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Life Quotes by Cheryl Strayed

68 Life quotes by Cheryl Strayed

All Life quotes Cheryl Strayed’s page

A mother’s loss can feel like the end of everything, but the quote says life keeps bringing both terrible and beautiful moments. It reminds us that love is a vital nutrient that gives meaning, and that the best way to live is to tackle the hardest problems head‑on. Trusting yourself helps you rebuild after loss.

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You get to define the terms of your life.

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Trusting yourself means living out what you already know to be true.

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“The fuck is your life. Answer it.”

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My whole life sort of ended when my mom died.

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It's a long life, sweetheart, and time heals all wounds.

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Jump high and hard with intention and heart.

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Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding

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That my complicated life could be made so simple was astounding.

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The best thing you can possibly do with your life is to tackle the motherfucking shit out of it.

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I walked all those miles, I learned all those lessons. It's as if my new life was the gift I got at…

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“They realized that, in fact, the lie wasn't safe. That it threatened their existence more profoundly than the truth did.”

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“There was the woman I was before my mom died and the one I was now, my old life sitting on the…

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My mother saved hundreds of animals in her life. Wherever she encountered and injured or needy or abandoned animal, she brought it…

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All of us, as we mature and grow up - if we're doing life right - we evolve.

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I'd walk and think about my entire life. I'd find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous.

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“I suppose this is what I mean when I say we cannot possibly know what will manifest in our lives.”

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Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life.…

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“And the fuck is yours too, WTF. That question does not apply 'to everything every day.' If it does, you’re wasting your…

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“Anything else? To be about ten times more magnanimous than you believe yourself capable of being. Your life will be a hundred…

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I had to go on without my mother, even though I was suffering terribly, grieving her. My whole life sort of ended…

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“It hadn't occurred to me that my mother would die. Until she was dying, the thought had never entered my mind. She…

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“Nobody’s going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you’re rich or poor, out of money…

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“Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life.…

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“He felt like a brother of mine, but not at all like my actual brother. He seemed like someone I'd always know…

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“There are some things you can’t understand yet. Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding. It’s good you’ve worked hard…

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“Her death had obliterated that. It had obliterated me. It had cut me short at the very height of my youthful arrogance.…

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“I was twenty-two, the same age she was when she'd been pregnant with me. She was going to leave my life at…

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“And it was true. I always would have guessed it, even all the time that I feared it would never happen. Being…

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“Adrienne Rich … did not die a woman who denied that her wounds came from the same source as her power. In…

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The writing life doesn't move in a straight line. I've had successes and rejections all along the way, at every stage of…

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I had diverged, digressed, wandered, and become wild. I didn't embrace the word as my new name because it defined negative aspects…

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“That mystery is not the curse of our existence; it’s the wonder. It’s what people are talking about when they talk about…

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“You don’t have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don’t have…

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“If I could go back in time I'd make the same choice in a snap. And yet, there remains my sister life.…

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He kissed me hard and I kissed him back harder, like it was the end of an era that had lasted all…

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“I lay down in the mother ash dirt among the crocuses and told her it was okay. That I'd surrendered. That since…

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“Doing what one wants to do because one wants to do it is hard for a lot of people, but I think…

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“They made my life big. They contributed to an education that money can’t buy.”

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He kissed me hard and I kissed him back harder, like it was the end of an era that had lasted all…

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I taught workshops at universities. I wrote for magazines. This took time and insane amounts of juggling, but it's how I earned…

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More by Cheryl Strayed

“She understands that attention is the first and final act of love, and that the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn’t cheap…

“The most terrible and beautiful and interesting things happen in life. For some of you, those things have already happened. Whatever happens to you…

Of course you want someone special to love you. A majority of the people who write to me inquire about how they can get…

It's still true that literary works by women, gays, and writers of color are often framed as specific, rather than universal, small rather than…

My whole life sort of ended when my mom died.

“And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard.”

“Don’t listen to those people who suggest you should be “over” your daughter’s death by now. The people who squawk the loudest about such…

“. . . there was the actual doing it, quickly followed by the grim realization of what it meant to do it, followed by…

“The sky didn't wonder where it was.”

He was the most ordinary man in all the world, and yet in her memory he'd become luminous, like the prince in a fairy…

Love is our essential nutrient. Without it, life has little meaning. It's the best thing we have to give and the most valuable thing…

“I never believed the boys were angry. I believed they were hurt and anger was the safest manifestation of their sorrow. It was the…

“It’s wrong that this is required of you. It’s wrong that your son died. It will always be wrong.”

“Your ultimatum is simple. It’s fair. And it’s stating your own intentions, not what you hope theirs will be.”

“We aren't poor," my mother said, again and again. "Because we're rich in love.”