Privacy is so sacred, and any time a victim is returned, a survivor is found and rescued, privacy is one of the greatest gifts we can give them because if they decide to share, that's up to them, and they will come forward.
Elizabeth SmartRead
I think forgiveness is probably one of the greatest forms of self-love there is because you don't do forgiveness for anybody else. My captors will never care if I forgive them... It will not make a day of difference to them at all, but it will make a huge difference to me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Forgiveness is a powerful act of self-love that primarily benefits the forgiver.
This quote emphasizes that forgiveness is primarily for oneself rather than for the person who has wronged you. Elizabeth Smart underscores that the act of forgiving does not affect the wrongdoer, but it empowers the person who forgives, allowing them to find peace and healing in their own life.
Themes
ForgivenessSelf-LoveHealingPeaceEmpowerment
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on personal growth, one might say: 'As Elizabeth Smart remarked, forgiveness is one of the greatest forms of self-love.'
More from Elizabeth Smart
All quotes →I'm grateful for rain because, when I was kidnapped, that meant that I had something to drink.
Elizabeth SmartRead
Yesterday from my office window I saw a crippled girl negotiating her way across the street, her shoulders squarely braced. At each jerky movement her hair flew back like an annunciatory angel, and I saw she was the only dancer on the street.
Elizabeth SmartRead
How can I be kind? How can I find bird-relief in the nest-building of day-to-day? Necessity supplies no velvet wing with which to escape. I am indeed and mortally pierced with the seeds of love.
Elizabeth SmartRead
That happened to me, but I'm so much more than that girl that was kidnapped.
Elizabeth SmartRead
Even when I get on airplanes, very often, as I walk down the aisle, I notice a lot of people staring or whispering. I recognize the fact that yes, to a lot of people, I will always be that 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped and who was held captive.
Elizabeth SmartRead
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