'i look at the Augusteum, and i think that perhaps my life has not actually been so chaotic, after all. it is merely this world that is chaotic, bringing changes to us all that nobody could have anticipated. the Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who i am, what i represent, whom i belong to, or what function i may once have intended to serve. yesterday i might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough-- but tomorrow i could be a fireworks depository. even in the eternal city, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.'
(eat pray love, p75)

'life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. time--when pursued like a bandit-- will behave like one... at some point you have to stop because it wont. you have to admit that you cant catch it. that youre not supposed to catch it. at some point you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you. letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe that the world revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well-- that would be the end of the universe. but try dropping it...sit quietly for now and cease your relentless participation. watch what happens. the birds do not crash dead out of the sky in mid-flight, after all. the trees do not wither and die, the rivers do not run red with blood. life continues to go on. why are you so sure that your micromanagement of every moment in this whole world is so essential? why dont you let it be?'
(eat pray love, p155/156)