Quotessence
Home / Authors / Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllLovePray LoveEat Pray Love BookEat Pray And LoveBest Eat Pray LoveEat Love PrayIfsAddictionRelationshipsAddiction And Recovery

Famous Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes

“Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don’t you see what happened? This guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching, I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that’s just the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That’s just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries—you have the capacity to someday love the whole world. It’s your destiny. Don’t laugh.”

WorldHeartMeanLittlesWholeBigsGuyFeltWaitingDealsDestinyLaughingHappenedLove YouTasteCapableCapacityDeeperWhole WorldMortalsReachingTouchedSomedayThis GuyBig DealYour DestinyGroceriesEat Pray Love Book
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
Create image

“I won the argument against the knife that night, but barely. I had some other good ideas around that time--about how jumping off a building or blowing my brains out with a gun might stop the suffering. but something about spending a night with a knife in my hand did it. The next morning I called my friend Susan as the sun came up, begged her to help me. I don't think a woman in the whole history of my family had ever done that before, had ever sat in the middle of the road like that and said, in the middle of her life, "I cannot walk another step further--somebody has to help me.”

ThinkingSaidIdeasDoneWholeHelpingHandsMightNightSufferingNextWalksBrainStepsMorningSunMiddleBuildingGunMy FriendsArgumentMy FamilySpendingSatHelp MeKnivesGood IdeasJumpingJumping OffMiddle Of The Road
Book:Eat Pray Love 10th-Anniversary Edition: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Create image

“Until-as often happened during those first months travel, whenever I would feel such happiness-my guilt alarm went off. I heard my ex-husband's voice speaking disdainfully in my ear: So this is what you gave up everything for? This is why you gutted our entire life together? For a few stalks of asparagus and an Italian newspaper? I replied aloud to him: "First of all," I said, "I'm very sorry, but this isn't your business anymore. And secondly, to answer you question...yes.”

FeelsFirstsSaidTogetherVoiceAnswersHappenedHeardMonthsHusbandEarsGuiltSorryNewspapersItalianExesAlarmsGave UpStalkingLife TogetherAsparagusEx Husband
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
Create image

“There's a wonderful old Italian joke about a poor man who goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint,'Dear saint-please, please, please...give me the grace to win the lottery.' This lament goes on for months. Finally the exasperated statue come to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust,'My son-please, please, please...buy a ticket.”

MenGivingLooksWinningChurchPoorGraceWonderfulSonMonthsGoes OnPrayingPleaseJokesGive MeDearSaintMy SonItalianDisgustingTicketsWearyStatuesBeggingLotteryPoor ManLamentPray LoveEat Pray Love Book
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
Create image

“Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience.”

WayHumansLonelinessWelcomeMapsHuman ExperienceBeing SingleSingle LifePray LoveEat Pray Love BookEat Pray And LoveBest Eat Pray LoveEat Love PrayBali Eat Pray LoveAnti ValentineAnti Valentines DayFunny Anti Valentines DayI Am SingleLoneliness In LifeHappy SingleSingle StatusHappy Being Single
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
Create image

“That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what 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.”

TryingDoeWholeFeelingsBrokenEgoConvinceFlawedDuality
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
Create image

“My heart was broken so badly last time that it still hurts. Isn't that crazy? To still have a broken heart almost two years after a love story ends?”

YearsHeartStillsTwoEndsStoriesLastsHurtCrazyBrokenMy HeartLove StoryTwo YearsLast TimeIt Still Hurts
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
Create image

“Every try to take a toy away from a toddler? They don't like that, do they? They start kicking and screaming. Best way to take a toy away from a toddler is distract the kid, give him something else to play with. Instead of trying to forcefully take thoughts out of your mind, give your mind something better to play with.”

WayGivingTryingMindPlayKidsBest WayToysSomething BetterKickingToddler
Book:Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything
Create image

“I have far more enthusiasm in life than I have actual energy. In my excitement, I routinely take on more that I can physically or emotionally handle, which causes me to break down in quite predictable displays of dramatic exhaustion. You will be the one burdened with the job of mopping me up every time I've overextended myself and then fallen apart. This will be unbelievably tedious. I apologize in advance.”

I CanJobsEnergyCausesBreakHandleEnthusiasmFallenExcitementDramaticDisplayApologizingBreaking DownPredictableTediousExhaustionI ApologizeMopping
Book:Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace With Marriage
Create image

“To feel physically comfortable with someone else's body is not a decision you make. It has very little thing to do with how two people think or act or talk or even look. The mysterious magnet is either there, buried somewhere deep behind the sternum, or it is not.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsLooksLittlesTwoBodyDecisionBehindsComfortableMysteriousThings To DoLittle ThingsBuriedMagnetPray LoveEat Pray Love BookEat Pray And LoveDecisions You MakeBest Eat Pray LoveEat Love PrayBali Eat Pray Love
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
Create image

“He told me that one of the reasons people are so unhappy is they don't talk to themselves. He said you have to keep a conversation going with yourself throughout your life to see how you're doing, to keep your focus, to remain your own friend. He told me that he talked to himself all the time, and that it helped him to grow stronger and better everyday.”

PeopleSaidReasonGrowsFocusConversationStrongerEverydayUnhappy
Book:The Last American Man
Create image

“a woman's place is in the kitchen...sitting in a comfortable chair, with her feet up, drinking a glass of wine and watching her husband cook dinner.”

LoveFeetHusbandComfortableHeartbreakSittingWineDrinkingGlassesDinnerCooksKitchenChairsWine Glass
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
Create image

“Once Henry had heard a crying noise at sea, and had seen a mermaid floating on the ocean's surface. The mermaid had been injured by a shark. Henry had pulled the mermaid out of the water with a rope, and she had died in his arms..."what language did the mermaid speak?" Alma wanted to know, imagining that it like almost have to be Greek. "English!" Henry said. "By God, plum, why would I rescue a deuced foreign mermaid?”

KnowsSaidWantedSpeakLanguageWaterHeardSeaCryArmsOceanDiedSurfaceNoiseGreekRescueFloatingRopeInjuredSharksMermaidPlums
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
Create image

“Astonishingly, at some point, a sputtering torch was thrust into her hands. Alma did not see who gave it to her. She had never before been entrusted with fire. The torch spit sparks and sent chunks of flaming tar spinning into the air behind her as she bolted across the cosmos-the only body in the heavens who was not held to a strict elliptical path. Nobody stopped her. She was a comet. She did not know that she was not flying.”

KnowsBodyHandsHeavenBehindsPathFireAirFlyingCosmosSparksStrictSpinningThrustSpitTorchesChunksComets
Book:The Signature of All Things
Create image

“She followed the pleasure where it led. She had no weight, no name, no thoughts, no history. Then came a burst of phosphorescence, as though a firework had discharged behind her eyes, and it was over. She felt quiet and warm. For the first conscious moment of her life, her mind was free from wonder, free from worry, free from work or puzzlement. Then, from the middle of that marvelous furred stillness, a thought took shape, took hold, took over. I shall have to do this again.”

MindFirstsMomentsEyeNamesFeltPleasureBehindsWonderWorryMiddleShapesQuietConsciousWeightWarmStillnessMarvelousHer EyesFireworks
Book:The Signature of All Things
Create image

“The whole sphere of air that surrounds us, Alma, is alive with invisible attractions — electric, magnetic, fiery and thoughtful. There is a universal sympathy all around us… When we cease all argument and debate — both internal and external — our true questions can be heard and answered…That is the gathering of magic.”

WholeAliveMagicHeardAirArgumentUniversalAttractionDebateInvisibleCeaseThoughtfulInternalsSurroundSpheresElectricGatheringFieryMagnetic
Book:The Signature of All Things
Create image

“This person had arrived, he had illuminated her, he had ensorcelled her with notions of miracle and beauty, he had both understood and misunderstood her, he had married her, he had broken her heart, he had looked upon her with those sad and hopeless eyes, he had accepted his banishment, and now he was gone. What a stark and stunning thing was life- that such a cataclysm can enter and depart so quickly, and leave such wreckage behind!”

HeartPersonsEyeBehindsGoneBrokenMarriedUnderstoodMiracleNotionAcceptedHopelessMisunderstoodStarksStunningWreckageBanishment
Book:The Signature of All Things
Create image

“The trick at every turn was to endure the test of living for as long as possible. The odds of survival were punishingly slim, for the world was naught by a school of calamity and an endless burning furnace of tribulation. But those who survived the world shaped it--even as the world, simultaneously, shaped them.”

WorldLongSchoolTurnsSurvivalTestsEndureTricksEndlessBurningOddsSurvivedCalamityTribulationSlimFurnaces
Book:The Signature of All Things
Create image