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Ellen Pompeo Quotes

Total quotes: 42
“The reality is that pain is there to tell us something, and there's only so much pleasure we can take without getting a stomach ache. And maybe that's okay. Maybe some fantasies are only supposed to live in our dreams.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 3: Sometimes a Fantasy
Tagged: No Good Without The Bad, Part and Parcel, Meaning in Our Suffering
“You got to wonder why we cling to our expectations, because the expected is just what keeps us steady. The expected's just the beginning, the unexpected is what changes our lives.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 3: Great Expectations
Tagged: Standing Still, Unexpected Things
“Failure is inevitable, unavoidable. But failure should never get the last word. You have to hold on to what you want. You have to not take no for an answer, and take what’s coming to you. Never give in. Never give up. Stand up. Stand up and take it.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 10: Get Up, Stand Up
Tagged: Never Give Up, Failure, go for it, Persistence
“Don't you wish you could just take it back? That thing you said? That thing you did? There's no undo button. There's only hoping we can learn. We can change, right? We can do better. We can't take back what we've done. We can't undo the past, cause the future keeps coming at us.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 13: Undo
Tagged: Quote of the Moment, The Past, Mistakes, Can't Change The Past
“There’s an end to every storm. Once all the trees have been uprooted. Once all the houses have been ripped apart. The wind will hush. The clouds will part. The rain will stop. The sky will clear in an instant and only then, in those quiet moments after the storm, do we learn who was strong enough to survive it.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 9: Perfect Storm
Tagged: Storms, surviving, After The Storm, When The Dust Settles
“The key to making progress is to recognize how to take that very first step. Then you start your journey. You hope for the best and you stick with it, day in, day out. Even if you're tired, even if you want to walk away, you don't. Because you are a pioneer. And nobody ever said it'd be easy.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 10: Man on the Moon
Tagged: Pioneer, Words of Encouragement, You Rock, Motivational
“Responsibility. It really does suck....Unfortunately, once you get past the age of braces and training bras, responsibility doesn't go away.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: Shake Your Groove Thing
Tagged: Responsibility, Braces, Training Bras
“So, you keep going. You don't give up. You stand tall. You fight. You always show up to save the day.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 13: Jukebox Hero
Tagged: Keep Going, Keep Fighting, Never Give Up
“Time waits for no man. Time heals all wounds. All any of us wants is more time. Time to stand up. Time to grow up. Time to let go. Time.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 3: Time Has Come Today
“At some point you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out; they fence you in. Life is messy, that's how we're made.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: The First Cut is the Deepest
Tagged: boundaries, Fences, Decisions
“Intimacy is a four-syllable word for ‘Here are my heart and soul, please grind them into hamburger, and enjoy.'”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: No Man's Land
Tagged: Intimacy, vulnerability, Hamburger
“The key to surviving a surgical internship is denial. We deny that we're tired, we deny that we're scared, we deny how badly we want to succeed. And most importantly, we deny that we're in denial.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Deny, Deny, Deny
Tagged: Internship, Survival, Denial, Tired, Scared
“Scientists still don’t really know why we sleep. We just know we have to sleep, because without it, we make poor decisions, we say things we shouldn’t, and sometimes, we see things that aren’t there.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 13: The Room Where It Happens
Tagged: Sleep, Not Sleeping Is Bad For Us
“The thing people forget is how good it can feel when you finally set secrets free. Whether good or bad, at least they're out in the open, like it or not....And once your secrets are out in the open, you don't have to hide behind them anymore....The problem with secrets is even when you think you're in control...you're not.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: The Self-Destruct Button
Tagged: Secrets, Truth, Control
“They say the bigger your investment, the bigger your return. But you have to be willing to take a chance. You have to understand, you might lose it all. But if you take that chance, if you invest wisely, the payoff just might surprise you.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 6: Invest In Love
Tagged: Investment, Return, payoff
“At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. But there are some lines... that are way too dangerous to cross.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: The First Cut is the Deepest
Tagged: Decisions, boundaries, danger, Crossing Lines
“There's a reason doctors prefer to see a patient in person, face to face. It's the laying on of hands. Human touch. That spark of connection. We lay hands on each other so we feel like we're all in this together. We connect with each other. Because if we didn't, we would all feel so, so alone.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 13: You Can Look
Tagged: human touch, Medical Professionals, Loneliness of Being A Doctor
“We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: Shake Your Groove Thing
Tagged: adults
“It's my party and I'll get drunk if I want to.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: Shake Your Groove Thing
Tagged: party, Drunk, Lesley Gore
“It's not us. It's them. Them and their stupid boy...penises.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Enough is Enough
Tagged: Penises, Stupid Boy Penises
“Sometimes reality has a way of sneaking up and biting us in the ass.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Deny, Deny, Deny
Tagged: Reality, Ass Bites
“We're all damaged, it seems. Some of us, more than others....We carry the damage with us from childhood, then as grownups, we give as good as we get....Ultimately, we all do damage....And then, we set about the business of fixing whatever we can.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Damage Case
Tagged: damaged, Grownups, Childhood
“If you want to be a shark, be a shark. Don’t apologize for it.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 14: Get off on the Pain
Tagged: Shark, Identity, Apologies, go confidently, Metaphor Examples
“Okay, here it is, your choice...it's simple, her or me, and I'm sure she is really great. But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big 'pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window', unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me, choose me, love me.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Bring the Pain
Tagged: Pick Me, Choose Me, Love Me, Choices, Ultimatums, Love
“Life is not a spectator sport. Win, lose, or draw, the game is in progress, whether we want it to be or not. So go ahead argue with the refs, change the rules, cheat a little, take a break and tend to your wounds. But play. Play hard, play fast, play loose and free. Play as if there's no tomorrow. Okay, so it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game, right?”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: The Name of the Game
Tagged: Life, Rules of Life, Win and Losing, The Game of Life
“Not all wounds are superficial. Most wounds run deeper than we can imagine. You can’t see them with the naked eye. And then, there are the wounds that take us by surprise.

The trick with any kind of wound or disease, is to dig down and find the real source of the injury. And once you’ve found it…try like hell to heal that sucker.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 3: Where the Boys Are
Tagged: wounds, Superficial Wouinds, Naked Eye
“The thing about addiction is it never ends well, because eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high stops feeling good and starts to hurt. Still, they say you don't kick the habit until you hit rock bottom, but how do you know when you're there? Because no matter how badly a thing is hurting us, sometimes letting it go hurts even worse.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Grey's Anatomy Season 4: Love/Addiction
Tagged: Addiction, Hitting Bottom, Getting High, Letting Go
“They say death is hardest on the living. It’s tough to actually say goodbye. Sometimes it’s impossible. You never really stop feeling the loss. It’s what makes things so bitter sweet. We leave little bits of ourselves behind, little reminders. A lifetime of memories, photos, trinkets. Things to remember us by even when were gone.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 9: Going Going Gone
Tagged: Death, Pain, Loss, goodbye, Memories, Trinkets, Souvenirs
“Who gets to determine when the old ends, and the new begins? It’s not a day on a calendar, not a birthday, not a new year. It’s an event. Big or small. Something that changes us. Ideally, it gives us hope.
A new way of living and looking at the world. Letting go of old habits, old memories. What’s important is that we never stop believing we can have a new beginning. But it’s also important to remember that amid all the crap are a few things really worth holding on to.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Begin the Begin
Tagged: Old and New, old habits, Old Memories, New Beginning
“Some people believe that without history, our lives amount to nothing. At some point, we all have to choose. Do we fall back on what we know? Or, do we step forward, to something new? It’s hard not to be haunted by our past. Our history is what shapes us, what guides us.

Our history resurfaces. Time, after time, after time. So we have to remember. Sometimes, the most important history, is the history we’re making today.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 3: Time After Time
Tagged: History, Past, Recurrence
“The length of your recovery is determined by the extent of your injuries. And it’s not always successful. No matter how hard we work at it, some wounds might never fully heal. You might have to adjust to a whole new way of living. Things may have changed too radically to ever go back to what they were. It might not even recognize yourself. It’s like you haven’t recovered anything at all. You’re a whole new person with a whole new life.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 7: It's a Long Way Back
Tagged: Recovery, injuries, wounds, New Life
“At the end of the day, there are some things you just can't help but talk about....Some things we just don't want to hear, and some things we say because we can't be silent any longer.....Some things are more than what you say, they're what you do.....Some things you say because there's no other choice.....Some things you keep to yourself.....And not too often, but every now and then, some things simply speak for themselves.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Something to Talk About
Tagged: Speaking, Listening
“A good basketball game can have us all on the edge of our seats. Games are all about the glory, pain and the play by play. And then there are the more solitary games....The games we each play all by ourselves....The social games, the mind games, we use them to pass the time to make life more interesting to distract us from what's really going on....There are those of us who love to play games, any games. And there are those of us who love to play a little too much.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: The Name of the Game
Tagged: Basketball, Games, Playing, Competition
“Pain, you just have to ride it out, hope it goes away on its own, hope the wound that caused it heals. There are no solutions, no easy answers, you just breath deep and wait for it to subside. Most of the time pain can be managed but sometimes the pain gets you where you least expect it. Hits way below the belt and doesn't let up. Pain, you just have to fight through, because the truth is you can't outrun it and life always makes more.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Bring the Pain
Tagged: Pain, Healing, Answers, solutions, perseverance
“It's all about lines. The finish line at the end of residency, waiting in line for a chance at the operating table, and then there's the most important line, the line separating you from the people you work with. It doesn't help to get too familiar, to make friends. You need boundaries, between you and the rest of the world. Other people are far too messy. It's all about lines. Drawing lines in the sand and praying like hell no one crosses them.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: The First Cut is the Deepest
Tagged: Lines, Drawing Lines, Line in the Sand, boundaries
“The early bird catches the worm; a stitch in time saves nine....He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we haven't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to 'seize the day'. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves....We have to make our own mistakes....We have to learn our own lessons....We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping....And that even the biggest failure, even the worst most intractable mistake beats the hell out of never trying.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: If Tomorrow Never Comes
Tagged: Benjamin Franklin, early bird, Seize The Day
“As doctors, as friends, as human beings, we all try to do the best we can....But the world is full of unexpected twists and turns. And just when you've gotten the lay of the land, the ground underneath you shifts. And knocks you off your feet. If you're lucky, you'll end up with nothing more than a flesh wound, something a Band-Aid will cover....But, some wounds are deeper than they first appear and require more than just a quick fix....With some wounds, you have to rip off the band-aid, let them breathe, and give them time to heal.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Band-Aid Covers the Bullet Hole
Tagged: doctors, Patients, Friends, human beings, wounds
“You don't get to call me a whore. When I met you, I thought I had found the person that I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I was done, so all the boys, and all the bars, and all the obvious daddy issues. Who cared, because I was done. You left me. You chose Addison. I'm all glued back together now. I make no apologies for how I chose to repair what you broke. You don't get to call me a whore.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 2: Damage Case
Tagged: Whore, Apologies
“So better health is a direct result of healthy relationships. You don’t need a spouse, you just need someone you can trust, you need someone you can talk to, you need someone who will celebrate your wins and grieve your losses, you need someone who can forgive you, you need someone who will show, no questions asked and walk with you through every unexpected twists and turns life throws your way.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 14: All of Me
Tagged: healthy, Relationships, Trust, Celebrate, grieve, twists and turns, Life
“You know how when you were a little kid and you believed in fairy tales? That fantasy of what your life would be—white dress, Prince Charming who'd carry you away to a castle on a hill. You'd lie in bed at night and close your eyes and you had complete and utter faith....Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Prince Charming—they were so close you could taste them. ...But eventually you grow up, one day you open your eyes and the fairy tale disappears....Most people turn to the things and people they can trust....But the thing is, it's hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely because almost everyone still has that smallest bit of hope and faith that one day they'll open their eyes and it will all come true.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 1: The Self-Destruct Button
Tagged: Prince Charming, fairy tales, Fantasies, Hope, Faith, Trust
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