One of my favorite authors of all time is Mitch Albom. With life advice and profound and thought-provoking statements seemingly on every page of his books, Albom has touched the hearts of millions of readers. His seven books, inspired by his own life or the lives of others, contain some of life’s most important lessons. Here are two of the most important take aways from each of his books.

"Tuesdays with Morrie"

“You see, you closed your eyes. That was the difference. 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’re in the dark. Even when you’re falling.”

Sometimes, when life seems frustrating or unfair, we become untrustworthy of others and only trust our own judgment. This quote tells us that we cannot do that – we must trust others when we are at our most vulnerable, for that is that only way others are going to trust us. We have be able to feel like we can trust others, and “close our eyes” and simply trust.

“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. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your heard even, you experience them fully and completely.”

Take a chance. You never know until you try. These sentences can act as replacements for the above quote. If we do not allow ourselves to be fully immersed in love, we will not know how to be vulnerable with another person. Many people avoid relationships and love out of fear of getting hurt and the pain that could come with rejection. But if we never experience these emotions to their full extent, we will spend our time being afraid of something we do not know could be possible or impossible.

"The Five People You Meet in Heaven"

“All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.”

Whether it is the death of a loved one, a breakup or even the ending of a sports season, this quote is relevant. Another quote you may have heard of related to this is: “When one door closes, another door opens.” The pain or emotions that occur when something ends are strong enough that we don’t realize that it is the way of life and something new is about to begin. Starting over is hard, but we must realize that even though it is hard now, in time we will look back at those memories and smile and realize how far we’ve come since then.

“The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.”

You are never alone. Many of us have been there, including me--thinking that we are the only person who could possibly understand what is going on in our minds. But the only time we waste, according to Albom, is the time we spend doing just that. It goes back to trust--we have to trust others and realize that we are not alone in our struggles, and there will always be someone who will support us.

"For One More Day"

“Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? If so, then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.”

Many people go through this in the grieving process. We wish that we could just have one more moment with the person, to tell them all the things we wish we would have said. Albom says that the moment everyone wants back, however, is the day we looked at the person and thought that they couldn’t wait to spend forever with the person. This will always be the most important day, and the day in which we wish we knew better and could have back to think otherwise.

“When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.”

A mother’s love is one of the most powerful things in this world. The first eyes you see are your mother’s. The first person to hold you is your mother. The first voice you hear is your mother’s. In those first moments of life, the purest form of love is present between you and her. Nothing is more powerful than that moment.

"Have A Little Faith"

“Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.”

There is a big difference between faith and belief, and it’s important that people begin to realize this. If you have faith in a person or ideal, your actions and your words speak to that. If you believe that a person is a lazy beggar, but you drop a dollar in their collection can, you are showing that you have faith that the person can pick themselves up if given the opportunity. In that moment, your beliefs about this stranger are thrown out the window.

“You are not your past.”

You make your future one day at a time. Sometimes it can seem like your past can haunt you, and “karma” is out to get you. But this isn’t true. Just because you are told that you won’t amount to anything, does not mean you have to fall into the “self-fulfilling prophecy” trap. Your past makes you the person you are today, but it does not make the person you are tomorrow.

"The Time Keeper"

“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. 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.”

Fearing death is very common. We become so wrapped up in the idea of there not being “enough hours in the day” to get everything done that we want to that we fear that when our hourglass finally becomes empty, we won’t feel accomplished. In today’s world, it is nearly impossible to escape this “paralyzing fear” Albom describes. But we have to remember that our time on this earth is fleeting, and if we spend it thinking we are alone or worrying about things that do not matter, we are not living life to the fullest.

“Knowing something and understanding it are not the same thing.”

This is one of my favorite quotes ever. Just became you claim to have knowledge of something does not mean that you understand its intricacies or effects. You may know that someone has depression, but you may not understand everything that happened before you knew the person to make them depressed, or what goes on in their mind on a daily basis. You can know facts and statistics, but if you don’t understand what they mean, it means nothing.

"The First Phone Call from Heaven"

“There are two stories for every life; the one you live & the one others tell.”

How would you describe yourself? How would others describe you? The way you present yourself when no one is looking and the way you present yourself to others may be two totally different people. How other people see you is one story, and the way you see yourself when you look in the mirror or take a personality test is a different story entirely.

“The words people do not speak are louder than the ones they do.”

Actions speak louder than words. It’s as simple as that. Sadly, someone could tell a bold-faced lie to you and you may not even know it. Someone could say that they are Catholic or Muslim, yet they do not act in the ways in which you would expect a Catholic or Muslim to behave. C.G. Jung puts it best: “You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

"The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto"

“The secret is not to make your music louder, but to make the world quieter.”

Be humble and have patience. Boasting our accomplishments and flaunting ourselves to the world would be making our music louder. How do we “make the world quieter?” It’s not simple, but just be patient. Patience is a virtue, and we have to work hard until our time comes, and our “music” will shine through.

“This is life. Things get taken away. You will learn to start over many times -- or you will be useless.”

Nothing is permanent in this life. People and things will come and go, and when they leave our lives, we have to be able to move on from them if we are to live our lives like normal. If we cannot learn to move on, we will be stuck in a never-ending cycle of self-denial and loneliness that can seem impossible to escape. If we do not let ourselves become trapped in this cycle, we learn to start over and begin a new journey.