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
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
Man is happiest when he is creating. In fact, the highest state of which man is capable lies in the creative act.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Act, Love, Lies
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
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
Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with self—a felt void or need; second, a decision to change to fill the void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of growth and change—the willful act of making the change, doing something.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Change, Learning
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
Your talent is God’s gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God.
—Leo Buscaglia
We all need each other.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Aid, Assistance, Help
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
We all fear what we don’t know—it’s natural.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Fear
Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Sacrifice
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
Topics: Honesty, Love, Courage, Individuality, People
Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Life, Love, Living
People are not here to meet your expectations.
—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
We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ourselves.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Circumstance, Chance
A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Life, Growth, Courage
Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Being Ourselves
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.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Kindness
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
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
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
If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Freedom
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
Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: The Present, Living
Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: One liners, Purpose
One does not fall “in” or “out” of love. One grows in love.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Love
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
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
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Worry
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: Generations, Risk, Danger, Feelings
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.
—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
Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
—Leo Buscaglia
Like any other living, growing thing, love requires effort to keep it healthy.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Effort
Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Love, Life
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.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Ideals, Expectation, Ideal
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
Topics: Life, Motivation, Kindness, Power, Goodness, Love
Child development: Most damaging course of action is attempting to keep children from experience or protect them from pain, for it is this time that children learn that life is a magic thing, if “not a rose garden”. The parent’s role is primarily to stand by with a good supply of band-aids.
—Leo Buscaglia
Topics: Good, Action, Experience, Learn, Act, Rent, Pain, Life
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
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