do life on our own and, hey, we don't need ANYONE! We're fine, thank you very much. But it's all a load of crap. We need people, beginning, middle, and end. We were made to have relationships and to love one another.


In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own.

A great way to describe love, isn't it? Because love is a very selfless emotion. When you love someone the internal selfishness that lives within us is trumped by this need to love and help someone else. You stop seeing just the edges of your world and start peeking into someone else's.

From: Have a Little Faith

Yes. It is.

We try to blame God, but it's us. We're the ones who hate and kill and destroy. God is love, and we spend our whole lives, it seems, rebelling against that.


His morning prayers began with, "Thank you, Lord, for returning my soul to me." When you start that way, the rest of the day is a bonus.

I just love this quote. "The rest of the day is a bonus..." Yeah, it really is.

So, Mitch Albom is awesome and you should go read some of his books, because they make you think, and it seems like today we really dislike having some thoughts of our own. So go pick up his books! See for yourself what this guy is all about.