Top 200 R. J. Palacio Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 4 of 5

151. “It is always brave to be kind, but in those days, such kindnesses could cost you your life.”

— R. J. Palacio

152. “Its the shingaling, baby!”

— R. J. Palacio

153. “But the truth is, I knew things wouldn’t change much. I knew it would be the way it had been after the sleepover. Like we had taken a secret trip together. A voyage that no one else knew about. And when we returned from our journey, we each went back to our own homes. Some friendships are like that. Maybe even the best friendships are like that. The connections are always there. They’re just invisible to the eye.”

— R. J. Palacio

154. “Maybe he knew it and maybe he didn’t, but for someone like me, words like that are worth all the medals in the world.”

— R. J. Palacio

155. “I’ve always thought that good teaching is about illumination. Sure, we teach things kids might not know, but a lot of the time, we’re just shedding light on the stuff they already do know... Kids know how to read, but I’m trying to get them to love reading. Kids know how to write, but I’m trying to inspire them to express themselves better. In both instances, they have the materials they need already inside them: I’m just here to guide them a bit, to shed a little light. To illume.” -Mr. Browne.”

— R. J. Palacio

156. “It is always brave to be kind.”

— R. J. Palacio

157. “That’s not to say there haven’t been some changes that have happened. As.”

— R. J. Palacio

158. “You see, it is not just that he saved my life. He saved my very being. My hope. My... light.” -Grandmere.”

— R. J. Palacio

159. “The Empire Strikes Back? The bald guy with the cool bionic radio-transmitter thing that wraps around the back of his skull?”

— R. J. Palacio

160. “My mother is the kind of person who has a happy face for the rest of the world but not a lot left over for me.”

— R. J. Palacio

161. “If you have a choice of being right or kind, choose kind.”

— R. J. Palacio

162. “Yo, Darth Hideous. You’re so ugly you should wear a mask every day! And: I h8 u, Freak! And the last one: I bet your mother wishes you’d never been born. You should do everybody a favor – and die. Of.”

— R. J. Palacio

163. “But every Spring It groweth young again, And fairies sing. – Flower Fairies of the Spring, 1923.”

— R. J. Palacio

164. “Via. I can’t say I always wanted to go to school because that wouldn’t be exactly true. What I wanted was to go to school, but only if I could be like every other kid going to school. Have lots of friends and hang out after school and stuff like that. I have a few really good friends now. Christopher is my best.”

— R. J. Palacio

165. “Countless doctors have drawn little tic-tac-toe grids for my parents over the years to try to explain the genetic lottery to them. Geneticists.”

— R. J. Palacio

166. “If every single 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.”

— R. J. Palacio

167. “Naciste original, no te conviertas en una copia.”

— R. J. Palacio

168. “What’s cool about really little kids is that they don’t say stuff to try to hurt your feelings, even though sometimes they do say stuff that hurts your feelings.”

— R. J. Palacio

169. “Algunas veces es bueno volver a empezar.”

— R. J. Palacio

170. “I couldn’t wait to go home.”

— R. J. Palacio

171. “Jill wants to buy honey at an outdoor market. One vendor is selling a twenty-six-ounce jar for $3.12. Another vendor is selling a sixteen-ounce jar for $2.40. Which is the better deal, and how much money per ounce will Jill save by choosing it?”

— R. J. Palacio

172. “And being at school was awful in the beginning. Every new class I had was like a new chance for kids to “not stare” at me. They would sneak peeks at me from behind their notebooks or when they thought I wasn’t looking. They would take the longest way around me to avoid bumping into me in any way, like I had some germ they could catch, like my face was contagious.”

— R. J. Palacio

173. “Not just the front rows, but the whole audience suddenly got up on their feet, whooping, hollering, clapping like crazy. It was a standing ovation. For me.”

— R. J. Palacio

174. “He’s just a kid. The weirdest-looking kid I’ve ever seen, yes. But just a kid.”

— R. J. Palacio

175. “Then they came out of the narrow valley and at once she saw the reason. There stood Peter and Edmund and all the rest of Aslan’s army fighting desperately against the crowd of horrible creatures whom she had seen last night; only now, in the daylight, they looked even stranger and more evil and more deformed.”

— R. J. Palacio

176. “When I look at Auggie and all the challenges he has to face on a daily basis,” he said, patting his heart. “I’m in awe of how he manages to simply show up every day. With a smile on his face. And I want him to have validation that this year was a triumph for him. That he’s made an impact. I mean, the way the kids rallied around him after the horrible incident at the nature reserve? It was because of him. He inspired that kindness in them.”

— R. J. Palacio

177. “His eyes are about an inch below where they should be on his face, almost to halfway down his cheeks.”

— R. J. Palacio

178. “Via had warned me about lunch in middle school, so I guess I should have known it would be hard.”

— R. J. Palacio

179. “Auggie, Mom’s taken her to the vet like three times in the last two months. She’s been throwing up left and right. Haven’t you noticed?” “But I didn’t know she was sick!” Via didn’t say anything, but she put her arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her. I started to cry again.”

— R. J. Palacio

180. “It’s kind of funny how parents actually end up forming the same little groups their kids form.”

— R. J. Palacio

181. “But realizing that Ximena Chin, under her layers and layers and layers of snarkiness and mischief, could actually be kind of sweet. When she wasn’t being kind of mean.”

— R. J. Palacio

182. “One thing I’ve learned after being a middle-school director for twenty years: there are almost always more than two sides to every story. Although I don’t know the details, I have an inkling about what may have sparked the confrontation with Julian. While nothing justifies striking another student – ever – I also know good friends are sometimes worth defending.”

— R. J. Palacio

183. “They were a gloomy party that night, and the gloom gathered still deeper on them in the following days. They had crossed the enchanted stream; but beyond it the path seemed to straggle on just as before, and in the forest they could see no change.”

— R. J. Palacio

184. “Sometimes kids don’t even know they’re leaders until they start to lead” -Mr. Browne.”

— R. J. Palacio

185. “But hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, that’s okay. I’ll take it.”

— R. J. Palacio

186. “Fala agora, ou cala-te para sempre.”

— R. J. Palacio

187. “As I wrote down Mr. Browne’s September precept, I suddenly realized that I was going to like school. No matter what.”

— R. J. Palacio

188. “That’s when I saw Daisy sitting near my bed. I mean, I knew it wasn’t Daisy, but for a second I saw a shadow that looked just like her. I didn’t think it was a dream then, but now, looking back, I know it must have been. It didn’t make me sad to see her at all: it just filled me up with nice feelings inside. She was gone after a second, and I couldn’t see her again in the darkness. The.”

— R. J. Palacio

189. “And I’m never going to be one of those grown-ups that use an umbrella when it’s snowing-ever.”

— R. J. Palacio

190. “She picked up a different photo from the nightstand and handed it to me to look at. At first, I thought it was just another copy of the class picture, because it was exactly the same size as the class picture Dad had in his hands, and everything in it was exactly the same. I started to look away in disgust, but Mom pointed to a place on the photo – the place where Auggie used to be! He was nowhere in the photo.”

— R. J. Palacio

191. “It’s so strange how one day you can be on this earth, and the next day not. Where did she go? Will I really ever see her again, or is that a fairy tale?”

— R. J. Palacio

192. “I thought you had the best grades, Charlotte,” Lina said to me. “No, Ximena does,” Maya interjected. She started counting off on her fingers. “Ximena. Charlotte. Simon. Me. And then either Auggie or Remo. Auggie’s actually got better grades than Remo in math, but he didn’t do that well in Spanish on his last few quizzes, and that’s bringing his whole grade point average down.”

— R. J. Palacio

193. “I took a shower, like, two days ago.”

— R. J. Palacio

194. “My hope is, as we start sixth grade, as we get older and wiser, that we all learn to trust each other enough so that we can truly be ourselves, and accept each other for who we really are. Thank you. How I Finally Introduced Myself I.”

— R. J. Palacio

195. “So I moved to an empty table and just waited for everyone to finish stampeding and the lunchroom teacher.”

— R. J. Palacio

196. “In the end, mon cher, all that matters is that you forgive yourself.”

— R. J. Palacio

197. “The auditorium was huge inside. Big sparkly chandeliers. Red velvet walls. Rows and rows and rows of cushioned seats leading up to the giant stage.”

— R. J. Palacio

198. “Jeg tror, at den eneste i hele verden, der er klar over, hvor normal jeg er, er mig selv.”

— R. J. Palacio

199. “And then all of a sudden she let out the biggest, loudest, smelliest fart in the history of farts. Mom.”

— R. J. Palacio

200. “Your best takes your time” -Thomas.”

— R. J. Palacio