Polygon reflects on the continuing influence of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, 31 years after the strip ended, and argues that its strongest line is “We need to start putting prices on the priceless.” The article says the quotation matters because it captures the strip’s enduring environmentalist and anti-consumerist concerns, particularly its appreciation of nature beyond commercial value.

The line appeared in a strip published on 11 November 1995, shortly before Calvin and Hobbes concluded. Watterson said Calvin’s home was imagined as bordering a nature preserve or national forest, giving the character space for often hazardous, imaginative exploration; the article argues this setting made the strip’s environmental message especially lasting.