"Why was he so quiet?" "To see if you would listen" - Mitch Albom

"There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need," Morrie said. "You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car, you don't need the biggest house. The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction?...Offering others what you have to give...I don't mean money, Mitch. I mean your time. Your concern. Your storytelling. It's not so hard."

Napoleon once dismissed religion as 'what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.' Meaning, without the fear of God — or literally the hell we might have to pay — the rest of us would just take what we wanted.

The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature. You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.