"I don't understand money," he said. "When I hold it, it does nothing. But others look at me differently."
- from Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want by Obert Skye

Holy intuition, the Superior Maunt felt, did not figure among her own administrative talents. She was a common-sensist. She thought the Unnamed God had given her a brain to use, not to ignore as a snare of the devil. She had tried to lift herself up by clear thinking, and others, too, when she could.
- from Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

"Might just as well be happy, seeing as it doesn't make a difference to anyone but you if you are or not," said the soldier.
- from The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

What is this self inside us, this silent observer, Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us, And urge us on to futile activity, And in the end, judge us still more severely, For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?
- T. S. Eliot

Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.
- Nathaniel Branden