A lot of people don't like me. I take that as evidence that I have done something beautifully different or something extraordinary.

— Dan Pearce

And if you are a mom who has watched your child’s father leave, my heart goes out to you. I also pray that you had no part in it. I pray that you didn’t make it impossible for him while he was there. Furthermore, I pray that you didn’t try and force him to live up to impossible expectations. And, I pray that if he is a good man, and he wants to be there in his child’s life that you love your child enough to let him. Even if that seems impossible to you.

— Dan Pearce

As much as I don’t want it to be true, the reasons I don’t do something define me as a person even more so, perhaps, than the reasons I do something.

— Dan Pearce

At the border of where I will literally not survive so long as I keep living in so much fear of the harsh judgments of others, I am finally conceding the truth to you all. I am finally conceding the truth to me. I am something other than straight.

— Dan Pearce

Be a little less obsessed with how I live my life and a little more obsessed with how you live your own.

— Dan Pearce

Be real. Embrace that you have weakness. Because everyone does. Embrace that your body is not perfect. Because nobody’s is. Embrace that you have things you can’t control. We all have a list of them.

— Dan Pearce

Certain girls deserve lots of flowers. You are one of them.

— Dan Pearce

Children are gifts. They are not ours for the breaking. They are ours for the making.

— Dan Pearce

Dads. Do you honestly expect anybody to believe that you can’t find 20 minutes to step away from your computer or turn off the television to play with your child? It has to happen every single day. Do you not understand that children will hinge their entire facet of trust on whether their dad plays with them, and how involved he is when he plays with them? Do you know the damage you do by not playing with your children every day?

— Dan Pearce

Dads. Do you not realize that a child is what you tell them they are? That people almost always become what they are labeled? Was whatever your child just did really the “dumbest thing you’ve ever seen somebody do”? Was it really the “most ridiculous thing they ever could have done”? Do you really believe that your child is an idiot? Because she now does. Think about that. Because you said it, she now believes it. Bravo.

— Dan Pearce