If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes, are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair. Despair is for those who expect to live forever. I no longer do.
—Erica Jong
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.
—Carl Sagan in Cosmos
What, is the jay more precious than the lark because his feathers are more beautiful?
—William Shakespeare
A baby is God's opinion that life should go on. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most supercolossal of our supercargo planes don't compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable.
—Carl Sandburg
Loving someone was traumatizing. You never knew what would happen to them out there in the world. Everything precious was also vulnerable.
—Mary H.K. Choi in Emergency Contact