Ellen Bass Quotes

• There's a part of every living thing that wants to become itself: the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one.That is spirituality.

  Ellen Bass

  Integrity, Butterfly, Growth

  41 Copy quote

• Allow yourself to release the emotions you have struggled all your life to contain.

  Ellen Bass

  Healing, Emotion, Release

  47 Copy quote

• to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.

  Ellen Bass

  Hope, Grief, Love You

  32 Copy quote

• What would people look like
  if we could see them as they are,
  soaked in honey, stung and swollen,
  reckless, pinned against time?

  Ellen Bass

  People, Looks, Honey

  16 Copy quote

• There is a comfort in knowing that you don’t have to pretend anymore, that you are going to do everything within your power to heal.

  Ellen Bass

  Knowing, Comfort, Heal

  Ellen Bass, Laura Davis (2012). “Beginning to Heal (Revised Edition): A First Book for Men and Women Who Were Sexually Abused As Children”, p.9, Harper Collins

  18 Copy quote

• Poetry is the most intimate of all writing. I want to speak first from me to myself and then from me to you.

  Ellen Bass

  Writing, Want, Firsts

  7 Copy quote

• Everyone has the right to tell the truth about her own life.

  Ellen Bass

  Telling The Truth

  11 Copy quote

• If you’ve managed to do one good thing,
  the ocean doesn’t care.
  But when Newton’s apple
  fell toward the earth,
  the earth, ever so slightly, fell
  toward the apple as well.

  Ellen Bass

  Ocean, Apples, Earth

  7 Copy quote

• Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.

  Ellen Bass

  Love You, Eye, Charming Smile

  9 Copy quote

• So much inspires me. People living their lives with courage, beauty of all kinds, nature in all its aspects, people I love and people I hardly know, and, of course, other poets.

  Ellen Bass

  People, Inspire, Kind

  9 Copy quote

• It's impossible to feel good about yourself if you are doing things that you aren't proud of. . . . It's essential that you . . . [do] things you can respect and admire.

  Ellen Bass

  Feel Good, Essentials, Proud

  12 Copy quote

• So often survivors have had their experiences denied, trivialized, or distorted. Writing is an important avenue for healing because it gives you the opportunity to define your own reality. You can say: This did happen to me. It was that bad. It was the fault & responsibility of the adult. I was—and am—innocent.” The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

  Ellen Bass

  Healing, Writing, Responsibility

  7 Copy quote

• I think many people love poetry who don't know they love it. People are sometimes afraid of poetry, or they've been introduced to poetry that doesn't speak to them.

  Ellen Bass

  Thinking, People, Sometimes

  7 Copy quote

• No matter how many vitamins you take, how much Pilates, you'll lose your keys, your hair and your memory.

  Ellen Bass

  Memories, Keys, Hair

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

  4 Copy quote

• I live in Santa Cruz. I moved here in 1974 and couldn't leave.

  Ellen Bass

  Santa, Santa Cruz, Moved

  12 Copy quote

• Visualizing how you want to be is [an] effective way to move toward your goal.

  Ellen Bass

  Moving, Goal, Way

  7 Copy quote

• Garrison Keillor read several of my poems on 'The Writer's Almanac' and I've heard from listeners nationally and internationally. That's one of the great gifts of email.

  Ellen Bass

  Email, Heard, Great Gifts

  6 Copy quote

• Exercise stimulates your circulation, massages your internal organs, stretches and strengthens your muscles, and energizes you. Exercise is also a great way to discharge tension, work through emotional blocks, release anger, and gain self-esteem.

  Ellen Bass

  Life, Block, Self Esteem

  4 Copy quote

• I wanted to be a writer since I was in high school, but I never thought it was possible.

  Ellen Bass

  School, High School, Wanted

  4 Copy quote

• Your wallet will be stolen, you'll get fat, slip on the bathroom tiles of a foreign hotel and crack your hip.

  Ellen Bass

  Cracks, Tiles, Hips

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

  5 Copy quote

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