In language that's lyrical and haunting, Cheryl Strayed writes about bliss and loss, about the kind of grace that startles and transforms us in ordinary moments.

Some acts of faith, I believe, have the power to grant us something infinitely wiser than we imagine

I like to keep myself wrapped in layers of sleep and wait for the geraniums.

The absence of doubt will turn humans into beasts.

About endings....unless we do them well, we have to keep repeating them.

What the river was showing her now was that she could flow beyond the brokenness, redeem herself, and fuse once more.

About the different levels of skill involved. You have to practice before you become a great masturbator.

I think . . . you should have children, John." At least he's no longer talking about bugs."I'm too young, Dad.""It's the most important thing . . . I've done in . . . my life.

Marrying a woman who was reckless must have been the ultimate reckless act, requiring a lifetime of balancing to keep both of them safe

Love is beyond space and time. It reaches out to the heart of the person that you are missing. Love binds two souls and not two bodies.

I gave him everything from my lunches I hate, which is called Charity.

Chorus: Zeus, who guided men to think who laid it down that wisdom comes alone through suffering. Still there drips in sleep against the heart grief of memory; against our pleasure we are temperate.

I am totally in favor of trade. But I want trade deals for our country that create more jobs and higher wages for American workers.

I was very much into science when I was young - I wanted to be a marine biologist, then I wanted to be a doctor, and then something else, I was always changing.

Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul.

Hypocrisy is folly. It is much easier, safer, and pleasanter to be the thing which a man aims to appear, than to keep up the appearance of being what he is not.

We don't need to explain our love. We only need to show it.

James Brown's Live at the Apollo is not just a musical whiplash, it's a spiritual cleansing. You can just close your eyes and see him doing the splits, kicking the mic stand and doing a 360.

When you look at a corpse you can always sense your own breath better.