Best 68 quotes of Mariska Hargitay on MyQuotes

Adoption was a bumpy ride - very bumpy. But, God, was it worth the fight.

Becoming a parent erased many of my negative childhood feelings and filled them in with something new.

~Before you have kids, when you're on a plane and there's a screaming kid, all you can think is, Give me earplugs! As soon as I became a mom, though, I got it. You find yourself asking, 'What can I do? You want me to hold him?' Because you think about the time your kids was screaming, and there was the one parent who looked at you and smiled. And that compassion was everything.~

Being fearless means busting down those walls of fear and being who you are, not who someone else thinks you are. People like to put others in a box and tell them what they can and cannot do or who they can and cannot be. No one can tell you who you are and what you are made of, only you yourself know what you are made of, and only you yourself can do the work to become who you want to be.

Being thin is not more important than enjoying life

But trust can take you a long way. And my faith takes me a long way. And I think that our pains, our vulnerabilities, and our insecurities can fuel us to be better. To try harder. To dig deeper.

Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it: Deliciusness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good.

Eric Lewis doesn't play the piano, he devours it. He doesn't play music, he channels the divine.

Fifty years ago my Mother stood on this stage accepting this award; She was fortunate enough to have my Dad with her. Fifty years later, I'm fortunate enough to have my Dad with me. I love you, Dad.

Golf made me feel like a loser. So I dismissed it.

Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step.

Humor is about perspective, and hanging out with people who see life through a similar lens is so important.

I am grateful that I didn't let fear get the best of me. It only holds you back from possibilities and greatness.

I am proud to be a role model for my viewers. I am finding out that helping victims is as or more rewarding the all the awards I win.

If I eat clean, I look 10 years younger.

If I can play a little part in the world's healing, and making it a better place than when I came, then I just thank God for that chance.

If you stop for one second and do something, everyone is happy. You pay it forward and it comes back to you twelve-fold.

I get very excited about my double stroller. Every time I look at it, I get a shot of adrenaline and joy because I think, This is real!

I have a nest egg, and I don't buy above my means.

I'm a big believer that your word is your wand. You know how people say things like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm such an idiot.' I don't say things like that anymore. Those put-downs, even if they're in jest, are little bullets of negativity that you don't need in your life.

I'm an L.A. girl who became a tough New York cop.

I'm a size 8, and I feel proud of that, because it's healthy. I've never felt compelled to be a skinny actress.

I'm a water person; water heals.

I'm just grateful that my body is healthy. I want to be on this planet for a long time, so I try to eat things that make me feel good and make me strong. But I also love food and I love life: Some days having that extra bowl of pasta and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup means more to me than being thin.

I'm living every ten-year-old boy's fantasy. The other day, Chris and I had this big scene where we had to pull out our guns, and I was thinking, 'Here we are in New York City - a place where every actor wants to be - and we are literally playing cops and robbers. How great is that?'

In life you have two choices. You can laugh or you can cry. You have to laugh, you have to.

I say to everybody, 'Adoption is not for the faint of heart.'

Italian culture is so deeply soaked in an appreciation of the good things in life.

I think because I became a mom later in life, everything in life means more.

I think God runs the show. Completely. Life proves it every day: He runs the show.

I think people were expecting me to be that kind of glamorous sexpot. So they were always, Wow you're not what I expected.

It's a life's journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.

It's very difficult leaving the house anytime with my baby at home.

It wasn't really that hard to act when you see somebody holding a gun to your partner. It's also believing the circumstances and I believed it.

I've always heard that you'll know, but I never understood it. With Peter, we even broke up after we dated for a year, for two or three months, but I still knew. I knew there was something different about this union. Even through the hard times, it was like "How are we going to get through this?

I've got no problems with my age. I rejoice in the knowledge I have accrued and savor the greatest moments, because I know how fast it goes.

I was lucky enough to have a father who said, 'Don't quit.' So I just kept going.

I wasn't at all trying to be skinny, My Mom is Jayne Mansfield, I'm allowed to have curves.

Just having someone make you laugh so hard that it hurts is so healing to me.

Just smiling at someone walking down the street can make the person's day. It's all about paying it forward.

Kids who drink alcohol, fairly regularly before they're 14 have a 48% chance... of becoming alcoholics.

Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul. But I feel like it ultimately made me into the person I am today; I understand the journey of life. I had to go through what I did to be here.

My Dad taught me that good health is all about living in gratitude.

Our early dating life consisted of trying to figure out whether we were dating.

Over half a million women are raped in this country every year, and only a fraction of them report it because they're too ashamed. It’s a really screwed up world, but its not your fault, and what happened to you, it doesn't make you the monster.

People who overcome their fears every day, without fanfare, without recognition. Quiet, everyday courage, that’s what I admire most.

Sexual assault and domestic violence are difficult things to talk about. Talk about them anyway.

Sixty-five percent of Americans don't have the conversation with their children. So you're sending off boys and girls off to college, off to high school, off to wherever they go, and nobody's had the conversation about how to conduct themselves. About a man telling his son how to be a man. How to respect a woman. How do you respect yourself?

Sometimes things in life happen that allow us to understand our priorities very clearly. Ultimately you can see those as gifts.

The definition of inspire is 'to fill with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.' There you have it: Jeffrey Bilhuber inspires me. I watch him make his magic, and I want to do the same. Those are always my favorite people, the ones who are so alive in the practice of their art that I want to jump in and join the fun.