Quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert

The city had been founded on the sound principles of religious tolerance, a free press, and good landscaping, by William Penn—a man who grew tree saplings in bathtubs, and who had imagined his metropolis as a great nursery of both plants and ideas.

Sex is so often a cheat—a shortcut of intimacy. A way to skip over knowing somebody's heart by knowing, instead, their mere body. So we were devoted to each other, in our own way, but we kept our lives separate.

Look for God like a man on fire looks for water.

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels—that's creative living. The courage to go on that hunt in the first place—that's what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.

I've learned how to navigate my own disappointment without plummeting too far into death spirals of shame, rage, or inertia. That's because, by this point in my life, I have come to understand what part of me is suffering when I fail: It's just my ego.

Mandale luz y amor cuando te acuerdes de él y olvídate del tema

The wise man is always similar to himself.

The other day a monk told me, "The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That's where you need to go.

you will never be able to create anything interesting out of your life if you don't believe that you're entitled to at least try.

She was not afraid of death, in theory. If anything, she had nothing but respect and reverence for the Genius of Death, who had shaped this world more than any other force. That said, she did not wish to die quite this moment. She still wanted to see what would happen next, as much as ever. The thing was to resist submersion for as long as possible.

It is in our sleep that we most glimpse the power of spirit. Our minds will speak across this narrow distance. It will be here, together in nocturnal stillness, that we shall finally become unbound by time, by space, by natural law and physical law. We shall roam the world however we like, in our dreams. We shall speak with the dead, transform into animals and objects, fly across time. Our intellects shall be nowhere to be found, and our minds will be unfettered.

Let us not become so cautious that we forget to live

That's just ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what your ego does. It keeps you feeling separate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole.

El sufrimiento y las molestías son inevitables en esta vida, pero si encuentras la quietud necesaria con el tiempo descubrirás que todo ( lo incómodo y lo hermoso) pasa con el tiempo

Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water.

Ever since I'd met Edna Parker Watson, I tried to wear suits whenever possible. Among other lessons, that woman had taught me that a suit will always make you look more chic and important than a dress. And not too much jewelry! "A majority of the time," Edna said, "jewelry is an attempt to cover up a badly chosen or ill-fitting garment.

Never learn to type, kiddo. And if you do learn to type, never tell anybody you can type, or they'll make you do it forever. Never learn shorthand either. It'll be the death of you. They'll put a steno pad in a woman's hand and it'll never come out.

someday you will understand that nobody passes through this world without suffering—no matter what you may think of them and their supposed good fortune.

There is only so long that a person can keep her enthusiasms locked away within her heart before she longs to share it with a fellow soul, and Alma had many decades of thoughts much overdue for sharing.

Everyone is sorry. It's good to be sorry—but don't make a fetish of it.

How many people have I heard claim their children as the greatest accomplishment and comfort of their lives? It's the thing they can always lean on during a metaphysical crisis, or a moment of doubt about their relevancy- If I have done nothing else in this life, then at least I have raised my children well.

Instead of trying to forcefully take thoughts out of your mind, give your mind something better to play with. Something healthier." "Like what?" Like love, Groceries. Like pure divine love.

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

The sentences still form in my mind, and thoughts still do their little show-off dance, but I know my thought patterns so well now that they don't bother me anymore. My thoughts have become like old neighbors, kind of bothersome but ultimately rather endearing - Mr. and Mrs. Yakkity-Yak and their three dumb children, Blah, Blah and Blah. But they don't agitate my home. There's room for all of us in this neighborhood.