"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
— C.S. Lewis

"We read to know that we are not alone."
— C.S. Lewis

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
— C.S. Lewis

"...it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept. And then you start to hurry. You work faster and faster and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop--and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.

You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.

That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.

And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. what's more, you aren't out of breath. That's important, too... (28-29)"
— Michael Ende (Momo)

""What will happen when my heart stops beating?" Momo asked.
"When that moment comes," said the professor, "time will stop for you as well. Or rather, you will retrace your steps through time, through all the days and nights, myths and years of your life, until you go out through the great, round, silver gate you entered by."
"What will I find on the other side?"
"The home of the music you've sometimes faintly heard in the distance, but by then you'll be part of it. You yourself will be a note in its mighty harmonies.""
— Michael Ende

"Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart."
— Michael Ende

"And if someone felt that his life had been an utter failure, and that he himself was only one among millions of wholly unimportant people who could be replaced as easily as broken windowpanes, he would go and pour out his heart to Momo. And, even as he spoke, he would come to realize by some mysterious means that he was absolutely wrong: that there was only one person like himself in the whole world, and that, consequently, he mattered to the world in his own particular way.

Such was Momo's talent for listening."
— Michael Ende

"To be nobody but
yourself in a world
which is doing its best day and night to make you like
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting."
— e.e. cummings

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
— Mark Twain

"Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute."
— Mark Twain (Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings)

"Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big enough majority in any town?"
— Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."
— Mark Twain

"Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it."
— Mark Twain

"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."
— Mark Twain

"Denial is much more then an Egyptian River."
— Mark Twain

"The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for."
— Mark Twain

"Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it."
— Mark Twain

"Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries."
— Mark Twain

"If everyone was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes."
— Mark Twain

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would get in."
— Mark Twain

"Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with."
— Mark Twain

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."
— Mark Twain

"Of course, no man is entirely in his right mind at any time."
— Mark Twain

"The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up."
— Mark Twain

"The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."
— Mark Twain

"It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense."
— Mark Twain

"All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time."
— Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

"At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in."
— Mother Teresa

"People never seemed to notice that, by saving time, they were losing something else. No one cared to admit that life was becoming ever poorer, bleaker and more monotonous. The ones who felt this most keenly were the children, because no one had time for them anymore. But time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. And the more people saved, the less they had. "
— Michael Ende

"Bastion looked at the book.
'I wonder,' he said to himself, 'what's in a book while it's closed. Oh, I know it's full of letters printed on paper, but all the same, something must be happening, because as soon as I open it, there's a whole story with people I don't know yet and all kinds of adventures, deeds and battles. And sometimes there are storms at sea, or it takes you to strange cities and countries. All those things are somehow shut in a book. Of course you have to read it to find out. But it's already there, that's the funny thing. I just wish I knew how it could be.'
Suddenly an almost festive mood came over him.
He settled himself down, picked up the book, opened it to the first page, and began to read..."
— Michael Ende (The Neverending Story)

"Housework can kill you if done right."
— Erma Bombeck

"There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt."
— Erma Bombeck

"When humor goes, there goes civilization."
— Erma Bombeck

"Cleanliness is not next to godliness. It isn't even in the same neighborhood. No one has ever gotten a religious experience out of removing burned-on cheese from the grill of the toaster oven."
— Erma Bombeck

"Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone?"
— Erma Bombeck

"Sometimes I can't figure designers out. It's as if they flunked human anatomy."
— Erma Bombeck

"Humor is a spontaneous, wonderful bit of an outburst that just comes. It's unbridled, its unplanned, it's full of suprises."
— Erma Bombeck

"It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else. "
— Erma Bombeck

"No one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. I have known mothers who remake the bed after their children do it because there is wrinkle in the spread or the blanket is on crooked. This is sick."
— Erma Bombeck

"There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it."
— Erma Bombeck

"When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he's doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911. "
— Erma Bombeck

"Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago."
— Erma Bombeck

"If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead."
— Erma Bombeck

"IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the "good" living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather rambling about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculped like a rose before it melted
in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television, and more
while watching life.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick, instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment, realising that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's" and more "I'm sorry's"

. . . but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute . . .
look at it and really see it . . . and never give it back."
— Erma Bombeck

"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint."
— Erma Bombeck

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."
— Erma Bombeck

"When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out."
— Erma Bombeck

"There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I’ve got dreams, of course I’ve got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they’re still there."
— Erma Bombeck

"Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart."
— Erma Bombeck

"The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one."
— Erma Bombeck