Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia, 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 into a family of Italian immigrants. 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 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. (via Wikipedia)
His great quotes are listed below:
On Love:
Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.
I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate – it’s apathy. It’s not giving a damn.
Love is always bestowed as a gift – freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved; we love to love.
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.
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.
What love we’ve given, we’ll have forever. What love we fail to give, will be lost for all eternity.
Love always creates, it never destroys. In this lies man’s only promise.
It is difficult for some people to accept that love is a choice. This seems to run counter to the generally accepted theory of romantic love which expounds that love is inborn and as such requires no more than to accept it.
Love is not some complex, mystical abstraction. It is something accessible and human that we learn through our everyday experience, as often at times of failure as in moments of ecstasy.
On Life:
Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.
Risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
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.
The most human thing we have to do in life is is to learn to speak our honest convictions and feelings and live with the consequences. This is the first requirment of love, and it makes us vulnerable to other people who may ridicule us. But our vulnerability is the only thing we can give to other people.
On Death:
On Happiness:
What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.