Abbi Glines Quotes

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

I think it's very difficult, and it requires a tremendous amount of spiritual integrity and discipline, to not be a narcissist in a culture that encourages it every step of the way.

Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.

What could begin to deny self, if there were not something in man different from self?

If I could change one thing about myself... I would try to control my generosity.

Sometimes the most difficult decision is to not martyr yourself for someone, but instead to choose to live for them. Because of them.

You will be a happier person if you don't do what you want to do, most of the time

He that discovers himself, till he hath made himself master of his desires, lays himself open to his own ruin, and makes himself prisoner to his own tongue.

Next time I want to do something nice, slap me.

The wise man puts himself last and finds himself first.

The practice of inhibiting impulses, which is to a great extent necessary to civilized life, makes mistakes easier, by preventing experience of the actions to which a desire would otherwise lead, and by often causing the inhibited impulses themselves to be unnoticed or quickly forgotten.

The greatest thing about having a child is putting yourself second in your own life. It's a massive gift to be able to say you're not the most important person to yourself.

The secret to success is to subjugate your ego and serve others.

Sometimes you have to take the focus off of you and put it on someone else and it's funny what you can accomplish and how much strength you really have.

I can be pretty reactive, and I've learned over time to be less reactive: to stop and think before I make decisions.

Protect me from what I want.

I hope it's enabling me to deal with another human being who's more important to me than I am.

All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied.

I think I'm still figuring out how to be a little less selfish.

I still get crazy once in a while, but just less crazy.

To be compassionate is not a joke. It's not that simple. One has to discover a certain bigness in oneself. That bigness should be centered on oneself, not in terms of money, not in terms of power you wield, not in terms of any status that you can command in the society, but it should be centered on oneself.

Too often, I've put my career and helping others ahead of my own needs.

I cannot tell people who are struggling that I come first. I just cannot.

Sensitiveness is closely allied to egotism; and excessive sensibility is only another name for morbid self-consciousness. The cure for tender sensibilities is to make more of our objects and less of our selves.

If you have a temper, now is the time to learn to control it. The more you do so while you are young, the more easily it will happen.