"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
— Bessie Anderson Stanley

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
— Mother Teresa

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
— Robert A. Heinlein

"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
— Mark Twain

"A person's a person, no matter how small."
— Dr. Seuss

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
— Mahatma Gandhi

"Here's my theory about meetings and life: the three things you can't fake are erections, competence and creativity."
— Douglas Coupland (JPod: A Novel)

"Madness, and then illumination."
— Orson Scott Card (Xenocide)

"No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins."
— Orson Scott Card (Speaker for the Dead)

"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'"
— Kurt Vonnegut (Timequake)

"Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead."
— Kurt Vonnegut

"I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all."
— Kurt Vonnegut (The Sirens of Titan)

"Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another."
— Chip Kidd (The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters)

"As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway."
— Bill Watterson (The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes)

"You know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon...everything's different."
— Bill Watterson

"Calvin: I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog! Want to see my book report?

Hobbes: (Reading Calvin's paper) "The Dynamics of Interbeing and Monological Imperatives in Dick and Jane: A Study in Psychic Transrelational Gender modes."

Calvin: Academia, here I come!"
— Bill Watterson (Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat)

"Hobbes: Jump! Jump! Jump! I win!
Calvin: You win? Aaugghh! You won last time! I hate it when you win! Aarrggh! Mff! Gnnk! I hate this game! I hate the whole world! Aghhh! What a stupid game! You must have cheated! You must have used some sneaky, underhanded mindmeld to make me lose! I hate you! I didn't want to play this idiotic game in the first place! I knew you'd cheat! I knew you'd win! Oh! Oh! Aarg!
[Calvin runs in circles around Hobbes screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaa", then falls over.]

Hobbes: Look, it's just a game.
Calvin: I know! You should see me when I lose in real life!"
— Bill Watterson

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. "
— Bill Watterson

"The problem about the future is that it keeps turning into the present."
— Bill Watterson

"Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind."
— Jeffrey Eugenides

"Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years."
— Richard Bach

"I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are."
— Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass)

"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper."
— Steve Martin

"You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight."
— Elizabeth Gilbert

"The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
— Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five)