50 Quotes by Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is an American novelist and non-fiction writer who is best known for her books on spirituality and writing. She has written several bestselling books, including "Bird by Bird" and "Hallelujah Anyway," which explore themes such as faith, grace, and forgiveness. Lamott's writing style is honest, humorous, and compassionate, and she often draws on her own experiences to connect with readers on a deep level. Her work has been praised for its wisdom, insight, and vulnerability, and she is considered one of the most influential writers in the contemporary spiritual landscape. (Bio)
Anne Lamott Quotes
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor. (Meaning)
Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past. (Quote Meaning)
Laughter is carbonated holiness. (Meaning)
Expectations are resentments under construction. (Quote Meaning)
You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town (Meaning)
No" is a complete sentence. (Quote Meaning)
It's better to be kind than to be right. (Meaning)
Expectations are resentment waiting to happen. (Quote Meaning)
Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting. (Meaning)
The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty. (Quote Meaning)
Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird. (Meaning)
Very few writers really know what they are doing until they have done it. (Quote Meaning)
There is ecstasy in paying attention. (Meaning)
The evidence is in, and you are the verdict. (Quote Meaning)
It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life. (Meaning)
Sometimes this human stuff is slimy and pathetic...but better to feel it and talk about it and walk through it than to spend a lifetime being silently poisoned. (Quote Meaning)
You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. (Meaning)
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. (Quote Meaning)
The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines. (Meaning)
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life. (Quote Meaning)
There is nothing as sweet as a comeback, when you are down and out, about to lose, and out of time. (Meaning)
Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. Laugh, rest, slow down. (Quote Meaning)
I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us. (Meaning)
Joy is the best makeup. (Quote Meaning)
You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better. (Meaning)
Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there. (Quote Meaning)
Peace is joy at rest, and joy is peace on its feet. (Meaning)
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. (Quote Meaning)
Hope begins in the dark. (Meaning)
Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are. (Quote Meaning)
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. (Meaning)
I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.
Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.
Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. (Quote Meaning)
A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal.
Laughter is carbonated holiness.
I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.
Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past.
Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole.
You can either practice being right or practice being kind. (Meaning)
I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.
When faced with a crisis, do three things: breathe, pray and be kind.
Never compare your insides to everyone else's outsides.
I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it's over, it's over.
Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.
We are not here to see through one another, but to see one another through.
How do you begin? The answer is simple: you decide to.
Expectations are resentments under construction.
Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.
Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. (Quote Meaning)
This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway. (Meaning)
Living on Earth has always been a dangerous way to spend your time.
― Anne Lamott Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
