Quotes by Elizabeth Gilbert

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

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

The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.

Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. Time - when pursued like bandit - will behave like one; always remaining one country or one room ahead of you, changing its name and hair color to elude you, slipping out the back door of the motel just as youre banging through the lobby with your newest search warrant, leaving only a burning cigarette in the ashtray to taunt you. At some point you have to stop because it wont. You have to admit that you cant catch it. At some point, as Richard keeps telling me, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you.

The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches of the human condition, which Im going to over-simply define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment. Different schools of thought over the centuries have found different explanation for mans apparently inherently flawed state. Taoists call it imbalance, Buddism calls it ignorance, Islam blames our misery on rebellion against God, and the Judeo-Christian tradition attributes all our suffering to original sin. Freudians say that unhappiness is the inevitable result of the clash between our natural drives and civilizations needs. (As my friend Deborah the psychologist explains it: Desire is the design flaw.) The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. Were miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We dont realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme Self who is eternally at peace. That supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine. Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

Every intimacy carries secreted somewhere below its initial lovely surfaces, the ever-coiled makings of complete catastrophe.

But doesnt that make sense? That the infinite would be, indeed... infinite? That even the most holy amongst us would only be able to see scattered pieces of the eternal picture at any given time? And that maybe if we could collect those pieces and compare them, a story about God would begin to emerge that resembles and includes everyone? And isnt our individual longing for transcendence all just part of this larger human search for divinity? Dont we each have the right to not stop seeking until we get as close to the source of wonder as possible? Even if it means coming to India and kissing trees in the moonlight for a while?

Just say what you want to say . . . and say it with all your heart.

Vitamin E, get much sleep, drink much water, travel to a place far away...meditate and teach your heart that this is destiny.” - Wayan

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

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 beings difficulty in coming to viruous balance with himself.

You can let yourself off the hook anytime you want, Liz. Thats the divine contract of a little something we call free will.

No outbreak of jealousy or malice has ever been welcomed in God’s eyes.” Beatrix continued, “nor shall such an outbreak ever be welcomed in the eyes of your family. If you have sentiments within you that are unpleasant or uncharitable, let them fall stillborn to the ground.

So when modern-day religious conservatives wax nostalgic about how marriage is a sacred tradition that reaches back into history for thousands of uninterrupted years, they are absolutely correct, but in only one respect—only if they happen to be talking about Judaism.

One instant, youre just a regular Joe, schlepping through your mundane life, and then suddenly - what is this? - nothing has changed, yet you feel stirred by a grace, swollen with wonder, overflowing with bliss. Everything - for no reason whatsoever - is perfect.

Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just cant let this one go. Its over, Groceries. Davids purpose was to shake you up, drive you out of that marriage that you needed to leave, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now its over. Problem is, you cant accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. Youre like a dog at the dump, baby - youre just lickin at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if youre not careful, that cans gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.

The Buddha referred to married people as “householders.” He even gave clear instructions as to how one should be a good householder: Be nice to your spouse, be honest, be faithful, give alms to the poor, buy some insurance against fire and flood . . . I’m dead serious: The Buddha literally advised married couples to buy property insurance.

sometimes the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else - Richard

The results of my work dont have much to do with me. I can only be in charge of producing the work itself. Thats a hard enough job. I refuse to take on additional jobs, such as trying to police what anybody thinks about my work once it leaves my desk.

You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be.