You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Choosing happiness allows us to welcome new experiences without being weighed down by past suffering.
In this quote, Elizabeth Gilbert emphasizes the active decision to prioritize happiness instead of dwelling on suffering. By choosing to embrace positivity, she cultivates an openness to new experiences and surprises that the future may hold, suggesting that a positive mindset can lead to a more fulfilling life.
Themes
HappinessFuturePositivitySurprisesChoice
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience and positivity.
More from Elizabeth Gilbert
All quotes βDo 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
By breaking down our sense of self-importance, all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds. What we gain in return is freedom, openness of mind, spontaneity, simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness.
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It's fun to have money, but the more money I get, the less interesting it becomes. If you don't have very much, you have to think about it. If you are starving, you become interested in food. If you are struggling to pay the bills, money becomes tragically important.
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We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire.
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What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.
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I am totally free to choose thoughts of joy. It is my Divine right to do so.
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We're just trying to find happiness in the bodies and minds we were given, like everyone else.
Ellen DegeneresRead