" Don't Cry Because It's Over....Smile Because It Happened.--Dr.Suess"
— Dr.Suess

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
— Dr. Seuss

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

(Chicago Tribune: 01/06/97)"
— Mary Schmich

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"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 endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a little bit better, whether by healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life had breathed easier because you have lived, This is to have succeeded."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
— Dr. Seuss

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."
— Mahatma Gandhi

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
— Marilyn Monroe

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
— Mark Twain

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
— Abraham Lincoln

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough"
— Mae West

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
— Mahatma Gandhi

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."
— Elie Wiesel

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
— Robert Frost

"Women are like teabags; you never know how strong they are until they're put in hot water."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything."
— Malcolm X

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."
— Elbert Hubbard

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
— Oscar Wilde

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
— Albert Einstein

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
— Douglas Adams

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
— Oscar Wilde

"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

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

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

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells."
— Dr. Seuss

"Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. "
— Bill Gates

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
— Douglas Adams

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."
— Anaïs Nin

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
— Laozi

"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
— Mother Teresa

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."
— George Eliot

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
— Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

"For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."
— Virginia Woolf

"It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not."
— André Gide

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
— Mother Teresa

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
— Charles M. Schulz

"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they're ok, then it's you."
— Rita Mae Brown

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way."
— Pablo Neruda (100 Love Sonnets/Cien Sonetos De Amor)

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
— Henry David Thoreau

"...we accept the love we think we deserve."
— Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."
— A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."
— Bill Cosby

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."
— Oscar Wilde

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."
— Charlie Chaplin