Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness
“Choice of attention—to attend to this and ignore that—is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences.”
W.H. Auden, The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, volume VI
“An eccentricity made a regular thing of ceases to provoke remark.”
Sylvia Townsend Warner, “Winged Creatures” in Kingdoms of Elfin
“What we want out of a vacation changes as we age. It changes from vacation to vacation. There was a time when it was all about culture for me. My idea of a real break was to stay in museums until my legs ached and then go stand in line to get tickets for an opera or a play. Later I became a disciple of relaxation and looked for words like beach and massage when making my plans. I found those little paper umbrellas that balanced on the side of rum drinks to be deeply charming then. Now I strive for transcendent invisibility and the chance to accomplish the things I can’t get done at home. But as I pack up my room at the Hotel Bel-Air, I think the best vacation is the one that relieves me of my own life for a while and then makes me long for it again.”
Ann Patchett, “Do Not Disturb,” This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
“When I think about what sort of person I would most like to have on a retainer, I think it would be a boss. A boss who could tell me what to do, because that makes everything easy when you’re working.”
Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to Be and Back Again)
“I can recall in my childhood the continuous excitement of long days in which nothing happened; and an indescribable sense of fullness in large and empty rooms…I still feel a very strong and positive pleasure in being stranded in queer quiet places, in neglected corners where nothing happens and anything may happen; in unfashionable hotels, in empty waiting-rooms, or in watering-places out of the season. It seems as if we needed such places, and sufficient solitude in them, to let certain nameless suggestions soak into us and make a richer soil of the unconscious.”
G. K. Chesterton, “On the Thrills of Boredom,” All is Grist: Essays
“If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom
“We change, but always at a cost: to win this you lose that.”
Geoffrey Wolff, “Apprentice,” A Day at the Beach
“In Zen they say: If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it’s not boring at all but very interesting.”
John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings
“Ah! There is nothing like staying home for real comfort.”
Jane Austen, Emma
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Archilochus
“Everything becomes interesting when it’s put under a glass case.”
Gretchen Rubin
