Morrie Schwartz Quotes

When we are fully conscious and aware, we actually know when we are about to overreact. When we are mindful, we have the mental space and are aware of when our moods change. When we are mindful, we are aware of when our mental models are being challenged and when expectation does not meet with reality, which can trigger an emotional response.

You can't change how people act, but what you can change is how you react.

One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change them. Instead of intrusion and passivity, may I suggest submission? Some people make the mistake of confusing “submission” with “weakness”, whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.

When we meditate every morning we are putting on armor for the day's battle against our own impatience, inadequacy, resentment, and hostility.

Stop thinking, and end your problems. What difference between yes and no? What difference between success and failure? Must you value what others value, avoid what others avoid? How ridiculous!

Well, you can’t control what they do, but you can control how you respond to it…whether you allow it to drive you crazy, or occupy all of your thoughts, or whether you note what they’re doing, consider it, and make a conscious decision as to how much you’ll let it affect you

It's not what people do to us that hurts us. In the most fundamental sense, it is our chosen response to what they do to us that hurts us.

I've followed the lives of great musicians and have learned that you don't have to always write in pain. You have all of your past experiences, feelings, and thoughts that you can turn on when you need them and turn off when you don't.

By far the most difficult skill I learned as a C.E.O. was the ability to manage my own psychology. Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared with keeping my mind in check.

I don't think I get angry.

Your temperament is what you write with, but it's also how you deal with the world.

If somebody pisses me off and I understand it ain't personal then I'll go to another place and I'll meditate.

I've spent quite a bit of my life as a meditation teacher and writer commending the strengths of love and compassion.

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out? Whatever it is, it's a good indication of what you're made of.

One of the hard lessons to learn in life is that there are some things you can control and some things you can't. If you want a short recipe for being frustrated and miserable, this is it: focus on things you can't control.

Negative emotions will challenge your grit every step of the way. While it's impossible not to feel your emotions, it's completely under your power to manage them effectively and to keep yourself in a position of control. When you let your emotions overtake your ability to think clearly, it's easy to lose your resolve.

The main thing I've learned is that we all have to learn to work with - and appreciate - the brain we've been given, and not waste time wishing things were easier.

All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

My number one thing to work on is not being reactive - but appropriateness doesn't come easily to me sometimes.

I am not the type of person who lets the pressure get to him. I try to see it as my friend. I align with it to calm me down.

The only way I've been able to keep my sanity is to pull back when I feel like it's time to pull back.

There is really only one way to deal with Misery. Accept her presence. Like most experiences in life, we must acknowledge the passage gracefully and let her move through our lives because she brings with her a hidden gift.

I don't think it serves anyone to bottle emotions.

I don't put much pressure on myself, because I'm strong mentally.