Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia (1924–98) was an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He championed the philosophy that love heals all and gained a reputation as an “apostle of love” for concluding his speeches by hugging every audience member.

Buscaglia got his start as a speech therapist and a supervisor of special education in Pasadena, California. When working as an education professor at the University of Southern California, the suicide of one of his students distressed him. He was inspired to teach a course titled “Love 101,” combining sociology and psychology. Six hundred students attended the first lecture, prompting Buscaglia to launch his career as a motivational writer and speaker. His first book, Love (1972,) examined the phenomenon of human love as the one unifying force in life.

Buscaglia authored over a dozen books and sold more than 11 million copies in 20 languages. His other notable books were Living, Loving and Learning (1982) and Loving Each Other (1984.) Once, five of his books appeared on the New York Times best-seller list simultaneously.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Leo Buscaglia

A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Friends, Friendship, Garden

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.
—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
Topics: Action, Learning, Time Management

We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just on the other side of failure.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Failure, Wisdom

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Inner-child

Love can never grow old. Locks may lose their brown and gold. Cheeks may fade and hollow grow. But the hearts that love will know, never winter’s frost and chill, summer’s warmth is in them still.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Love

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

If he desired to know about automobiles, he would, without question, study diligently about automobiles. If his wife desired to be a gourmet cook, she’d certainly study the art of cooking, perhaps even attending a cooking class. Yet, it never seems as obvious to him that if he wants to live in love, he must spend at least as much time as the auto mechanic or the gourmet in studying love.
—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

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
—Leo Buscaglia

Our greatest joy and satisfaction comes from the act of giving.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Satisfaction

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.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Feelings, Danger, Generations, Risk

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

Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself. Not to whom I want you to be, but to who you are.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Love

If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Freedom

One does not fall “in” or “out” of love. One grows in love.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Love

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Life and Living

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?
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Death

People are not here to meet your expectations.
—Leo Buscaglia

What’s the good of all our learning, knowing how to read and write and spell if no one ever teaches us the value of life, of our uniqueness, and personal dignity?
—Leo Buscaglia

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Worry

We all fear what we don’t know—it’s natural.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Fear

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Choices, Choice

Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Life, Love

We all need each other.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Help, Aid, Assistance

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.
—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

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

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 incredible unfulfilled tapestry. And only you can fulfill that tiny space that is yours.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Identity

We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ourselves.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Chance, Circumstance

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