I'm Choosing Happiness Over Suffering & Other Quotes by Elizabeth Gilbert
Posted: Sunday, December 11, 2011
by Fran Larson
http://www.franniesquotes.com/
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of “Eat, Pray, Love.” I admire not only her talent as a writer, but her deep insight into the spiritual journey that we all are on. Hope you like her quotes.
There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in.”
“People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend like fine weather if you're fortunate. But happiness is the result of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly.”
“We must take care of our families where-ever we find them.”
“Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort.”
“The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement.”
“I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen.”
“[My guru] says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. 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. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it...
“I wondered, "Why have I been chasing happiness my whole life when bliss was here the entire time?”
The karmic philosophy appeals to me on a metaphorical level because even in ones lifetime it's obvious how often we must repeat our same mistakes, banging our heads against the same ole addictions and compulsions, generating the same old miserable and often catastrophic consequences, until we can finally stop and fix it. This is the supreme lesson of karma ( and also of western psychology, by the way)- take care of the problem now, or else you'll just have to suffer again later when you screw everything up the next time. And that repetition of suffering-that's hell. Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understanding-there's where you'll find heaven.”
“Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core of the thing - right in the hub of the wheel - not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place, where you can get frayed and crazy. The hub of calmness - that's your heart. That's where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you'll always find peace.”
“The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams.” have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.”
“God never slams a door in your face without opening a box of Girl Scout cookies...”?
“But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to...nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?”
“That’s the thing about a human life-there’s no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.”
“I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the 'monkey mind' -- the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl.”
“We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.”
“I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.”
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)This is wonderful, Fran. Happiness is here already yet we have our eyes look out elsewhere for it. How terrible if we cannot discover the secret to happiness ?
Not that I am so filled with happiness but I think today I have learnt a great lesson.
Merry Christmas to you and family.Hilda, thanks. I wish for you all the happiness that you can handle! Merry Christmas to you and your family. I hope it is the best Christmas ever. Hugs, Fran
I like this one: “The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement."
Good stuff!I was thinking the same thing, Steve! Thanks!
Fran, you're the queen of quotes! These are fabulous. I especially love the last one. Thanks, this is very inspiring :)I saw Elizabeth Gilbert being interviewed on television and she is fabulous.
She is now happily married.
Hi Fran.
I also especially like the quotes that Steve and Jennifer mentioned.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Hugs,
DianneThanks, Diane and I love your quote about writing! hugs right back, FranWow! Look at that! Thanks for making me take a peek.
Thanks for sharing such great quotes. I'm late to reading this week, as hubby spent 5 days in Hospital, just passed out on me last Sun night, but it's an ongoing problem with lots of emergency visits past 4 yrs..
On Christmas, Fla...if I ever get to go down there, I'll let you know, and we'll meet up...thanks.Elle, I am so sorry about your husband having these health problems. It must be so stressful for you. I know I worry about my husband's health constantly. My prayers go out for you and your husband.
Thanks very much, Fran....MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours.
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