“Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it’s what you want before you commit.”
“In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding that they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place.”
“When I get lonely these days, I think: So BE lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings.”
“Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.”
“You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.”
“There’s a reason they call God a presence—because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time.”
“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.”
“You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you’re gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate.”
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.”
“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.”
“To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life.”
“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.”
The Guardian: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The New York Times: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
The Washington Post: ‘Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It’: Really? We need to talk.
The Telegraph: Eat Pray Love - the book that started it all