Anne Lamott, a celebrated American author, is renowned for her profound and often humorous takes on life, writing, and human nature. Her words have the power to inspire, comfort, and challenge readers. Here are 44 of her most famous quotes that offer valuable insights into various aspects of our existence.
44 Anne Lamott Famous Quotes for You
1. “No is a complete sentence.”
2. “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”
3. “Never compare your insides to everyone else’s outsides.”
4. “If you want to change the way you feel about people, you have to change the way you treat them.”
5. “Joy is the best makeup.”
6. “Laughter is carbonated holiness.”
7. “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
8. “Peace is joy at rest. Joy is peace on its feet.”
9. “You can either practice being right or practice being kind.”
10. “I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good at it.”
11. “A good marriage is where both people feel like they ’re getting the better end of the deal.”
12. “Jealousy always has been my cross, the weakness and woundedness in me that has most often caused me to feel ugly and unlovable.”
13. “You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town”
14. “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
15. “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past.”
16. “Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You’re done. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with the person. If you keep hitting back, you stay trapped in the
nightmare.”
17. “It ’s good to do uncomfortable things. It ’s weight training for life.”
18. “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.”
19. “Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.”
20. “Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting.”
21. “Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.”
22. “You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren ’ t. You take the action, and the insight follows: you don’t think your way into becoming yourself.”
23. “Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.”
24. “My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I ’m grateful for it the way I ’m grateful for the ocean.”
25. “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”
26. “It ’s better to be kind than to be right.”
27. “Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
28. “A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way.”
29. “You can safely assume you’ve created god in your own image when it turns out that god hates all the same people you do.”
30. “This is one thing they forget to mention in most child – rearing books, that at times you will just lose your mind. Period.”
31. “We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be.”
32. “The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.”
33. “Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.”
34. “If you have a body, you are entitled to the full range of feelings. It comes with the package.”
35. “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
36. “Being enough was going to have to be an inside job.”
37. “If you want to make god laugh, tell her your plans.”
38. “I am all the ages I ’ve ever been.”
39. “Sometimes grace is a ribbon of mountain air that gets in through the cracks.”
40. “There are really places in your heart that you don’t know exist until you love a child.”
41. “I kept my expectations low, which is one of the secrets of life.”
42. “Hope is not about proving anything. It ’s about choosing to believe this one thing, that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us.”
43. “We all know we ’re going to die; what ’s important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.”
44. “Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking.”
Conclusion
Anne Lamott’s quotes serve as a rich tapestry of wisdom. They encourage us to embrace our true selves, practice kindness, and find hope in the midst of life’s complexities. Whether it’s about writing, relationships, or our approach to life, her words offer practical and profound guidance. By reflecting on these quotes, we can gain new perspectives and learn to navigate our own lives with more grace, humor, and authenticity.
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