We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horses--one foot is on the horse called "fate," the other on the horse called "free will." And the question you have to ask every day is--which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?
Elizabeth GilbertIf I am to truly become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian.
Elizabeth GilbertYet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years--I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.
Elizabeth GilbertThe only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.
Elizabeth GilbertI had a great teacher in India who said to me, 'If you think you're spiritual and evolved and enlightened, go home for Christmas.'
Elizabeth GilbertOnce 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?
Elizabeth Gilbert