“Sometimes it's easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.”

2005-09, Address at Stanford University (2005)
Context: Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.

Sweet Seasons, co-written with Toni Stern
Song lyrics, Music (1971)

Saints (1983)

Don Soderquist “ Live Learn Lead to Make a Difference https://books.google.com/books?id=s0q7mZf9oDkC&lpg=pg=PP1&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2006 p. 63.
On Choosing to be Joyful

Source: Pure

Variant: It was stupid to hope, she knew. But sometimes hope was all you had.
Source: City of Lost Souls

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 83

Source: My Life in Black and White

(19 January 2005)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2005
Context: All I have to do is make you see this. This one particular thing here. That's all. And sometimes it's impossible. Sometimes, I know the best odds I can hope for are a thousand to one. You'll see what you see, what your life has conditioned you to see upon encountering that combination of words, not what I want or need you to see. Fiction writing is like making films for the blind.