Quotes by

Elizabeth Gilbert

I dont think you can come into your wisdom until you have made mistakes on your own skin and felt them in reality of your own life. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I myself have never been enchanted by the dream of the white wedding, and, heaven help us, the expectation that this exquisitely catered event should be the happiest moment of ones life. – Elizabeth Gilbert

When somebody has an enormous success in this culture, people start asking two questions, which are What are you doing now? and How are you going to beat that? And I have to say, I love the assumption that your intention is to beat yourself constantly – that youre in battle against yourself. – Elizabeth Gilbert

You know, why at the end of your life should you assemble thousands of pages of Why am I so sad, why am I so depressed? Instead, assemble thousands of pages of why youre so content. – Elizabeth Gilbert

Marriage is not simply a romantic union between two people its also a political and economic contract of the highest order. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I think its unfortunate that there exists only one path in America to complete social legitimacy, and that is marriage. I think, for instance, that it would be far easier for Americans to elect a black president or a female president than an unmarried president. – Elizabeth Gilbert

Men go into marriage with virtually no expectations whatsoever. Ten years later, the men are delightfully surprised to find out that its 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. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I dont hate humanity and Im not interested in people who do. Although, its funny, actually, some of my favorite writers really do. Like Martin Amis. My dirty secret. London Fields is one of my favorite books ever. And its indefensible! But hes so funny… I forgive him everything. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I know Im not a self-indulgent idiot I also know Im not the second coming of Deepak Chopra. If I had believed either of those, or both, as some people do when they get famous, thats when the mental illness arrives. – Elizabeth Gilbert

Its not an accident that both my sister and I are writers. Our parents created an accidental Petri dish. My family has great storytellers, and I grew up in a very funny, conversational house and didnt have television. This small family farm was a bubble world that didnt have much to do with reality. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I used to say, Man, I think Id be a really good dad. Ill be a great provider. Im funny Ill go on trips with them – Ill do all sorts of stuff. But the momming? Im not made for that. I have a really good mom I know what she put into it. – Elizabeth Gilbert

Sureness is something like a neck brace, which we clamp around our lives, hoping to somehow protect ourselves from the frightening, constant whiplash of change. Sadly, the brace doesnt always hold. – Elizabeth Gilbert

There are times when the only access I have to the truest person that I am is when Im alone and trying to solve a sentence. Its exciting, even when its frustrating, even when I cant do it right. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I love my friends and family, but I also love it when they cant find me and I can spend all day reading or walking all alone, in silence, eight thousand miles away from everyone. All alone and unreachable in a foreign country is one my most favorite possible things to be. – Elizabeth Gilbert

What I think is amazing is not that 85% of people who get married under the age of 25 get divorced, its that 15% of them stay together. How did they manage to pull that off? You almost cant wait too long. Its the single simplest measure to predict divorce. – Elizabeth Gilbert

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

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. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I push every day against forces that say you have to go faster, be more effective, be more productive, you have to constantly outdo yourself, you have to constantly outdo your neighbor – all of the stuff that creates an incredibly productive society, but also a very neurotic one. – Elizabeth Gilbert

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. – Elizabeth Gilbert

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