Top 263 Quotes & Sayings by Leo Buscaglia

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

I got the copyright for love!

I have too much respect for people to try to control them. But they are estranged from love, afraid to reach out and touch one another. We're afraid to appear sentimental or speak in platitudes because people will say, 'What a jerk!' It takes courage in our culture to be a lover.

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

Biologically and physiologically, we are not equal. Some of us learn better at different times of day. Some learn best visually, some auditorially, some tactilely, by touching.

My mother made soft polenta often, and as a child, I would watch her stir until she looked like her arm would fall off.

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

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

I've learned that you learn best by modeling. If you want people to learn, do it!

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

Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.

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

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

Change is the end result of all true learning.

The purpose of life is to help others, and if you can't help them, won't you at least not hurt them? I know that is a platitude, that that is sentimental and can easily be attacked. But loving, caring is simple, and we make it complex. Our own neuroses make it complex.

I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and say, 'No, I won't do it, I won't behave his way anymore. I'm lonely and I need people around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving,' and then you do it.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I have been a teacher myself all my life. I have an intense passion to share with people. Our only salvation is in knowledge, in learning.

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

All of my youth growing up in my Italian family was focused around the table. That's where I learned about love.

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

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

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.

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

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Hugs make you feel psychologically more secure and together.

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.

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

We want to gently remind people that we don't have forever. In my work, I hear parents complain all the time that their children grow up so fast. But they don't take the time to sit down and talk to each other. The last bastion of getting together is around the table.

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

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.

The best students come from homes where education is revered: where there are books, and children see their parents reading them.

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.

We all need each other.

When we sit at the table, there is more going on than satisfying hunger. It is sad to think of those who eat simply to satisfy their hunger and who do not permit themselves to linger under the many spells offered by a good meal - the satisfaction of our hearts, our minds and our spirits.

If you're an advocate of gentleness, you're simplistic and naive. If you're an advocate of despair and hate, you're sophisticated.

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

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

You can be a follower of Muhammad or Jesus or Buddha or whomever. Always, they said that the most essential factor is to love your neighbor. And to love you.

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

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

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

Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.

What love we've given, we'll have forever. What love we fail to give, will be lost for all eternity.

Everybody needs a hug. It changes your metabolism.

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.

Choose the way of life. Choose the way of love. Choose the way of caring. Choose the way of goodness. It's up to you. It's your choice.

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

The only thing of value we can give kids is what we are, not what we have.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free.

Each of us is responsible for creating an environment of warmth and consideration for those we love. I have always tried to define a good day not in terms of one in which all things were made right and comfortable for me but rather, as a day in which I have been able to make another's day more loving and special for them. We must treat each other with dignity. Not because we merit it but because we grow best in thoughtfulness.

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.

There are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.

No one gets out of this world alive, so the time to live, learn, care, share, celebrate, and love is now.

When love is accompanied with deep intimacy, it raises us to the highest level of human experience. In this exalted space, we can surrender our egos, become vulnerable and know levels of joy and well-being unique among life experiences. We attain a glimpse of the rapture that can be ours. Boundaries are blurred, there are no limitations and we rejoice in union. We become one and, at the same time, both.

I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.