Tiny Beautiful Things: The Advice You Loved, Expanded

Cheryl Strayed’s beloved book Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of advice columns that she wrote as “Dear Sugar”, just turned ten! To commemorate the anniversary we’ve gathered some of the most cherished and highlighted quotes from readers on Goodreads, along with responses from Cheryl herself. Fans of Cheryl’s memoir Wild are sure to appreciate her tough love advice (with even more sugar in the form of 6 new columns!) and some insight into her headspace while writing. Revisit this post when you need an extra dose of inspiration and authenticity!

On Love

“The best thing you can possibly do with your life is to tackle the motherf***ing shit out of love.”

On Honesty
“We are obligated to the people we care about and who we allow to care about us, whether we say we love them or not. Our main obligation is to be forthright—to elucidate the nature of our affection when such elucidation would be meaningful or clarifying.”

On Trust

“Trust yourself. It’s Sugar’s golden rule. Trusting yourself means living out what you already know to be true.”

On Nerve

The unifying theme is resilience and faith. The unifying theme is being a warrior and a motherfucker. It is not fragility. It’s strength. It’s nerve. And “if your Nerve, deny you—,” as Emily Dickinson wrote, “go above your Nerve.” Writing is hard for every last one of us—straight white men included. Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig

On Wellness
This is an essential recipe for wellness. To be self-sufficient, to treat others with an open-heart, to commit to doing the best you can do in all of your endeavors, to find community, kinship, and love. That’s a life! A happy one.

On Gratitude
Say thank you.