I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness.… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 ever desired something and then didn't get it (or, worse, got it and subsequently lost it) know full well the suffering of which the Buddah spoke. Desiring another person is perhaps the most risky endeavor of… — 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 have the potential to breed their own brand of trouble. We are susceptible to emotional uncertainties and neuroses that are probably not very common among the Hmong, but that run rampant these days among my contemporaries… — 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 Image
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 Image
I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery,… — 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 might become if I'm not careful: Crazy Aunt Liz. The divorcee in the muumuu with the dyed orange hair who doesn't eat dairy but smokes menthols, who's always just coming back from her astrology cruise or… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“I live in nature where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, and so is the planet around the sun. The course of water over the earth is circular coming down from the sky and circulating through the world to spread life and then evaporating up again. I live in a circular teepee and build… — Elizabeth Gilbert Copy Share
