Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.

One definition of eternity is that we are not alone on this planet, that there are those who've gone before and those who will come, and that there is a community of spirits.

Stories are what death thinks he puts an end to. He can't understand that they end in him, but they don't end with him.

We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue.

You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.

If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach to immortality.

We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.

I'm attending to my legacy, making sure that it travels the universe in the best shape I can get it into. For as long as I'm alive, I'll still be its interpreter.

Whatever is powerful to you can be translated into something which will matter to somebody that you will never know.

What happened yesterday affects today; what happens today will affect tomorrow/

Events are as much the parents of the future as they were the children of the past.

It embodied what came before. Illuminated what came after.

We build our legacy piece by piece, and maybe the whole world will remember you or maybe just a couple of people, but you do what you can to make sure you're still around after you're gone.

I don't believe in an afterlife. You live on in the people you influence during your lifetime.

There's one form of immortality I like to think about. It's that all those who from the very first have given anything to the world are living in the world to-day.

That chain of relationships made me think of how connections are made--you read a book, you meet a person, you have a single experience, and your life is changed in some way. No act, therefore, however small, should be dismissed or ignored.

When I'm dead are they going to remember me ? I don't really think about it, it's up to them. When I'm dead, who cares ? I don't.

We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why. Not until the future eats the present, anyway. We know when it's too late.

A word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.

The busiest of living agents are certain dead men's thoughts.

You don't really stay attached to things. Life goes on, so you don't really sit around and think about how they are relevant to other people. You hope that whatever you create will be [relevant].

If I, this mortal shell, am going to die, let me at least live on through my creations.

If I die tomorrow or in a year, it is the same — it is the message you leave behind you that counts.

We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we made.