Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life

I am stronger than Depression and braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me

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

It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection

Your problem is you don't know what the word means. People think a soul mate is our perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your 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

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're 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

That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what your ego does. It keeps you feeling seperate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flowed and broken and alone instead of whole.

But how does that serve me?

It doesn't serve you. Your ego's job isn't to serve you. Its only job is to keep itself in power. And right now, your ego's scared to death cuz it's about to get downsized. You keep up this spiritual path, baby, and that bad boy's days are numbered. Pretty soon your ego will be out of work, and your heart'll be making all the decisions. So your ego's fighting for its life, playing with your mind, trying to assert its authority, trying to keep you concerned off in a holding pen away from the rest of the universe. Don't listen to it.

... Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert