Charles Dickens

Grief never mended no broken bones.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.

So I’ve seen life as one long learning process. And if I see – you know, if I fly on somebody else’s airline and find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn’t in – 21 years ago, then I’d think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I’d like to fly on.

Come to me, wild and untamed. Bring the oceans on your lips, the mountains on your spine; I want to explore all the places you have ever called home. Let me pluck each petal from the gardens you’ve grown, overcrowded seedlings pushing up through your bones. Come to me dipped in the stars, come to me wearing all your scars. I want to show you just how beautiful you are.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Sometimes I think someone upstairs saved me from being ordinary.

Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it.

Love thy neighbour as yourself, but choose your neighbourhood.

Maybe in the 90s or possibly in the next century people will look upon the 80s as the age of masturbation, when it was taken to the limit; that might be all that’s going on right now in a big way.

You must learn that you do not have to be angry just because you have the right to be.

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

You never miss what you’ve never had. I never had any other life. I didn’t know any other life.

I do believe I am special. My special gift is my vision, my commitment, and my willingness to do whatever it takes.

You have the duty and gift of living. You don’t have the right to sit on the sidelines–use your life and get back into the game.

I think I am basically a happy person.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

Our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys. Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at Grandma’s house. And a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn’t stay awake for both. He was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger-side door.