Tag: Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

Quotes May 05-08, 2024

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 
“Look at the birds,” he says. “Nothing can hold them. Not the wall, not the Gate, nor the sounding of the horn. It does good to watch the birds.”
HARUKI MURAKAMI
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
 
 
 
 
Every man’s spice-box seasons his own food.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
Dust Tracks on a Road
 
 
 
 
Beauty is as much about how and whether you look as what you see.
JOHN GREEN
The Anthropocene Reviewed
 
 
 
 
If we do not alter with the times, the times yet alter us.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
A Game of Hide-and-Seek
 
 
 
 
One of the pleasures of getting older is that one can get so much nearer to one’s own people, and that the dear ones of them become dearer all the time.
WILLA CATHER
The Selected Letters of Willa Cather
 
 
 
 
I am the Eleusinian candidate waiting in the tall grass.
STEPHEN KUUSISTO
Eavesdropping
 
 
 
 
I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.
EMILY DICKINSON
letter, January 1856
 
 
 
 
Purity strikes me as the most mysterious of the virtues and the more I think about it the less I know about it.
FLANNERY O’CONNOR
The Habit of Being
 
 
 
 
Tidying is the act of confronting yourself; cleaning is the act of confronting nature.
MARIE KONDO
Spark Joy
 
 
 
 
No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.
CHARLES DICKENS
A Christmas Carol
 
 
 
 
But I don’t think of the future, or the past, I feast on the moment. This is the secret of happiness, but only reached now in middle age.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Diary of Virginia Woolf: 1925-1930
 
 

Quotes April 25, 2024

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 

If it is true for you, it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.
COLSON WHITEHEAD
The Nickel Boys
 
 
However dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implacable “I.”
JOAN DIDION
“On Keeping a Notebook”
 
 
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH
“Arts and Letters”
 
 
You know how it is when someone says your name really well, like it means something that makes the world a better place.
HELEN OYEYEMI
Boy, Snow, Bird
 
 
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
 
 
The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure.
JEAN ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN
The Physiology of Taste
 
 
In 1970 I felt so lonely that I could not give; now I feel so joyful that giving seems easy. I hope that the day will come when the memory of my present joy will give me the strength to keep giving even when loneliness gnaws at my heart.
HENRI NOUWEN
The Genesee Diary
 
 
For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock.
JAMES BALDWIN
Nothing Personal
 
 
Nobody really looks at anything; it’s too hard.
ANDY WARHOL
I’ll Be Your Mirror
 
 
Is life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied?
DAG HAMMARSKJOLD
Markings
 
 
Those who are not grateful soon begin to complain of everything.
THOMAS MERTON
Thoughts in Solitude
 
 

Quotes February 21, 2024

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 
Nature is a Haunted House – but Art – a House that tries to be haunted.
EMILY DICKINSON
Letter
 
 
 
 
The fact is that very few things have so much effect on the feeling inside a room as the sun shining into it.
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
A Pattern Language
 
 
 
 
From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.
HENRI MATISSE
Chatting with Matisse: The Lost 1941 Interview
 
 
 
 
The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.
MARIO MANLIO ROSSI
“Essay on the Character of Swift”
 
 
 
 
If you ever want to keep up a grudge against someone, don’t see that person alongside beautiful flowers.
JAMAICA KINCAID
My Garden (Book)
 
 
 
 
All the colors burn up in the unseen higher vibrations of glory.
JOHN HOLLANDER
“Orange”
 
 
 
 
I am a great believer in the seasons. Even here in my own world, I have no relish for sweet corn in January or strawberries in November.
PEARL S. BUCK
My Several Worlds
 
 
 
 

Quotes January 23, 2024

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 
Neither does the tree hold back its leaves but lets them flow open or glide away when the time is right.
MARY OLIVER
Long Life
 
 
 
 
Any man who supposes the moon is always the same, regardless of the season, and is therefore unable to detect the difference in autumn, must be exceedingly insensitive.
YOSHIDA KENKŌ
Essays in Idleness
 
 
 
 
Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to realize it as such.
HENRY MILLER
The Henry Miller Reader
 
 
 
 
One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.
IRIS MURDOCH
The Sea, the Sea
 
 
 
 
There is just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to appreciate,—not a grain more.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
“Autumnal Tints”
 
 
 
 
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
MATSUO BASHO
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
 
 
 
 
There are jobs, there are chores, and there is work.
DONALD HALL
Life Work
 
 
 
 
Daily life may seem trivial and routine, but in fact it contains a multitude of incidents, at once rich, expansive, and touching.
YU HUA
China in Ten Words
 
 
 
 
Bad luck in small doses can cast a glittering light on the rest of life.
ANN PATCHETT
“Sometimes the Luck Is in the Fall”
 
 
 
 
It is hard, so terribly hard, to please yourself. Far from being the easy thing that it sounds like, it is almost the hardest thing in the world, because we are not always comfortable with that true self that lies deep within us.
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
The Nature of Order
 
 
 
 
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
MARCUS AURELIUS
Meditations
 
 
 
 
If it is true for you, it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.
COLSON WHITEHEAD
The Nickel Boys
 
 
 
 
All the colors burn up in the unseen higher vibrations of glory.
JOHN HOLLANDER
“Orange”
 
 
 
 
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
J.R.R TOLKIEN
The Fellowship of the Ring
 
 
 
 
Reminders:
For me, the challenge of middle age was not to stand still.
JON KATZ
A Dog Year
 
 
 
 
The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
 
 

Quotes January 14-15, 2024

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 
Even sunshine burns if you get too much.
JORGE LUIS BORGES
“You Learn”
 
 
 
 
We garden for tomorrow, and thereafter. We garden in expectation, and that is why it is so invigorating.
PENELOPE LIVELY
Life in the Garden
 
 
 
 
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
 
 
 
 
There is in the soul a taste for the good, just as there is in the body an appetite for enjoyment.
JOSEPH JOUBERT
Pensées
 
 
 
 
It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.
Gabriel García Márquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude
 
 
 
 
The goal of all art is the human face.
PAUL CÉZANNE
Cézanne
 
 
 
 
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it: They must not do too much of it: and they must have a sense of success in it
JOHN RUSKIN
Pre-Raphaelitism
 
 
 
 
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
 
 
 
 
Nothing could destroy me as long as I could enjoy works of art, and for “enjoy” read “enjoy”: not codify or classify, or purge my spirit or arouse my social consciousness, just enjoy.
KENNETH CLARK
Another Part of the Wood
 
 
 
 
He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.
JOHN BURROUGHS
In the Catskills
 
 
 
 
Daily life may seem trivial and routine, but in fact it contains a multitude of incidents, at once rich, expansive, and touching.
YU HUA
China in Ten Words
 
 
 
 
The pleasure of doing a thing in the same way at the same time every day, and savouring it, should be noted.
ARNOLD BENNETT
Journal, April 14, 1913
 
 
 
 
Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Draft of “Love in Action”
 
 
 
 
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
 
 
 
 
If you’re going to make a dream come true, you’ve got to work with it. You can’t just sit around. That’s a wish. That’s not a dream.
DOLLY PARTON
Interview, Bust
 
 
 
 
Laughter is a beautiful form of resilience, one that evinces a generosity of spirit.
ERIKA SANCHEZ
Crying in the Bathroom
 
 

Quotes January 08, 2024

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 

We discover through working what we cannot discover any other way.
You accept life as it is, you see it as it is before you can change it.
JAMES BALDWIN
Conversations with James Baldwin
 
 
 
 
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
CARL SAGAN
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
 
 
 
 
One benefit of going away…was that it made it easier to change.
RACHEL CUSK
Transit
 
 
 
 
A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard’s Almanack
 
 
 
 
Here is my box of new crayons at your feet.
MARGE PIERCY
“Colors Passing Through Us”
 
 
 
 
Kindness eases change / Love quiets fear
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Parable of the Talents
 
 
 
 
There isn’t a human being in the world worthy of any dog’s welcome.
RICHARD POWERS
The Echo Maker
 
 
 
 
As you probably know for yourself, dear reader, it’s the stories of our childhood that make the deepest impressions and last the longest.
STEPHEN KING
Fairy Tale
 
 
 
 
To invite a person to your house is to take charge of his happiness as long as he be beneath your roof.
JEAN ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN
The Physiology of Taste
 
 
 
 
There’s an intimacy to going shopping with someone else, letting yourself get dragged into stores you would otherwise avoid.
HUA HSU
Stay True
 
 
 
 
Rich colours actually look more luminous on a grey day, because they are seen against a somber background and seem to be burning with a lustre of their own. Against a dark sky all flowers look like fireworks.
G.K. CHESTERTON
In Defense of Sanity
 
 

Quotes December 10, 2023

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 
No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.
HARUKI MURAKAMI
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
 
 
 
 
What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.
C.S. LEWIS
The Magician’s Nephew
 
 
 
 
Go outside and try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy.
ANNE FRANK
The Diary of Anne Frank, March 6, 1944
 
 
 
 
There is only one time that is important—Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.
LEO TOLSTOY
What Men Live By and Other Tales
 
 
 
 
Repetitions turn time into a place, turns the days into a house, where the repetitions form the walls, floor, and ceiling.
KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD
Summer
 
 
 
 
As soon as I have a deadline, I work much better. Time unbounded is hard to handle.
MAY SARTON
Journal of a Solitude
 
 
 
 
My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
The Diary of Virginia Woolf
 
 
 
 
You know that book; you forget the title after you’ve returned it and over the years you try to look it up a few times, but you never find it again.
HELEN OYEYEMI
Boy, Snow, Bird
 
 
 
 
I love a broad margin to my life.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
 
 
 
 
Going down to the beach after a storm is the only time in my adult life when I experience that wonderful, joyous, childhood feeling of expectancy.
BETTY MACDONALD
Onions in the Stew
 
 
 
 
You hear a traveler speaking of the cool orange groves beside the sea at Genoa in the summer heat: Oh, if you could only share that coolness with her!
STENDHAL
On Love
 
 
 
 
We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.
JOAN DIDION
“On Keeping a Notebook”

 
 

Quotes November 27-28, 2023

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 

One’s life begins on so many occasions, constructing itself out of accident derived from coincidence compounded by character.
DONALD HALL
Unpacking the Boxes
 
 
But real flowers can never be dispensed with. If they could, human life would be a different affair altogether.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Jacob’s Room
 
 
He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.
JOHN BURROUGHS
In the Catskills
 
 
Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can’t strike them all by ourselves.
LAURA ESQUIVEL
Like Water for Chocolate
 
 
The creative mind plays with the object it loves.
CARL JUNG
Psychological Types
 
 
We can take a wonderful vacation in spirit, even though we are obliged to stay at home, if we will only drop our burdens from our minds for a while.
LAURA INGALLS WILDER
The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder
 
 
A library is a medicine cabinet. What can heal one person may not work at all for somebody else.
SANDRA CISNEROS
A House of My Own
 
 
Songs last forever. They fix particular years in your mind.
DIANA VREELAND
D.V.
 
 
The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.
RALPH ELLISON
Writers at Work
 
 
In a time of destruction, create something.
MAXINE HONG KINGSTON
The Fifth Book of Peace
 
 
I have stood by the side of a field and watched hundreds of snow geese take flight, as if departing our mortal world for their own enchanted kingdom.
KATHRYN SCHULZ
Lost & Found
 
 
Love is a creative act. When you love someone you create a new world for them.
TREVOR NOAH
Born a Crime
 
 
One does not ‘find oneself’ by pursuing one’s self, but on the contrary by pursuing something else and learning through some discipline or routine … who one is and wants to be.
MARY SARTON
The House by the Sea
 
 

Quotes November 05, 2023

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 
Remember every room has its gloom and the great thing to do is to find the color that will cut that gloom.
Gertrude Stein
Everybody’s Autobiography
 
 
 
 
Her green mind made the world around her green.
WALLACE STEVENS
“Description Without Place”
 
 
 
 
The farm was a form: not like a set of rules on a wall, but like the symmetry of winter and summer, or like the balance of day and night over the year, June against December.
DONALD HALL
String Too Short to Be Saved
 
 
 
 
I shall never have the garden I have in my mind, but that for me is the joy of it; certain things can never be realized and so all the more reason to attempt them.
JAMAICA KINCAID
My Garden (Book)
 
 
 
 
You know that book; you forget the title after you’ve returned it and over the years you try to look it up a few times, but you never find it again.
HELEN OYEYEMI
Boy, Snow, Bird
 
 
 
 
The wish to make collections, to assemble sets, is surely a deep urge of the human mind in its playful, artistic aspect.
John Updike
 
 
 
 
Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Parable Of The Sower
 
 
 
 
Energy creates energy. It is by spending myself that I become rich.
SARAH BERNHARDT
quoted in Madame Sarah
 
 
 
 
“Why Write?”
Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
Kurt Vonnegut
Letter
 
 
 
 
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
SYLVIA PLATH
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
 
 
 
 
“Daily life may seem trivial and routine, but in fact it contains a multitude of incidents, at once rich, expansive, and touching.”
Yu Hua,
China in Ten Words.
 
 

Quotes October 17, 2023

Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness

 
 

Songs last forever. They fix particular years in your mind.
DIANA VREELAND
 
 
 
 
The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.
RALPH ELLISON
Writers at Work
 
 
 
 
A library is a medicine cabinet. What can heal one person may not work at all for somebody else.
SANDRA CISNEROS
A House of My Own
 
 
 
 
Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment.
OCTAVIA BUTLER
String Too Short to Be Saved
 
 
 
 
We can take a wonderful vacation in spirit, even though we are obliged to stay at home, if we will only drop our burdens from our minds for a while.
LAURA INGALLS WILDER
The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder
 
 
 
 
The creative mind plays with the object it loves.
CARL JUNG
Psychology Types
 
 
 
 
But real flowers can never be dispensed with. If they could, human life would be a different affair altogether.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Jacob’s Room
 
 
 
 
He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.
JOHN BURROUGHS
In The Catskills
 
 
 
 
One does not ‘find oneself’ by pursuing one’s self, but on the contrary by pursuing something else and learning through some discipline or routine … who one is and wants to be.
MAY SARTON
The House By the Sea
 
 
 
 

One’s life begins on so many occasions, constructing itself out of accident derived from coincidence compounded by character.
DONALD HALL
Unpacking The Boxes
 
 
 
 
Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can’t strike them all by ourselves.
LAURA ESQUIVEL
Like Water for Chocolate