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Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes - Page 18

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I thought about the relentless thought-processing, soul-devouring machine that is my brain, and wondered how on earth I was ever going to master it. Then I remembered that line from Jaws and couldn't help smiling:

I thought about the relentless thought-processing, soul-devouring machine that is my brain, and wondered how on earth I was ever going to master it. Then I remembered that line from Jaws and couldn't help smiling: 'We're gonna need a bigger boat.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Soul, Brain, Mind
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.144, Bloomsbury Publishing

But vegetarians can eat this...Because intestines aren't even meat, Liz. They're just sh$*.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Liz, Meat, Vegetarian

Do I really deserve this pleasure? This is American, too-the insecurity about whether we have earned our happiness.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Insecurity, Pleasure, Deserve
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.64, A&C Black

We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Hands, Joy, Needs
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.178, A&C Black

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.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Doors, Waiting, Care
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.179, A&C Black

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

Elizabeth Gilbert
Girl, Mother, Growing Up
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.270, Bloomsbury Publishing

God isn't interested in watching you enact some performance of personality in order to comply with some crackpot notion you have about how a spiritual person looks or behaves. We all seem to get this idea that, in order to be sacred, we have to make some massive, dramatic change of character, that we have to renounce our individuality.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Spiritual, Character, Order
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.201, Bloomsbury Publishing

The sound universe is also spectacular around here. In the evenings there's a cricket orchestra with frogs providing the bass line. In the dead of night the dogs howl about how misunderstood they are. Before dawn the roosters for miles around announce how freaking cool it is to be roosters.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Dog, Night, Misunderstood

This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Spiritual, Order, Joy
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.178, A&C Black

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

Elizabeth Gilbert
Dark, Definitions, Faces
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.184, Bloomsbury Publishing

I like it when science and devotion find places of intersection.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Devotion, Intersections
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.152, Bloomsbury Publishing

Richard didn't even have time to ask if I thought I'd ever amount to anything in this life before I looked him eye to eye and said, "I already have, mister.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Eye, This Life, Said
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.152, A&C Black

My restlessness makes me a far better day-to-day traveler than he will ever be. I am infinitely curious and almost infinitely patient with mishaps, discomforts, and minor disasters. So I can go anywhere on the planet—that’s not a problem. The problem is that I just can’t live anywhere on the planet.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Travel, Patient, Problem
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace With Marriage”, p.112, A&C Black

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

Elizabeth Gilbert
Father, Feet, Long
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.86, Bloomsbury Publishing

The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches of the human condition, which I'm going to over-simply define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Contentment, Heartbreaking, Inability
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.128, Bloomsbury Publishing

What a large number of factors constitute a single human being! How very many layers we operate on, and how very many influences we receive from our minds, our bodies, our histories, our families, our cities, our souls and our lunches!

Elizabeth Gilbert
Cities, Lunch, Numbers
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.52, A&C Black

The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things they most wanted in life. If any item on the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Writing, Three, Lists
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.30, Bloomsbury Publishing

Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They don't need to show me thier badges. I know these guys very well.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Depression, Loneliness, Guy
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.49, A&C Black

There is a theory that if you yearn sincerely enough for a Guru, you will find one. The universe will shift, destiny's molecules will get themselves organized and your path will soon intersect with the path of the master you need.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Destiny, Molecules, Needs
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.119, A&C Black

This was not my moment to be seeking romance and (as day follows night) to further complicate my already knotty life. This was my moment to look for the kind of healing and peace that can only come from solitude.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Peace, Healing, Night
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.8, Bloomsbury Publishing

With each reunion (we) had to learn each other all over again. There was always that nervous moment at the airport when I would stand there waiting for him to arrive, wondering, Will I still know him? Will he still know me?

Elizabeth Gilbert
Airports, Waiting, Wonder
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.323, A&C Black

In fact, it was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Facts, Fans, Bigs
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.17, A&C Black

the great lack of parity between husbands and wives has always been spawned by the disproportionate degree of self-sacrifice that women are willing to make on behalf of those they love.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Husband, Sacrifice, Self
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.417, A&C Black

I still can’t say whether I ever want children….I can only say how I feel now--grateful to be on my own. I also know that I won’t go forth and have children just in case I might regret missing it later in life; I don’t think this is a strong enough motivation to bring more babies onto the earth.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Baby, Strong, Motivation
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.97, Bloomsbury Publishing

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

Elizabeth Gilbert
Morning, Two, Space
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.220, Bloomsbury Publishing

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