Quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert

I'm sorry for what I did. Of course you are. I'm sorry for many of the things I've done, too. Everyone is sorry. It's good to be sorry - but don't make a fetish of it. The one good things about being Protestant is that we are not expected to cringe forever in contrition. Yours was a venial sin, Vivian, but not a mortal one. [...] Sins of the flesh will not get you punished in the afterlife. They will only get you punished in this life. As you've now learned.

You might spend your whole life following your curiosity and have absolutely nothing to show for it at the end—except one thing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you passed your entire existence in devotion to the noble human virtue of inquisitiveness.

Marriage is those two thousand indistinguishable conversations, chatted over two thousand indistinguishable breakfasts, where intimacy turns like a slow wheel. How do you measure the worth of becoming that familiar to somebody—so utterly well known and so thoroughly ever-present that you become an almost invisible necessity, like air?

Creative living is a path for the brave.

feel sometimes like my genius sits in the corner and watches me at my desk, day after day, week after week, month after month, just to be sure I really mean it, just to be sure I'm really giving this creative endeavor my wholehearted effort.

The cave was so beautiful that it made her bones ache with longing. She had never before coveted anything as much as she coveted this glimmering spectacle of mosses. She wanted to be swallowed by it. Already—although she was standing right there—she began to miss this place. She knew she would miss it for the rest of her days.

Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner.

But why must everything always have a practical application?

You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God. a

He became a poet the way other men become monks: as a devotional practice, as an act of love, and as a lifelong commitment to the search for grace and transcendence. I

AÈ™a se întâmpl? mereu în cazurile de iubire disperat?, nu? În astfel de cazuri, ne invent?m întotdeauna personajele jucate de partenerii noÈ™tri, le cerem s? fie ce vrem noi s? fie, apoi suferim când refuz? s? joace rolurile respective.

Trains running in every direction spit hot ash and cinders. Ministers and moralists feared that the vibrations and jostling of such fast travel would throw weak-minded women into sexual frenzies.

As my friend Pastor Rob Bell warns: "Don't rush through the experiences and circumstances that have the most capacity to transform you." Don't let go of your courage the moment things stop being easy or rewarding. Because that moment? That's the moment when interesting begins.

How you manage yourself between those bright moments, when things aren't going so great, is a measure of how devoted you are to your vocation, and how equipped you are for the weird demands of creative living. Holding yourself together through all the phases of creation is where the real work lies.

It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

central beliefs of Calvinist teachings: You are responsible for your own situation in life, you are most likely doomed, and the future is terribly grim.

What happened now? he would ask -- another man thoroughly exhausted by me.

The problem is that we're all full of desire, it is the very hallmark of our emotional existence, and it can lead to our downfall - and to the downfall of others.

because creativity is mystical doesn't mean it shouldn't also be demystified—especially if it means liberating artists from the confines of their own grandiosity, panic, and ego.

There was no miracle. It was like Saint Paul rode his horse all the way to Damascus and nothing happened, except maybe it rained a bit. Most days, this is what life is like.

it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection. So now

Trust me, if you want to complain, you'll always find plenty to complain about, even when fortune appears to be shining her favor upon you. But

True wisdom gives the only possible answer at any given moment

Let people have their opinions. More than that—let people be in love with their opinions, just as you and I are in love with ours. But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else's blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people's judgments about you are none of your business. Lastly