124 Inspiring Quotes by Leo Buscaglia

Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions.

If there is any immortality to be had among us human beings, it is certainly only in the love that we leave behind. Father's like mine don't ever die.

There are many miracles in the world to be celebrated and, for me, garlic is the most deserving.

Love is not some complex, mystical abstraction. It is something accessible and human that we learn through our everyday experience, as often at times of failure as in moments of ecstasy.

I was lucky to have such a loving, crazy family. I learned to give and share.

The most important thing in the world is that you make yourself a loving person, because this is what you will be giving away.

A life of love is one of continual growth, where the doors and windows of experience are always open to the wonder and magic that life offers. To love is to risk living fully.

Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in.

Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don't miss it.

Success often lies just the other side of failure.

We all need to be recognized for what we're doing, for our work. Every once in a while we need someone to come up to us and say, 'You're beautiful. That was well done. That's nice.'

The most painful thing to experience is not defeat but regret.

The most unfortunate thing that happens to a person who fears failure is that he limits himself by becoming afraid to try anything new.

We are not for everyone and everyone is not for us. The question is, 'If we cannot be with another, can we at least not hurt them? Can we, at least, find a way to coexist?'

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

Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer.

When we feel joyful, euphoric, happy, we are more open to life, more capable of seeing things clearly and handling daily tensions.

I was one of those fortunate individuals who grew up in a large, passionate, demonstrative Italian family where we were taught to love as naturally as we breathed and ate giant bowls of pasta!

Love yourself-accept yourself-forgive yourself-and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.

Don't look over people's shoulders. Look in their eyes. Don't talk at your children. Take their faces in your hands and talk to them. Don't make love to a body, make love to a person.

The only lasting trauma is the one we suffer without positive change.

If one wishes to be a lover he must start by saying 'YES' to love.

Love can never grow old. Looks may lose their brown and gold. Cheeks may fade and hollow grow. But the hearts that love will know, never winter's frost and chill, summer's warmth is in them still.

The hardest battle you're ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.

I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate -- it's apathy. It's not giving a damn.

Don't over analyze your relationships.

A life without passion is not living, it's merely existing.

Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don't.

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

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.

In a crazy world, it's only your insanity that will keep you sane.

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool, to weep is to risk appearing too sentimental, to reach out for another is to risk involvement, and to expose feelings is to risk exposing one's true self.

I've spoken in every state in the union, meeting and hugging the people who later bought my books. I spoke to anybody who wanted to hear me, including 1,000 nuns who could pay me only with homemade bread.

God made mud, God made dirt, God made boys so girls could flirt.

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.

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

We need to learn to let go as easily as we grasp and we will find our hands full and our minds empty.

Loving memories last forever, I am at a loss for words during this sorrowful time. Please know that I am thinking of you and praying for peace and comfort.

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

A wonderful realization will be the day you realize that you are unique in all the world.

If one wishes to know love, one must live love, in action.

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

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

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!

Love withers with predictability; its very essence is surprise and amazement. To make love a prisoner of the mundane is to take its passion and lose it forever.

To live in love is life's greatest challenge. It requires more sublety, flexibility, sensitivity, understanding, acceptance, tolerance, knowledge and strength than any other human endeavor.

Say "yes" to life! "Yes" to wonder, to joy, to despair. "Yes" to pain, "yes" to what you don't understand. Try "yes." Try "always." Try "possible." Try "hopeful." Try "I will." And try "I can.

A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.

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

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

The minute we stop learning, we begin death, the process of dying. We learn from each other with every action we perform. We are teaching goodness or evil every time we step out of the house and into the street.

Hold on to your dreams for they are, in a sense, the stuff of which reality is made. It is through our dreams that we maintain the possibility of a better, more meaningful life.

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

To this day I cannot see a bright daffodil, a proud gladiola, or a smooth eggplant without thinking of Papa. Like his plants and trees, I grew up as a part of his garden.

We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ourselves.

Love is always changing and unless we stay aware and change with it, it eludes us.

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

To love oneself is to struggle to rediscover and maintain your uniqueness.

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.

Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness, to teach him how to develop that uniqueness, and then to show him how to share it because that's the only reason for having anything.

Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk.

Based on a string of bad breakups, I was forced to examine my choice of partners. Surely, that must have abolished me from any wrongdoing.

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.

The way to anybody's heart is through a thoughtfully-prepared, beautifully-executed, lovingly-presented meal.

Food is celebratory. People who don't cook don't know how much fun they're missing.

Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade.

Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time. It tell us to tell each other right now that we love each other.

Love always creates, it never destroys. In this lie's man's only promise.

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

Your talent is God's gift to you.

He who remains calm while those around him panic probably doesn't know what's going on.

Knowing that one is always capable of change, the second step lies in making the decision to change. Change does not occur by merely willing it anymore than behavior changes simply through insight.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch.

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.

Value yourself. The only people who appreciate a doormat are people with dirty shoes.

Things omitted are often more deadly than errors committed.

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.

You have the choice. You can choose joy over despair, happiness over tears, action over apathy, growth over stagnation.

The human need to play is a powerful one. When we ignore it, we feel there is something missing in our lives.

A life without love, no matter how many other things we have, is an empty, meaningless one.

To be is to do," says the existentialist. "One only becomes real (human) at the point of action.

Life is meant to be a celebration! It shouldn't be necessary to set aside special times to remind us of this fact. Wise is the person who finds a reason to make every day a special one.

I've always thought that people need to feel good about themselves and I see my role as offering support to them, to provide some light along the way.

Like any other living, growing thing, love requires effort to keep it healthy.

To know and not to do, is not to know.

A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.

Live nutty. Just occasionally. Just once in a while. And see what happens. It brightens up the day.

I am a teacher. And I think I am a serious one who happens to be enjoying life.

Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.

We all need each other.

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.

Every day we are offered new means for learning and growing in love.