Harry A. Blackmun Quotes

It's important to determine not just the quality of your mind but the fullness of your heart.

Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with.

Humble people, I've found, don't get very far.

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.

Many people look at me and think they know me but they don't at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.

I've learned not to be such a show-off and to have a bit more empathy with humanity. Or at least to fake that.

I'm sensitive to how people are feeling if they feel like they got it wrong, and sensitive to the people who are kind of gloating that they knew all along, they figured it out. I'm loving them through this process, because I know that it took me a while once I found out that it was me.

I have lived a long time, and one thing I have come to see is that one is well served by a degree of both humility and charity when judging the inner workings of another person's heart

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Humility is truth.

My concern is how we learn to be genuine human beings.

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist.

I am not learned, but I have as good feelings as any man.

A character, their ability or inability to laugh at themselves should always be a very, very conscious choice. It's a very big key to the nature of a human being.

I have a big ego, and I'm a confident person, but when it comes down to being a jerk, that doesn't work for me, I tried it... for about ten years.

The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.

People who are mean or unkind or rigid - think about it - cannot laugh at themselves.

I think that I come off as, 'Nothing bothers me, I don't care! I'm funny and sassy.' But I'm deeply sensitive. Not only about myself but to others. Not to pat myself on the back, empathy is a quality I've cultivated over my life. It came naturally to me as a child.

What I bring to the stage is humility.

I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can... But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Humility is important.

I'm a man of many emotions, so I'm a human being, and I think that's what people tend to forget sometimes.

I'm a human just like anyone else, and I understand that, so at the end of the day, you've got to stay humble.

If you aren't humble, whatever empathy you claim is false and probably results from some arrogance or the desire to control. But true empathy is rooted in humility and the understanding that there are many people with as much to contribute in life as you.

Being humbled is a good thing.