World Autism Awareness Day is celebrated on 2 April every year, in order to help share more knowledge on the neurodevelopment disorder, which has affected the lives of many people around the world.

The disorder, characterized by impaired social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication, and by restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behavior, is often said to affect information processing in the brain.

The prevalence of autism is about 1-2 per 1,000 children in the United States, and it occurs about four times more often in boys than girls. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, 20 per 1,000 children in the Unites States are diagnosed with ASD (Autism Spectrum, which also includes Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder) as of 2012. The number of children diagnosed with autism has been increasing dramatically since the 1980s.

"World Autism Awareness Day is about more than generating understanding; it is a call to action. I urge all concerned to take part in fostering progress by supporting education programmes, employment opportunities and other measures that help realize our shared vision of a more inclusive world," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the World Autism Awareness Day 2014.

So Let's observe the day with 10 quotes which will melt our hearts:

1. "I know of nobody who is purely autistic, or purely neurotypical. Even God has some autistic moments, which is why the planets spin" - Jerry Newport, Your Life is Not a Label

2. "You know, everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects" - Will Rogers

3. "If I could snap my fingers and be non-autistic, I would not. Autism is part of what I am" - Temple Grandin.

4. "If they can't learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn" - O. Ivar Lovass

5. "Think of it: a disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing...But autism...is as much about what is abundant as what is missing, an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique" - Paul Collins, Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism

6. "I like it that order exists somewhere even if it shatters near me" - Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark

7. "Autism, is part of my child, it's not everything he is. My child is so much more than a diagnosis" - SL Coelho, The World According to August - One Good Friend

8. "Autism: Where the 'randomness of life' collides and clashes with an individual's need for the sameness" - Eileen Miller, The Girl Who Spoke with Pictures: Autism Through Art

9. "Do not fear people with Autism, embrace them, Do not spite people with Autism unite them, Do not deny people with Autism accept them for then their abilities will shine" - Paul Isaacs

10.  "I myself am opaque, for some reason. Their eyes cannot see me. Yes, that's it: The world is autistic with respect to me" -Anne Nesbet, The Cabinet of Earths.

Also here is the message of the UN Secretary-General.