Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes (138 Quotes)

Devotion is diligence without assurace...If faith were rational, it wouldn't be by definition-faith...Faith is walking face-first and full speed into the dark.

How could two people who were so in love not end up happily ever after? It had to work. Didn't it?

I tried to reassure him with every line about how the world is hard and unfair sometimes, but that it's all OK because he is so loved. He is surrounded by souls who would do anything to help him. And not only that--he has wisdom and patience of his own, buried deep inside his being, which will only reveal themselves over time and will always carry him through any trial. He is a gift from God to all of us.

It's also important to read the newspaper every day to see how the pope is doing. Here in Rome, the pope's health is recorded daily in the newspaper, very much like weather, or the TV schedule. Today the pope is tired. Yesterday, the pope was less tired than he is today. Tomorrow, we expect that the pope will not be so tired as he was today.

One of these poems I wrote after having been here only a month. The other, I wrote this morning. In the space between the two poems, I have found acres of grace

The Hopi Indians thought that the world's religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When all the threads are finally woven together they will form a rope that will pull us out of this dark cycle of history and into the next realm.

Until I can feel as ecstatic about having a baby as I felt about going to New Zealand to search for giant squid, I cannot have a baby.

Yoga is the effort to experience one's divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever.

Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.

I am a better person when I have less on my plate.

I want to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two. It was only later, after admitting this dream, that I noticed the happy coincidence that all these countries begin with the letter I. A fairly auspicious sign, it seemed, on a voyage of self-discovery.

Kalos Kai Agathos, the singular balance of the good and the beautiful.

Only the young and stupid are confident about sex and romance.

The ingredients of both darkness and light are equally present in all of us,...The madness of this planet is largely a result of the human being's difficulty in coming to viruous balance with himself.

Venice is beautiful, but like a Bergman movie is beautiful; you can admire it, but you don't really want to live in it.

You have no idea how strong my love is!

A lovely evening of new idioms and fresh mozzarella.

Even if you are eighty years old, or a lesbian, or a strident feminist, or a nun, or an eighty-year-old strident feminist lesbian nun who has never been married and never intends to get married, the politest possible answer is still:"Not yet.

I am not an expert at praying, as you know. But can you please help me? I am in desperate need of help. I don't know what to do. I need an answer. Please tell me what to do...

I watched them, thinking that little girls who make their mothers live grow up to be such powerful women.

Learning how to discipline your speech is a way of preventing your energies from spilling out of you through the rupture of your mouth, exhausting you and filling the world with words, words, words instead of serenity, peace and bliss.

Operation Self-Esteem--Day Fucking One.

The little fishing boat anchors right off the shore of Gili Meno. There are no docks here on this island. You have to roll up your pants, jump off the boat and wade in through the surf on your own power. There's absolutely no way to do this without getting soaking wet or even banged up on the coral, but it's worth all the trouble because the beach here is so beautiful, so special

We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.

You make some big grandoise decision about what you need to do, or who you need to be, and then circumstances arise that immediately reveal to you how little you understood about yourself.

A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master...

Even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there's no reason to add to everyone's misery by looking miserable yourself.

I am the planet's most affectionate life-form, something like the cross between a golden retriever and a barnacle.

I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check.

Let your conscience be your guide.

Our relationship now thoroughly ruined, with even civility destroyed between us, all I wanted anymore was the door.

The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement.

Well, I always tried to look nice and be feminine even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there's no reason to add to everyone's misery by looking miserable yourself. That's my philosophy. This is why I always wore makeup and jewelry into the jungle-nothing too extravagant, but maybe just a nice gold bracelet and some earrings, a little lipstick, good perfume. Just enough to show that I still had my self-respect.

You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control.

At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still, and allow contentment to come to you.

Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me. The words made me laugh in delight.

I crossed the street to walk in the sunshine.

I wonder if I am capable of being somebody's sun, somebody's everything. Am I centered enough now to be the center of somebody else's life?

Look for God. Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water.

People think that a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake.

The mosquitoes here are big enough to rape a Chicken!

Well, just remember--all your misery will be waiting for you at the door upon your exit, should you care to pick it up again when you leave.

Your father only has one foot on this earth. And really, really long legs . . .

Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don't you see what happened? This guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching, I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that's just the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That's just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries-you have the capacity to someday love the whole world. It's your destiny. Don't laugh.

Everyone makes their own path, and I must make mine. The Bhagavad Gita - and ancient Indian Yogic text - says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life perfectly. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly. It is mine.

I do not need to love you to prove that I love myself!!

I would say that if you really want to STOP knowing someone, you have to divorce him.

Look--I understand that an unexamined life is not worth living, but do you think I could someday have an unexamined lunch?

Please go to this pizzeria. Order the margherita pizza with double mozzarella. If you do not eat this pizza when you are in Naples, please lie to me and tell me that you did.

The mysterious magnet is either there, buried somewhere deep behind the sternum, or it is not.