Robert Fulghum

A book to raise the spirits and warm the heart. Includes the famous Kindergarten essay that was read on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Essays on life that will resonate deeply as readers discover how universal insights can be found in ordinary events.
More than thirty years ago, Robert Fulghum published a simple credo--a credo that became the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Today, after being embraced around the world and selling more than seven million copies, Fulghum's book retains the potency of a common though no less relevant piece of wisdom: that the most basic aspects of life bear its most important opportunities.

Here Fulghum engages us with musings on life, death, love, pain, joy, sorrow, and the best chicken-fried steak in the continental United States. The little seed in the Styrofoam cup offers a reminder about our own mortality and the delicate nature of life . . . a spider who catches (and loses) a full-grown woman in its web one fine morning teaches us about surviving catastrophe . . . the love story of Jean-Francois Pilatre and his hot-air balloon reminds us to be brave and unafraid to "fly" . . . life lessons hidden in the laundry pile . . . magical qualities found in a box of crayons . . . hide-and-seek vs. sardines--and how these games relate to the nature of God. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten is brimming with the very stuff of life and the significance found in the smallest details.

In the editions since the first publication of this book, Robert Fulghum has had some time to ponder, to reevaluate, and to reconsider, adding fresh thoughts on classic topics including a short new introduction.

Sai Bommisetty 

Gives you time to think if you really want to go ahead. We could all use the device like that between us and power, I guess. It's nice to know that progress in such things is possible -- in the face of ignorance and pride. Progress is possible.

A man I know found out last year he had terminal cancer. He was a doctor. And he knew about dying, and he didn't want to make his family and friends suffer through that with him. So he kept a secret. And died. Everybody said how great he was to bear his suffering in silence and not tell everybody, and so on and so forth. But privately his family and friends said how angry they were that he didn't need them, didn't trust their strength. And it hurt that he didn't say goodbye. He hid too well.

rumbledethumps

I read this book long ago, when I was in high school. I remember thinking it was a really deep, important book at the time. On re-reading it in adulthood, I no longer think it is either deep or important.

There is a sort of smug satisfaction cloaked in humility in a lot of these very short essays about life, and they now feel like someone who is trying to seem wise, rather than someone who is wise.

But, there is definite value to be found in this book. I especially like his idea that we shouldn't bother searching for the meaning of life, and instead should be looking, all the time, to find the meaning in life. 

Perhaps this book is best enjoyed by dipping into it here and there, rather than reading it from start to finish in a short period of time.

ame 

Fulgham, Robert

The Unitarian minister reflects on America and its diverse peoples, everyday wisdoms, kindnesses, and joys, and everyday life's large meanings.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things

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