Quotes about difference
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“Nothing, no one, is too small to matter. What you do is going to make a difference.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Source: A Swiftly Tilting Planet

“The difference between raman and varelse is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging. When we declare an alien species to be raman, it does not mean that they have passed a threshold of moral maturity. It means that we have.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

“It hadn't been so long ago, yet sometimes she felt that she'd been an altogether different person back then.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Personality

“No one would have ever guessed that seven of the world's most talented teenagers were coming to the Henley that day for an entirely different sort of lesson.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

World

“The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Universe, Help

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what's wrong in our life, or we can focus on what's right.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Life

“Separately they had different strengths. Together they were complete.”

Lisa Kleypas book Dreaming of You

Source: Dreaming of You

“You don't have to say I love you to say I love you," you said with a shrug. "All you have to do is say my name and I know."

…"Can't you hear it?" you said. "When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Love

“The mind self-edits. The mind airbrushes. It's a different thing to be inside a body than outside. From outside, you can look, inspect, compare. From inside there is no comparison.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

“How was I supposed to know what’s real and what’s not? It feels like I’m the only one who doesn’t know the difference.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Feeling

“Closing your mind to religion is no different than the close-mindedness that
religions can cause.”

Carlton Mellick III (1977) American writer

Source: Satan Burger

Religion

“One way isn't better than the other; they're just different.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Love the One You're With

Way

“Know all the Questions, but not the Answers
Look for the Different, instead of the Same
Never Walk where there's room for Running
Don't do anything that can't be a Game”

Zilpha Keatley Snyder book The Changeling

Source: The Changeling

Game, Question

“The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Change, Animals

“The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.”

Tom Clancy (1947–2013) American author

Attributed to an interview on Larry King Live; also quoted in Quotable Quotes (1997) edited by Deborah Deford
Attributed variant: The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.
Clancy here expresses an idea evoked in similar statements made by others, all derived from the orignial made by Lord Byron:
Lord Byron: Truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
Mark Twain: Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't.
G. K. Chesterton: Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.
Leo Rosten: Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense. (attributed)
1990s

Reality, Sense

“We do not at present educate people to think but, rather, to have opinions, and that is something altogether different.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

People, Education, Thinking

“Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

World

“Life is a mission, not a career. A career is a profession, a mission is a cause. A career asks, What's in it for me? A mission asks, How can I make a difference?”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Life

“Isana felt her throat tighten.
"We failed." Serai lifted her chin and patted Isana's arm firmly.
"We have not yet succeeded. There is a difference.”

Jim Butcher book Academ's Fury

Source: Academ's Fury

“The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Thinking, Parting

“There is no truth on this island of yours. Rather, there are as many truths as there are stars in the sky; and every one of them different.”

Juliet Marillier book Daughter of the Forest

Source: Daughter of the Forest

Truth, Star

“Skipping school isn't a crime. It's an infraction. They're totally different.”

Cory Doctorow Little Brother

Source: Little Brother

School

“The sadness of the world has different ways of getting to people, but it seems to succeed almost every time.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night (1932), Chapter 5

People, World, Sadness, Way

“That is the one unforgivable sin in any society. Be different and be damned!”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“Creativity arises from our ability to see things from many different angles.”

Keri Smith Canadian writer

Source: How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum

“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

Way, Knowledge, Thinking, Parent

“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Source: The Complete Essays

Way

“I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Age, Personality

“No matter what happens, you will always be Pack. Because you have that loyalty and restraint. Not human, not whatever, but Kate. Unique and different, but not separate.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Loyalty

“I think he loved us equally, but differently.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Love, Thinking

“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

Pain, Happiness, Pleasure, Feeling

“So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world.”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

World

“If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“Being happy or unhappy - is that really the most important thing? Knowing the truth would be a different kind of happiness - a more satisfying kind, I think, even if it turned out to be a sad kind.”

Ira Levin book This Perfect Day

Source: This Perfect Day

Happiness, Truth, Sadness, Thinking

“That’s what I like about sports. No matter if everyone playing the game speaks completely different languages, on the field, or the court, wherever they are playing, the language of moves and passes and scores is all the same. Universal.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Game, Sport, Universe

“Tell me what’s the difference
between hope and waiting
because my heart doesn’t know
It constantly cuts itself on the glass of waiting
It constantly gets lost in the fog of hope”

Anna Kamieńska (1920–1986) Poet, writer and translator

Hope, Waiting, Heart

“And all meet in singing, which braids together the different knowings into a wide and subtle music, the music of living.”

Alison Croggon (1962) contemporary Australian poet, playwright and fantasy novelist

Source: The Naming

Music, Singing

“There is a painful difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event and its final certainty.”

Emma Thompson (1959) British actress and writer

Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film

Pain

“And you'll always love me won't you?
Yes
And the rain won't make any difference?
No”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

Love

“[A]nother important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking.”

Paul Bowles book The Sheltering Sky

Source: The Sheltering Sky

Travel, Question

“You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?"
"It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize."
"Must be a human thing."
"Exactly.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

“Kyoya: A single day can make all the difference.”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 2

“Different elevator music was playing since my last visit-that old disco song "Stayin' Alive." A terrifying image flashed through my mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Music

“To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat- and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.”

Upton Sinclair book The Jungle

Source: The Jungle

World

“Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing; but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Love, Way, Nature, Thinking

“I bet if you go through the rest of your life telling yourself, "I'm sparkling," you'll have a whole different energy and experience.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

Life

“Stories are a different kind of true.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room (novel) (2010)
Context: "Are stories true?"
"Which ones?"
"The mermaid mother and Hansel and Gretel and all them."
"Well," says Ma, "not literally."
"What's—"
"They're magic, they're not about real people walking around today."
"So they're fake?"
"No, no. Stories are a different kind of true."