Life is not about warming yourself by the fire. Life is about building the fire. And generosity is the match.
Larry Lucchino
Boston University Commencement 2008, 2008
Video starts at 15:25 — the moment this quote was spoken
The Story Behind This Quote
Larry Lucchino, then President and CEO of the Boston Red Sox and a two-time cancer survivor, delivered the commencement address at Boston University in 2008. His speech took the form of a personal 'Top Ten List' of life lessons learned through decades as a baseball executive. The climactic lesson — Number One — was about generosity. He quoted a Chinese proverb: 'If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. But if you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.' For Lucchino, whose own priorities had been shaped by surviving cancer twice, the message was deeply personal: find a cause you care about, involve yourself, and start early in life.