You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
Then again, you cannot stop the flood of desire as it moves through the world, inappropriate though it may sometimes be. It is the prerogative of all humans to make ludicrous choices, to fall in love with the most unlikely of partners, and to set themselves up for the most predicatable of calamities.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that humans will always pursue desires, even if they lead to chaos or unexpected outcomes.
In this quote, Elizabeth Gilbert highlights the inevitability of human desire and the often irrational choices that accompany it. It acknowledges that despite the potential for ludicrous outcomes and predictable failures, the freedom to love and desire unconditionally is a fundamental aspect of being human. The message underlines the complexity of relationships and the beauty of embracing vulnerability, regardless of the possible consequences.
Themes
DesireLoveChoicesHumannatureRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding speech, one might use this quote to celebrate love's unpredictability.
More from Elizabeth Gilbert
All quotes →Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
Elizabeth GilbertRead
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
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Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your dispositions to be married" It is an honor that I dream not of
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'Lord you know that I love you...Lord, you know that I love you' (Jn 21:15-17). The Eucharist is, in a certain way, the culminating point of this answer. I wish to repeat it together with the whole Church to Him, who manifested His love by means of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, remaining with us 'to the close of the age'
Pope John Paul IiRead