Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes About Pleasure

Quotes about: Pleasure

• Creativity does not belong exclusively to professional artists and geniuses; it is the birthright of every single human being. Creativity is our common heritage. You don’t need to quit your job and move to Paris in order to lay claim to this heritage - all you have to do is clear some space in your life for whimsy, invention, sensory pleasure, and play. Most of all, you have to learn how to follow your curiosity more than your fear.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Jobs, Moving, Creativity

• Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure).

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Weekend, Cereal, Opposites

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.64, Bloomsbury Publishing

• The appreciation of pleasure can be the anchor of humanity.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Appreciation, Anchors, Humanity

• I want to have a lasting experience with God. Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I loose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears. I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to leave in this world and enjoy its delights, but also elevate myself to God.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Life, Giving Up, Religion

• In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Art, Real, Lovely

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.112, A&C Black

• Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure.Ours is an entertainment seeking-nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one....This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype- the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Vacation, Pleasure Seeking, Relax

• Maybe this is just some stupid romantic South American idea, but I need you to understand-darling, for you, I am even willing to suffer. Whatever pain happens to us in the future, I accept it already, just for the pleasure of being with you now. Let's enjoy this time. It's marvelous. Felipe-Eat, Pray, Love

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Pain, Stupid, Ideas

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.275, A&C Black

• But why must everything have a practical application? I'd been such a diligent soldier for years - working, producing, never missing a deadline, taking care of my loved ones, my gums and my credit record, voting, etc. Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty? In this dark period of loss, did I need any justification for learning Italian other than that it was the only thing I could imagine bringing me any pleasure right now?

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Loss, Dark, Italian

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.24, Bloomsbury Publishing

• Do I really deserve this pleasure? This is American, too-the insecurity about whether we have earned our happiness.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Insecurity, Pleasure, Deserve

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.64, A&C Black

• I want to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two. It was only later, after admitting this dream, that I noticed the happy coincidence that all these countries begin with the letter I. A fairly auspicious sign, it seemed, on a voyage of self-discovery.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Dream, Country, Art

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.31, Bloomsbury Publishing

• 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.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Eye, Names, Worry

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2013). “The Signature of All Things”, p.93, A&C Black

• I wanted to experience both. I wanted worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. I wanted what the Greeks called kalos kai agathos, the singular balance of the good and the beautiful. I'd been missing both during these last hard years, because both pleasure and devotion require a stress-free space in which to flourish and I'd been living in a giant trash compactor of nonstop anxiety. As for how to balance the urge for pleasure against the longing for devotion...well, surely there was a way to learn that trick.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Beautiful, Stress, Years

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