Harold Kushner Quotes

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.

I can’t hate people for making judgment on me, or making a decision of liking me or not liking me. All I can do is try to better as a person. And I’m good with knowing everything isn’t always going to be perfect.

Friendships aren't perfect and yet they are very precious. For me, not expecting perfection all in one place was a great release.

But love may have to be left off the exam. Most of us will never learn.

When people sit across from people - gay, straight, whatever - and they talk, they find out that people they may have been demonizing for their lifetime aren't the demons we've expected them to be.

You better get yourself together, darling, and join the human race.

I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people profoundly enough.

In prosperity you may count on many friends; if the sky becomes overcast you will be alone.

I wonder if, as you get older, you stop missing people so fiercely. Maybe growing up is just focusing on what you've got, instead of what you don't.

Men exist for each other. Then either improve them, or put up with them.

We say, 'Shall we meet for a drink?', as though drinking were the main end of the appointment, and the matter of company only incidental, we are so shy about admitting our need for one another.[...]We say, 'Would you like to come for some coffee?', as though it were less frightening to acknowledge that we are heavily dependent on mildly stimulating drinks, than to acknowledge that we are at all dependent on the companionship of other people.

If you're humble in defeat, everyone may still kick you, but they won't kick you as much.

You solve it as you get older, when you reach the point where you've tasted so much that you can somehow sacrifice certain things more easily, and you have a more tolerant view of things like possessiveness (your own) and a broader acceptance of the pains and the losses.

We are keenly aware of the faults of our friends, but if they like us enough it doesn't matter.

Love is big; love can hold anger, love can even hold hatred. It's about the intention of what you want it to do.

All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I'm going to experience them as well.

Now, I believe that one of the reasons that Jesus was accused of being a homosexual is because he spent time with homosexuals. I've often had people ask me, would you allow a homosexual to be your friend. Yes, I will. And the reason I will is because I know that that person has problems, and if I can minister to those problems, I will.

When I was young I asked more of people than they could give: everlasting friendship, endless feeling. Now I know to ask less of them than they can give: a straightforward companionship. And their feelings, their friendship, their generous actions seem in my eyes to be wholly miraculous: a consequence of grace alone.

It's impossible to make everyone happy. Some will choose to see the negative. None is perfect but find a way of loving them perfectly!

It used to worry me what people said about me. I'm learning not to worry as much. Sometimes you feel critics are wrong all the time, but I don 't take objection to it, because that's the way it goes. They can be wrong, they can be right. They can be cruel, they can be kind.

One has no right to form ideals of people, and then, because they don't justify them, become bitter.

The great irony to Dirk [Gently] is that he sees connections in everything, but the one thing he fails and struggles with most is connecting with other people.

She never thought she was good at making friends. But maybe she was just trying to be friends with the wrong people.

I wish I had more friends, but people are such jerks. If you can just get most people to leave you alone, you're doing good. If you can find even one person you really like, you're lucky. And if that person can also stand you, you're really lucky.

I would like to become tolerant without overlooking anything, persecute no one even when all people persecute me; become better without noticing it; become sadder, but enjoy living; become more serene, be happy in others; belong to no one, grow in everyone; love the best, comfort the worst; not even hate myself anymore.