C. S. Lewis:

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

You can corral good arguments, successful examples, prominent graduates -- and insufferable converts -- to champion any of a whole flock of possible pathways.

Art & Fear, p. 86

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

God does not will that I should fashion the other person according to the image that seems good to me, that is, in my own image; rather in his very freedom from me God made this person in His image.

Life Together

Randy Pausch:

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

The Last Lecture, p. 148

Steven Pressfield:

An amateur lets the negative opinion of others unman him.

The War of Art, p. 91

Hugh MacLeod:

Life is messy; cliches are clean and tidy.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 117

Deborah Layton:

Nobody joins a cult. Nobody joins something they think's going to hurt them. You join a religious organization, you join a political movement and you join with people you really like.

As featured on "The Life and Death of Peoples Temple"

NOTE: Deborah Layton was a Peoples Temple member and is a Jonestown survivor. She is also the author of Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor Story of Life and Death in The Peoples Temple.

Albert Einstein:

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Learning is the natural reward of meetings with remarkable ideas, and remarkable people.

Art & Fear, p. 84

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find within him the Creator. Now the other person, in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction.

Life Together

Jon Snoddy:

If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you.

As told by Randy Pausch in The Last Lecture, p. 145

Steven Pressfield:

In order for a book (or any project or enterprise) to hold our attention for the length of time it takes to unfold itself, it has to plug into some internal perplexity or passion that is of paramount important to us.

The War of Art, p. 46

Hugh MacLeod:

Part of being a master is learning how to sing in nobody else's voice but your own.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 103

Max Lucado:

Go to the effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Do it. The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.

Mocha with Max: Friendly Thoughts & Simple Truths from the Writings of Max Lucado, p. 149

Andrew Marin:

Respond to everything—because if you’re not telling your story someone else is.

Part 1: How Jesus Handled Critics

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Your life is a paradigm of the process of being an artist, a witness and record to the way time and circumstance, event and emotion, courage and fear surround the making of art.

Art & Fear, p. 83

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendancy over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be. His view expands and, to his amazement, for the first time he sees, shining within his brethren, the richness of God’s creative glory.

Life Together

Randy Pausch:

If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads, we'd all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and on our jobs.

The Last Lecture, p. 141

Nikki Giovanni:

when i die i hope no one who ever hurt me cries
and if they cry i hope their eyes fall out
and a million maggots that had made up their brains
crawl from the empty holes and devour the flesh
that covered the evil that passed itself off as a person
that i probably tried
to love

First stanza from "When I Die"