Deborah Ellis Quotes

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.

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.

I always want to be a person who challenges herself to be a better person and spends her time giving rather than receiving.

I don't think that one should beat himself or herself over the head if immediately you're not like Jesus Christ or, you know, Gandhi or whoever. But I think the idea is to... to look at those examples and try to... try to operate in a way that every day you live or every interaction you have pushes you further along to operating with that mindset.

Try to be a better person everyday.

Be kind to all and severe to thyself.

It is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.

Humility is not something that comes naturally. But it is a cardinal virtue that should be pursued more than any other.

I hope that five years and ten years from now, I'll be a better man, a more mature man, a wiser man, a more humble man and a more spirited man to serve the good of my people and the good of humanity.

I can tell you character traits I admire and work to develop in myself - perseverance, self-discipline, courage to stand up for what is right even when it is against one's friends or one's self.

I'm human, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes all the time, but I guess my job is to keep those mistakes to myself, which I'm already fine doing and just try to be the best I can be for those kids.

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

It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.

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.

I've certainly had a lot of experiences in my life where I was much too self-centered.

You have to find the peace and patience within yourself to be a model and an example to others and not judge.

If I want to be a better person for whoever is in my life, I have to learn.

The only things standing between you and the compassionate, wise, and creative person you want to be are matters of choice. Your choice. No one can occupy your generosity except you.

If there is one thing I have learned on this incredible journey we call life, it is this: the sign of a truly successful individual is humility.

Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice. My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness. I, the unloving, say life should be lovely. I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books - especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.

I have seen myself lose intolerance, narrowness, bigotry, complacence, pride and a whole bushel-basket of other intellectual vices through my contact with Nature and with men. And when you take weeds out of a garden it gives you room to grow flowers. So, every time I lost a little self-satisfaction, or arrogance, I could plant some broadness or love of my own in its place, and after a while the garden of my mind began to bloom and be fragrant and I found myself better equipped for my work and more useful to others as a consequence.

I have learned that I really do have discipline, self-control, and patience. But they were given to me as a seed, and it's up to me to choose to develop them.

I think the biggest thing with me is that I just pride myself on being the best human being I can be.