Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998), a popular American author and UCLA educator known as “Dr. Love,” built his public work around humanistic psychology, emotional openness, and the practical ethics of compassion. This quotation reflects themes he returned to repeatedly in his lectures and bestselling books of the 1970s–1990s: that resentment and unprocessed hurt drain vitality and block connection, while forgiveness and vulnerability restore one’s capacity to give and receive love. The wording is widely circulated in modern quotation collections and motivational media, though it is often presented without a precise bibliographic citation to a specific book, talk, or broadcast.

The line treats anger, hurt, and pain not as moral failings but as burdens that consume attention and emotional “energy.” Buscaglia’s point is pragmatic: clinging to grievance keeps a person oriented toward injury—replaying it, defending against it, and defining the self through it—so the emotional resources needed for intimacy, generosity, and joy are depleted. “Keep you from love” suggests love as an active stance requiring presence and openness; resentment narrows that stance into self-protection. The quote thus advocates release (not denial) of painful emotions so that one can re-enter relationship and live more fully.