You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
The world is like a dropped pie most of the time. Don't kill yourself trying to put it back together. Just grab a fork and eat some of it off the floor. Then carry on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is often messy and imperfect; instead of striving for perfection, it's better to embrace the chaos and find joy in it.
Elizabeth Gilbert's quote suggests that life can be unpredictable and messy, akin to a dropped pie. Rather than attempting to restore everything to perfection, we should adapt and savor what we can, even if it means accepting the imperfect. This perspective encourages resilience and finding joy in the small moments rather than overwhelming ourselves with the pursuit of an unattainable ideal.
Themes
LifeImperfectionJoyResilienceAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech about embracing challenges.
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
Similar quotes
Those around you can have their novellas, sweet, their short stories of cliché and coincidence, occasionally spiced up with tricks of the quirky, the achingly mundane, the grotesque. A few will even cook up Greek tragedy, those born into misery, destined to die in misery. But you, my bride of quietness, you will craft nothing less than epic with your life. Out of all of them, your story will be the one to last.
Marisha PesslRead
Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
It will take all your heart, it will take all your breath It will be short, it will not be simple
Adrienne RichRead
Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
Grieving allows us to heal, to remember with love rather than pain. It is a sorting process. One by one you let go of the things that are gone and you mourn for them. One by one you take hold of the things that have become a part of who you are and build again.
Rachel Naomi RemenRead
What can be said in New Year rhymes, That's not been said a thousand times? The new years come, the old years go, We know we dream, we dream we know. We rise up laughing with the light, We lie down weeping with the night. We hug the world until it stings, We curse it then and sigh for wings. We live, we love, we woo, we wed, We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead. We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear, And that's the burden of a year.
Ella Wheeler WilcoxRead