Top 33 Quotes & Sayings by R. J. Palacio

Whenever there is a conflict between being right and being kind, if possible, choose being kind.

Who we are? Us!Right? What kind of people are we? What kind of person are you? Isn't that the most important thing of all? Isn't that the kind of question we shloud be asking ourselves all the time? 'What kind of person am I?

Or whatever politically correct spiritual representation of universal goodness you happen to believe in.

My mom smiled at me. Her smile kind of hugged me.

It's like people you see sometimes, and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk. Only, I know that I'm that person to other people, maybe to every single person in that whole auditorium. To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid.

The best way to measure how much you've grown isn't by inches or the number of laps you can now run around the track or even your grade point average - though those things are important, to be sure. It's what you've done with your time, how you've chosen to spend your days, and whom you have touched this year. That, to me, is the greatest measure of success.

I wish everyday could be Halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get to know each other before we got to see what we looked like under the masks.

Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.

Some things you just can't explain. You don't even try. You don't know where to start. All your sentences would jumble up like a giant knot if you opened your mouth. Any words you used would come out wrong.

There's a word like overprotective to describe some parents, but no word that means the opposite. What word do you use to describe parents who don't protect enough? Underprotective? Neglectful? Self-involved? Lame? All of the above.

It's so weird how that can be, how you could have a night that's the worst in your life, but to everybody else it's just an ordinary night. Like on my calendar at home, I would mark this as being one of the most horrific days of my life. This and the day Daisy died. But for the rest of the world, this was just an ordinary day. Or may be it was even a good day. May be somebody won the lottery today.

Just follow the day and reach for the sun!

It’s not enough to be friendly. You have to be a friend.

The things we do outlast our mortality. The things we do are like monuments that people build to honor heroes after they've died. They're like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honor the pharaohs. Only instead of being made of stone, they're made out of the memories people have of you.

We carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness.

A big sister who cries over being human over you. A gravelly voiced kid who's friends left him over you. And a pink-haired girl who keeps your picture in her wallet.

Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.

There are always going to be jerks in the world . . . [but] there are more good people on this earth than bad people, and the good people watch out for each other and take care of each other.

One mistake does not define you.

Kinder than is necessary. Because it's not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed.

No, no, it's not all random, if it really was all random, the universe would abandon us completely. and the universe doesn't. it takes care of its most fragile creations in ways we can't see. like with parents who adore you blindly. and a big sister who feels guilty for being human over you. and a little gravelly-voiced kid whose friends have left him over you. and even a pink-haired girl who carries your picture in her wallet. maybe it is a lottery, but the universe makes it all even out in the end. the universe takes care of all its birds.

You can't blend in when you were born to stand out.

I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.

Sometimes you don't have to mean to hurt someone to hurt someone.

If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.

You don't need your eyes to love. You just feel it inside you.

I actually like how doctors talk. I like the sound of science. I like how words you don't understand explain things you can't understand.

Middle School is about as bad as it gets, and then it gets better.

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

Don’t be friends with jerks.

Learning who you are is what you're here to do.

That's how it is in heaven. It's just love, and no one forgets who they love.

I eat like a tortoise eats, if you've ever seen a tortoise eating. Like some prehistoric swamp thing.