Quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert

Our whole business therefore in this life," wrote Saint Augustine, rather Yogically, "is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.

I believe that life cannot be survived—that is evident!—but if one is lucky, life can be endured for quite a long while. If one is both lucky and stubborn, life can sometimes even be enjoyed.

I think a lot of people who feel as though they desperately want to be married oftentimes simply desperately want to have a wedding.

We set up one rule in our house, which is, 'Guests of guests cannot bring guests.' That rule was required because that happened one weekend, and we finally said, 'Okay, you know what? That's a little too much.'

When I look at my life and the lives of my female friends these days - with our dizzying number of opportunities and talents - I sometimes feel as though we are all mice in a giant experimental maze, scurrying around frantically, trying to find our way through.

I actually have a great deal of respect for antidepressants; I think they can be enormously mighty tools toward recovery.

Marriage is not simply a romantic union between two people; it's also a political and economic contract of the highest order.

There's a lot of disorder that comes along with wanting to know everything and wanting to try everything and wanting to experience everything, but there's a lot of knowledge that comes out of it too.

A true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

Tis' better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else's perfectly.

There were times, especially when I was traveling for 'Eat, Pray, Love,' when, I swear to God, I would feel this weight of my female ancestors, all those Swedish farmwives from beyond the grave who were like, 'Go! Go to Naples! Eat more pizza! Go to India, ride an elephant! Do it! Swim in the Indian Ocean. Read those books. Learn a language.'

My career started young and I was really ambitious, and then I had success and I hung out with people who were much older. I think I might have been temporally misplaced, so I thought I was 40. It was a premature midlife crisis.

Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.

Everything good I've ever gotten in life, I only got because I gave something else up.

If life gives you lemons, don't settle for simply making lemonade - make a glorious scene at a lemonade stand.

But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.

So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly.

Men go into marriage with virtually no expectations whatsoever. Ten years later, the men are delightfully surprised to find out that it's actually kind of nice, and the women have sort of had to take a nose dive from what they thought it was going to be.

If I could read while I was driving, showering, socializing or sleeping, I would do it.

I think that people who live in cultures without quite so much privilege, opportunity or grandiosity have a little bit more respect for the workings of destiny, and the limitations that people can find themselves in through no fault of their own.

Mine is just a simple old human story - of one person trying, with great rigor and discipline, to comprehend her personal relationship with divinity.

The Yogic scriptures say that God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings in any way whatsoever that mortals choose to worship - just so long as those prayers are sincere.

I have these new policies toward my life, like 'I will not accelerate when I see the yellow light.'

Success isn't about acquiring things, it's about discovering your life purpose and following the call