Leo Buscaglia

Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance

— Leo Buscaglia

Change is the end result of all true learning.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

It is when we ask for love less and begin giving it more that the basis of human love is revealed to us.

— Leo Buscaglia

A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.

— Leo Buscaglia

As soon as the love relationship does not lead me to me, as soon as I in a love relationship do not lead another person to himself, this love, even if it seems to be the most secure and ecstatic attachment I have ever experienced, is not true love. For real love is dedicated to continual becoming.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

One does not fall "in" or "out" of love. One grows in love.

— Leo Buscaglia

This loving person is a person who abhors waste — waste of time, waste of human potential. How much time we waste. As if we were going to live forever.

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia

We need not be afraid to touch, to feel, to show emotion. The easiest thing in the world is to be what you are, what you feel. The hardest thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.

— Leo Buscaglia

The hardest battle you are ever going to have to fight is the battle to be just you.

— Leo Buscaglia

We need others. We need others to love and we need to be loved by them. There is no doubt that without it, we too, like the infant left alone, would cease to grow, cease to develop, choose madness and even death.

— Leo Buscaglia

To love oneself is to struggle to rediscover and maintain your uniqueness. It is understanding and appreciating the idea that you will be the only you to ever live upon this earth, that when you die so will all of your fantastic possibilities. It is the realization that even you are not totally aware of the wonders which lie dormant within yourself.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

Perfect love is rare indeed — for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.

— Leo Buscaglia

Go around — listen to how many times a day you say, "I love" instead of, "I hate." Isn't it interesting that children, as they learn the process of language, always learn the word "no" years before they learn the word "yes"? Ask linguists where they hear it. Maybe if they heard more of "I love, I love, I love" they'd hear it sooner and more often.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

DON'T MISS LOVE. It's an incredible gift. I love to think that the day you're born, you're given the world as your birthday present. It frightens me to think that so few people even bother to open up the ribbon! Rip it open! Tear off the top! It's just full of love and magic and joy and wonder and pain and tears. All of the things that are your gift for being human.

— Leo Buscaglia

Who is the loving person? The loving person is the person who loves him or herself. I say this so often, and people say, "Oh yes, you're so right," but they don't do it! You will never be able to love anyone else until you love yourself. Even With your Fat Thighs!

— Leo Buscaglia

The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.

— Leo Buscaglia

When I wrote my book, LOVE, it was really funny, because my publisher said, "Oh, Leo, you're going to have to change the name because I'm sure that someone has used that name before." I said, "Why don't you send it in and see what happens?" So we sent it in and I got the "copyright" for LOVE! No one had ever thought of a book called simply Love. L-O-V-E. Such a good word. Such a limitless word. Such a limitless concept.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

I will love you no matter what. I will love you if you are stupid, if you slip and fall on your face, if you do the wrong thing, if you make mistakes, if you behave like a human being——I will love you no matter.

— Leo Buscaglia

People are not here to meet your expectations.

— Leo Buscaglia

To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

— Leo Buscaglia

We take love for granted. We assume we are all perfect lovers and all we need do is wait and our love will grow and blossom as readily as a flower in spring. Not so. Love doesn't grow unless we do. It takes patience, knowledge, experience, determination, and every positive trait we possess. In addition, love is always changing and unless we stay aware and change with it, it eludes us.

— Leo Buscaglia

We are all born with God-given, unique traits and skills. But, as with all possibilities they will remain unrealized unless they are developed, nurtured, and put into practice. You may have the "capacity" to love, but if left undeveloped, you will never gain the "ability."

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia

A life of love is one of continual growth, where the doors and windows of experience are always open to the wonder and magic that life offers. To love is to risk living fully.

— Leo Buscaglia

I don't believe in unconditional love. In fact, I think it's unwise. My love has had a condition that if ever my love keeps you from you, from your growing, and realizing your personal potential, then I must step aside. No one has the right to stand in the way of another's joy, development, or unique perceptions.

— Leo Buscaglia

We live in a small world. Not a leaf falls that doesn't affect a myriad of things. When we reach out to someone in love and the effect is made — everyone, everything which comes in contact with the person we've effected is better for it. Of course, the converse is true, too.

— Leo Buscaglia

The essence of love is getting out of oneself and into others. When we care less about our feelings, our rights, our happiness, our security, etc., and begin to concern ourselves with the feelings, rights, happiness, and security of others, we will have found the true power of love.

— Leo Buscaglia

We can ask ourselves daily what we have done to make the world a better place, to make someone smile, to help someone to feel more secure, etc. It's the simple things which have the greatest effect. We must never underestimate the strength of a smile or act of kindness.

— Leo Buscaglia

We are born for love, but it will die if not nurtured.

— Leo Buscaglia

You can't imagine the joy I feel when I hear that something I've said or done or written has helped others to regain their sense of dignity, to motivate them to develop their unique potential, to encourage them to reach out to others in love.

— Leo Buscaglia

I have learned that love is the most powerful force available to us. When we have real love we have the strength to perform miracles.

— Leo Buscaglia

I'd like to be remembered for being a good, kind, loving, gentle man who attempted to live wisely, and who cared a lot.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia

Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.

— Leo Buscaglia

Change is the end result of all true learning.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

Change is the end result of all true learning.

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia

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

— Leo Buscaglia

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.

— Leo Buscaglia