Who is Leo Buscaglia
Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia (March 31, 1924 – June 12, 1998), also known as “Dr. Love,” was an American author and motivational speaker, and a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California.
Felice Leonardo Buscaglia was born in Los Angeles, California on March 31, 1924 into a family of Italian immigrants.[1] He spent his early childhood in Aosta, Italy, before going back to the United States for education. He was a graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School. Buscaglia served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Using G.I. Bill benefits, Buscaglia entered the University of Southern California, where he earned three degrees (BA 1950; MA 1954; PhD 1963) before eventually joining the faculty.
He was the first to state and promote the concept of hugs to 5 survive, 8 maintain and 12 to thrive.
Upon retirement, Buscaglia was named Professor at Large, one of only two such designations on campus at that time.
Leo Buscaglia Quotes
1. Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.
6. To love is to risk, not being loved in return. to hope is to risk pain. to try is to risk failure. but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in my life is to risk nothing.
7. Change is the end result of all true learning.
8. Don’t hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.
9. A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world.
10. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot
learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free.
11. Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don’t over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.
12. Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.
13. Don’t walk in my head with your dirty feet.
14. The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. 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 a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.
15. The hardest battle you are ever going to have to fight is the battle to be just you.
16. There are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.
17. I exist, I am, I am here, I am becoming, I make my own life and no one else makes it for me. I must face my own shortcomings, mistakes, transgressions. No one can suffer my non-being as I do, but tomorrow is another day, and I must decide to leave my bed and live again. And if I fail, I don’t have the comfort of blaming you or life or God.
18. 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.
19. Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.
20. Love is always bestowed as a gift – freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved; we love to love.
21. If you don’t like the scene you’re in, if you’re unhappy, if you’re lonely, if you don’t feel that things are happening, change your scene. Paint a new backdrop.
22. Our talents are the gift that God gives to us… What we make of our talents is our gift back to God
23. A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself — to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart
24. Life is a paradise for those who love many things with a passion.
25. To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
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.
26. Don’t spend your precious time asking “Why isn’t the world a better place?” It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is “How can I make it better?” To that there is an answer.
27. Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, ‘Did you bring joy?’ The second was, ‘Did you find joy?
28. Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don’t.
29. Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.
30. Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
31. You are the only you … You are the best you. You will always be the second best anyone else.
32. 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.
33. Most of us remain strangers to ourselves, hiding who we are, and ask other strangers, hiding who they are, to love us.
34. Love is life…and if you miss love, you miss life.
35. A wonderful realization will be the day you realize that you are unique in all the world. There is nothing that is an accident. You are a special combination for a purpose — and don’t let them tell you otherwise, even if they tell you that purpose is an illusion. (Live an illusion if you have to). You are that combination so that you can do what is essential for you to do. Don’t ever believe that you have nothing to contribute. The world is an incredibly unfulfilled tapestry. And only you can fulfill that tiny space that is yours.
36. The most unfortunate thing that happens to a person who fears failure is that he limits himself by becoming afraid to try anything new.
37. Love is not a thing, it is not lost when given. You can offer your love completely to hundreds of people and still retain the same love you had originally.
38. 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.
39. To love others you must first love yourself.
40. When we give ourselves in love we become our most vulnerable. We are never safe. We become open to disappointment and hurt.
41. Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance
42. Relish love in your old age! Aged love is like aged wine; it becomes more satisfying, more refreshing, more valuable, more appreciated and more intoxicating!
43. Even after centuries of human interacting, children still continue to rebel against their parents and siblings. Young marrieds look upon their in-laws and parents as obstacles to their independence and growth. Parents view their children as selfish ingrates. Husbands desert their wives and seek greener fields elsewhere. Wives form relationships with heroes of soap operas who vicariously bring excitement and romance into their empty lives. Workers often hate their bosses and co-workers and spend miserable hours with them, day after day. On a larger scale, management cannot relate with labour. Each accuses the other of unreasonable self-interests and narrow-mindedness. Religious groups often become entrapped, each in a provincial dogma resulting in hate and vindictiveness in the name of God. Nations battle blindly, under the shadow of the world annihilation, for the realization of their personal rights. Members of these groups blame rival groups for their continual sense of frustration, impotence, lack of progress and communication. We have obviously not learned much over the years. We have not paused long enough to consider the simple truth that we humans are not born with particular attitudinal sets regarding other persons, we are taught into them. We are the future generation’s teachers. We are, therefore, the perpetrators of the confusion and alienation we abhor and which keeps us impotent in finding new alternatives. It is up to us to diligently discover new solutions and learn new patterns of relating, ways more conducive to growth, peace, hope and loving coexistence. Anything that is learned can be unlearned and relearned. In this process called change lies our real hope.
44. Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.
45. In the end you have only you.
46. Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.
47. There comes a time in some relationships when no matter how sincere the attempt to reconcile the differences or how strong the wish to recreate a part of the past once shared, the struggle becomes so painful that nothing else is felt and the world and all its beauty only add to the discomfort by providing cruel contrast.
48. After all, the wrong is done. It is past and cannot be changed. We have only the present and the future upon which to move forward.
49. Every moment spent in unhappiness is a moment of happiness lost.
50. Live now. When you are eating, eat. When you are loving, love. when you are talking with someone, talk. When you are looking at a flower, look. Catch the beauty of the moment!
51. There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.
52. The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.
53. 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.
54. Too often we understimate 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 potentional to turn a life round.
55. To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest
hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love.
56. It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.
57. You can only give away what you have … If you have love, you can give it. If you don’t have it, you don’t have it to give.
58. What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
59. We created time, and now we have become the slave of time.
60. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.
