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Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes - Page 8

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A glorious failure can sometimes be more life affirming than a cautious win.

A glorious failure can sometimes be more life affirming than a cautious win.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Winning, Sometimes, Life Affirming
"Elizabeth Gilbert On The First Step To Long-Lasting Happiness" By Elizabeth Gilbert, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 19, 2014.

Then again, you cannot stop the flood of desire as it moves through the world, inappropriate though it may sometimes be. It is the prerogative of all humans to make ludicrous choices, to fall in love with the most unlikely of partners, and to set themselves up for the most predicatable of calamities.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Falling In Love, Moving, Choices
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace With Marriage”, p.52, A&C Black

Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Loneliness, Being Single, Single Life
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.67, A&C Black

Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure).

Elizabeth Gilbert
Weekend, Cereal, Opposites
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.64, Bloomsbury Publishing

I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the monkey mind. The thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl. My mind swings wildly through time, touching on dozens of ideas a minute, unharnessed and undisciplined. You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Buddhist, Thinking, Ideas

Dear me, how I love a library.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Library, Dear, Dear Me
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.40, A&C Black

Every day when you wake up, ask yourself, 'What do I really, really, really want? ' You have to say really, really, really, otherwise you won't believe it.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Believe, Want, Wake Up

You are still young, so you think only of your own self. You do not notice the tribulations that occur all around you, to other people. Do not protest; it is true. I am not condemning you. I was as selfish as you, when I was your age. It is the custom of the young to be selfish... But someday you will understand that nobody passes through this world without suffering-no matter what you think of them and their supposed good fortune.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Selfish, Thinking, People

Sometimes beauty needs a bit of ignoring, to properly come into being.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Needs, Sometimes, Bits
Elizabeth Gilbert (2013). “The Signature of All Things”, p.224, A&C Black

Mostly you meet friends when traveling by accident, like by sitting next to them on the train, or in a restaurant, or in a holding cell.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Cells, Sitting, Next

he was still my romantic hero and I was still his living dream

Elizabeth Gilbert
Dream, Hero, Stills
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.20, A&C Black

When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Journey, Woods, Sometimes
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.51, A&C Black

Power is a neutral energy source, like tofu. It's what you do with it that gives it flavor.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Giving, Energy, Tofu

The trick at every turn was to endure the test of living for as long as possible. The odds of survival were punishingly slim, for the world was naught by a school of calamity and an endless burning furnace of tribulation. But those who survived the world shaped it--even as the world, simultaneously, shaped them.

Elizabeth Gilbert
School, Odds, Long
Elizabeth Gilbert (2013). “The Signature of All Things”, p.443, A&C Black

Childlessness doesn't make people selfish; selfishness makes people selfish.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Selfish, People, Selfishness

I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Love, Disappointment, Greatness

If life gives you lemons, don't settle for simply making lemonade - make a glorious scene at a lemonade stand.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Giving, Settling, Scene

You have no idea how strong my love is!

Elizabeth Gilbert
Best Love, Strong, Love Is
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.167, Bloomsbury Publishing

From the most sacred ancient text of Yoga: Oh Krishna, the mind is restless, turbulent, strong, and unyielding. I consider it as difficult to subdue as the wind.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Strong, Yoga, Wind
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.138, Bloomsbury Publishing

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

Elizabeth Gilbert
Tragedy, Add, Misery
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.248, A&C Black

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

Elizabeth Gilbert
Yoga, Effort, Forever
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.118, A&C Black

Traditionally, I have responded to the transcendent mystics of all religions. I have always responded with breathless excitement to anyone who has ever said that God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky, but instead abides very close to us indeed- much closer than we can imagine, breathing right through our own hearts.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Heart, Sky, Breathing
Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.14, Bloomsbury Publishing

Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying "Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Understanding, Saying Yes, Way
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.167, A&C Black

So I stood up and did a handstand on my Guru's roof, to celebrate the notion of liberation. I felt the dusty tiles under my hands. I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on the palms of my bare feet. This kind of thing -- a spontaneous handstand--isn't something a disembodied cool blue soul can do, but a human being can do it. 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
Night, Blue, Hands
Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.178, A&C Black

Go back to bed', said the omniscient interior voice, because you don't need to know the final answer right now, at three o'clock in the morning on the Thursday in November. 'Go back to bed', because I love you. 'Go back to bed', beacause the only thing you need to do for now is get some rest and take good care of yourself until you do know the answer.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Morning, Love You, Voice

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