Karen Elson Quotes

My mother taught me that to maximize your philanthropic potential, you need to constantly challenge your capabilities and put yourself in situations that are not always comfortable. Through her example, I discovered that there is no more beautiful way to live a life than to live a life of service.

As I got more successful, I felt it was more incumbent upon me to help the other people. I did more and more and the more I did the more I wanted.

Volunteering is a great way to look outside your own problems. Giving back to makes you happier by both giving you a sense of purpose and helping to put your problems in perspective.

I'm one of those people who want to give back and see other people do better.

I think that if you start teaching about giving back and helping other people young, that will be a given for your child their whole life.

Just the service aspect of running a nonprofit is so gratifying because it takes the attention off yourself. I'm not an acting monk or anything. I'm not, like, the most well-adjusted actor. But it's really designed to focus on yourself, or it can be. So it's good to have something else to focus on that reminds you that it's not always about you.

Do some selfless service for people who are in need. Consider the whole picture, not just our little selves.

Acting is a smaller piece in a big puzzle. There are charity things I want to immerse myself in and want to have the time to go and give back to people who don't have the opportunities I have. It's a very important thing to me.

I think it's really important to give back and show other people that you care.

After convincing myself that was maybe you should at least help out your neighborhood, I really started to think about it later on in life.

My family life and my ideals, my commitment to the community and to other people - all people - has been improved. I think less about myself and more about my community today.

I love creating opportunities for people. I think it's my orphan mentality.

I was raised to volunteer: nursing homes, clinics, church nurseries, school, everywhere that could use help. It's such an intrinsic part of me, to use my life to help improve the quality of others.

My concerns have been about myself and not about giving something back and putting something in, even though that's been in the back of my head.

That's how we grew up - kinda like Pops would put his drums, his percussion and instruments into the car and we would just go to a facility in the Bay Area and he would say to us, 'You think we have it bad? There are people worse off than we are. Let's go give back to the kids.' And that's how we grew up.

I know I have a successful career, a successful life. If I sit and say, 'Look, I have a comfortable life,' and I... just think about myself, I don't think that would be fair. That would be very selfish. Because everything I do in my life is to benefit my people.

There's a long line of difference makers in my family. I'm following in the footsteps of some really strong men and women who have showed me what it means to give back; it's the greatest way to fulfill yourself.

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

I want to be more than just an artist and be a people's person and do a lot of stuff for people.

The motto of my Jesuit high school was 'Men for others.' I've tried to live that creed.

Giving back has definitely kept me grounded. Stepping outside of yourself to serve a group or community of people who are in need in some facet has a way of doing that. I don't ever want to grow to a place where giving back becomes a foreign concept.

As my parents taught me, by both words and deeds, a life of public services is as much a gift to the person who serves as it is to those he's serving.

You're part of the problem or the solution. Solution means, in my opinion, to be taking extra time and energy in trying to give back to the world.

We know that we're fortunate. We have a wonderful life and it is an honour for us to be of service, and every single day dedicated to helping others and making this society and this country a better place for more people.

You haven't learned how to live until you've learned how to give.