I have more compassion than if I had led a life where everything worked out exactly as I had planned or if I had never been wounded or if I had never been betrayed or I had never been harmed. I don't think I would be as good a person. Elizabeth Gilbert More Quotes by Elizabeth Gilbert More Quotes From Elizabeth Gilbert the only thing you need to do for now is get some rest and take good care of yourself until you do know the answer Elizabeth Gilbert care answers needs I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair. Elizabeth Gilbert food love believe Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me. The words made me laugh in delight. Elizabeth Gilbert magic singing laughing There are always two figures in a marriage, two votes, two conflicting sets of decisions, desires and limitations. Elizabeth Gilbert decision desire two We’re miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. Elizabeth Gilbert character believe thinking How could two people who were so in love not end up happily ever after? It had to work. Didn’t it? Elizabeth Gilbert ever-after two people longing to travel while you are already traveling is, I admit, a kind of greedy madness Elizabeth Gilbert longing madness kind Our relationship now thoroughly ruined, with even civility destroyed between us, all I wanted anymore was the door. Elizabeth Gilbert our-relationship civility doors We invented marriage. Couples invented marriage. We also invented divorce,mind you. And we invented infidelity,too, as well as romantic misery. In fact we invented the whole sloppy mess of love and intimacy and aversion and euphoria and failure. But most importantly of all, most subversively of all, most stubbornly of all, we invented privacy. Elizabeth Gilbert divorce couple love It is not we as individuals, then, who must bend uncomfortably around the institution of marriage; rather, it is the institution of marriage that has to bend uncomfortably around us. Elizabeth Gilbert institutions individual Equally disquieting are the times when we do make a choice, only to later feel as though we have murdered some other aspect of our being by settling on one single concrete decision. Elizabeth Gilbert settling choices decision I was a veritable Johnny Appleseed of grand expectations, and all I reaped for my trouble was a harvest of bitter fruit. Elizabeth Gilbert bitter fruit expectations Please go to this pizzeria. Order the margherita pizza with double mozzarella. If you do not eat this pizza when you are in Naples, please lie to me and tell me that you did. Elizabeth Gilbert food order lying But why must everything have a practical application? I'd been such a diligent soldier for years - working, producing, never missing a deadline, taking care of my loved ones, my gums and my credit record, voting, etc. Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty? In this dark period of loss, did I need any justification for learning Italian other than that it was the only thing I could imagine bringing me any pleasure right now? Elizabeth Gilbert italian dark loss I have my own set of survival techniques. I am patient. I know how to pack light. But my one might travel talent is that I can make friends with anybody. I can make friends with the dead. If there isn’t anyone else around to talk to, I could probably make friends with a four-foot-tall pile of sheetrock. That is why I’m not afraid to travel to the most remote places in the world, not if there are human beings there to meet. People asked me before I left, “do you have friends [there]?’ and I would just shake my head no, thinking to myself, But I will. Elizabeth Gilbert light feet thinking The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things they most wanted in life. If any item on the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness. Better to live a life of single-pointed focus, he taught. But what about the benefits of living harmoniously among extremes? What if you could somehow create an expansive enough life that you could synchronize seemingly incongruous opposites into a worldview that excludes nothing? Elizabeth Gilbert focus opposites writing There is a theory that if you yearn sincerely enough for a Guru, you will find one. The universe will shift, destiny's molecules will get themselves organized and your path will soon intersect with the path of the master you need. Elizabeth Gilbert molecules destiny needs But he [Depression] just gives me that dark smile, settles into my favorite chair, puts his feet on my table and lights a cigar, filling the place with his awful smoke. Loneliness watches and sighs, then climbs into my bed and pulls the covers over himself, fully dressed, shoes and all. He's going to make me sleep with him again tonight, I just know it. Elizabeth Gilbert loneliness dark sleep I remember asking myself one night, while I was curled up in the same old corner of my same old couch in tears yet again over the same old repetition of sorrowful thoughts, 'Is there ANYTHING about this scene you can change, Liz?' And all I could think to do was stand up, whle still sobbing, and try to balance on one foot in the middle of the living room. Just to prove that - while I couldn't stop the tears or change my dismal interior dialogue - I was not yet totally out of control: at least I could cry hysterically while balanced on one foot. Elizabeth Gilbert feet night thinking Oh, cold world -- I have grown so weary of you and all your horrible bathrooms. Elizabeth Gilbert bathroom cold world
