The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace. -Carlos Santana

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin – find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.  -Maya Angelou

It’s not about what people think. It’s about who you are.  – Cinda Williams Chima

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Life has no meaning a priori. … It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. -Jean-Paul Sartre

I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice. -Joyce Carol Oates

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” — Buddha

Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that. -Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. -Bob Dylan

Most creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising. There’s an element of surprise, and especially in science, there is often laughter that goes along with the ‘Aha’. Art also has this element. Our job is to remind us that there are more contexts than the one that we’re in — the one that we think is reality. -Alan Kay