I myself have never been enchanted by the dream of the white wedding, and, heaven help us, the expectation that this exquisitely… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
I'm afraid many women do choose the wedding over the marriage. It seems a steep price to pay, but it comes from… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
The fantasy of the wedding day is that it represents undeniable public and private truth that you have been chosen. For that… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
a woman's place is in the kitchen...sitting in a comfortable chair, with her feet up, drinking a glass of wine and watching… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Marriage becomes hard work once you have poured the entirety of your life’s expectations for happiness into the hands of one mere… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
I think of modern marriage as a car strangely fashioned out of an old abandoned horse carriage, built upon the framework of… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Nobody until very recently would have thought that their husband was supposed to be their best friend, confidante, intellectual soul mate, co-parent,… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
There is no choice more intensely personal, after all, than whom you choose to marry; that choice tells us, to a large… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
We alter and customize the thing every century, every generation, every day - both in the courts and in our own homes.… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Unfenced by law, the unmarried lover can quit a bad relationship at any time. But you - the legally married person who… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
“Wanting to get married, for me, is all about a desire to feel chosen.” She went on to write that while the… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
I think sometimes we look at other people's marriages and we think they must always be so happy together. I don't know… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
What I object to is the hyper-fetishized wedding day, the prioritizing of wedding over marriage. I have a real problem with couples… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
I was a bartender for a long time, so I know how to make drinks, but I'm more likely to offer them… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Modern marriage is first and foremost a romantic and private union, but the tax laws and inheritance laws and religious implications that… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
“You know, you seem like a completely different person, now that you're with this new boyfriend. You used to look like your… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Marriage is - among other things - a study in contradiction and disappointment, and inside that reality there is space for us… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
the great lack of parity between husbands and wives has always been spawned by the disproportionate degree of self-sacrifice that women are… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
“This is what intimacy does to us over time. That's what a long marriage can do: It causes us to inherit and… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
It is not we as individuals, then, who must bend uncomfortably around the institution of marriage; rather, it is the institution of… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
“First spouses, I have learned, don't ever really go away--even if you aren't speaking to them anymore. They are phantoms who dwell… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
In the modern industrialized Western world, where I come from, the person whom you choose to marry is perhaps the single most… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
every healthy marriage is composed of walls and windows. The windows are the aspects of your relationship that are open to the… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Here was something I already knew to be true about myself: Just as there are some wives who will occasionally need a… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
I'm an enormous product of my century, I'm a product of my upbringing. I was not aware of the fact that I… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
“Still it is true that many same-sex couples want nothing more than to join society as fully integrated socially responsible family-centered taxpaying… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
Women have always been more critical of marriage than men. The great mysterious irony of it is - at least it's the… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
“The Buddha referred to married people as “householders.” He even gave clear instructions as to how one should be a good householder:… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
In every possible instance Saint Paul begged Christians to restrain themselves to contain their carnal yearnings to live solitary and sexless lives… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
My husband is not American. He was born in Brazil, where he grew up under a filthy, corrupt dictatorship. In his twenties,… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
We invented marriage. Couples invented marriage. We also invented divorce,mind you. And we invented infidelity,too, as well as romantic misery. In fact… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share Image
That's your friend. My husband is my best friend. He's not the mirror that holds up my flaws. He's just the guy who's like,… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
“Not to mention that I have finally arrived at that age where a woman starts to question whether the wisest way to get over… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
“The Buddha taught that all human suffering is rooted in desire. Don't we all know this to be true? Any of us who have… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
“And while [we] do have possibilities that are vast and magnificent and almost infinite in scope, it's important to remember that our choice-rich lives… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
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 Copy Share
If we never leave our house except to drive to work, do we need to be even remotely aware of this powerful, humbling, extraordinary… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
Both the five-year-olds looked at me with bewilderment and a bit of fearful uncertainty. I had a sudden horrifying image of the woman I… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
“Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else.” — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
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… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
I was full of a hot, powerful sadness and would have loved to burst into the comfort of tears, but tried hard not to,… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
“I live in nature where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, and so is the planet around the… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
“His spelling was several degrees beyond arbitrary, and his punctuation brought reason to sigh with unhappiness. But” — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
I actually have a great deal of respect for antidepressants; I think they can be enormously mighty tools toward recovery. — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
