Top 250 Gretchen Rubin Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “In the Strategy of Pairing, I couple two activities, one that I need or want to do, and one that I don’t particularly want to do, to get myself to accomplish them both. It’s not a reward, it’s not a treat, it’s just a pairing.”

— Gretchen Rubin

152. “Happy people generally are more forgiving, helpful, and charitable, have better self-control, and are more tolerant of frustration than unhappy people, while unhappy people are more often withdrawn, defensive, antagonistic, and self-absorbed. Oscar Wilde observed, “One is not always happy when one is good; but one is always good when one is happy.”

— Gretchen Rubin

153. “One of my Secrets of Adulthood is: Most decisions don’t require extensive research.”

— Gretchen Rubin

154. “At certain points in our lives, it may not be possible to be happy, but it is possible to try to be happier – as happy as we can be, under the circumstances – and by doing so, fortify ourselves against adversity.”

— Gretchen Rubin

155. “To a truly remarkable extent, we’re more likely to do something if it’s convenient, and less likely if it’s not. For this reason, we should pay close attention to the convenience of any activity we want to make into a habit.”

— Gretchen Rubin

156. “Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.”

— Gretchen Rubin

157. “It’s so easy to wish that we’d made an effort in the past, so that we’d happily be enjoying the benefit now, but when now is the time when that effort must be made, as it always is, that prospect is much less inviting.”

— Gretchen Rubin

158. “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.”

— Gretchen Rubin

159. “For most of us, the real aim isn’t to enjoy a few pleasures right now, but to build habits that will make us happy over the long term. Sometimes, that means giving up something in the present, or demanding more from ourselves.”

— Gretchen Rubin

160. “I didn’t want to be like the novelist who spent so much time rewriting his first sentence that he never wrote his second.”

— Gretchen Rubin

161. “One day, I’d stop twisting my hair, and wearing running shoes all the time, and eating exactly the same food every day. I’d remember my friends’ birthdays, I’d learn Photoshop, I wouldn’t let my daughter watch TV during breakfast. I’d read Shakespeare. I’d spend more time laughing and having fun, I’d be more polite, I’d visit museums more often, I wouldn’t be scared to drive.”

— Gretchen Rubin

162. “Sometimes I think it’s easier to think about being happier, for what ever that means to you then worrying about what is happiness and what would life be if I finally achieved this ultimate happiness?”

— Gretchen Rubin

163. “People are powerfully moved by imagination, belief, and knowledge. They can consider the past and future. They can make changes in their behavior out of reason, in a way that animals can’t do.”

— Gretchen Rubin

164. “The happiest and most successful people are those who have figured out ways to exploit their Tendency to their benefit and, just as important, found ways to counterbalance its limitations.”

— Gretchen Rubin

165. “I can DO ANYTHING I want, but I can’t DO EVERYTHING I want.”

— Gretchen Rubin

166. “How we schedule our days is how we spend our lives.”

— Gretchen Rubin

167. “One of the biggest wastes of time is doing something well that didn’t need to be done at all.”

— Gretchen Rubin

168. “Because we’re quite susceptible to “goal contagion,” we may rapidly pick up someone else’s habits, so it’s helpful to be around people who are good role models.”

— Gretchen Rubin

169. “If we want something to count in our lives, we should figure out a way to count it.”

— Gretchen Rubin

170. “Instead of always worrying about being efficient, I wanted to spend time on exploration, experimentation, digression, and failed attempts that didn’t always look productive.”

— Gretchen Rubin

171. “Research suggests that about 40 percent of our behavior is repeated almost daily, and mostly in the same context.”

— Gretchen Rubin

172. “We won’t make ourselves more creative and productive by copying other people’s habits, even the habits of geniuses; we must know our own nature, and what habits serve us best.”

— Gretchen Rubin

173. “I was surprised to learn from my research, however, that the well-known notion of anger catharsis is poppycock. There’s no evidence for the belief that “letting off steam” is healthy or constructive. In fact, studies show that aggressively expressing anger doesn’t relieve anger but amplifies it. On the other hand, not expressing anger often allows it to disappear without leaving ugly traces.”

— Gretchen Rubin

174. “When life was taking its ordinary course, it was hard to remember what really mattered.”

— Gretchen Rubin

175. “Although men and women agree that sharing activities and self-disclosure are important, women’s idea of an intimate moment is a face-to-face conversation, while men feel close when they work or play sitting alongside someone.”

— Gretchen Rubin

176. “The number one resolution that people mention to me as something that’s made them happier is – to my surprise – making the bed.”

— Gretchen Rubin

177. “In many situations, we don’t need to make a perfect choice but just a good-enough choice.”

— Gretchen Rubin

178. “W. H. Auden articulated this tension beautifully: “Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.”

— Gretchen Rubin

179. “By mindfully choosing our habits, we harness the power of mindlessness as a sweeping force for serenity, energy, and growth.”

— Gretchen Rubin

180. “We all must pay, but we can choose that for which we pay.”

— Gretchen Rubin

181. “Eventually, I decided to count my daily walk or cross-country ski as a treat – my time for myself in a day otherwise filled with responsibilities. Somehow, that made it much easier to make it a priority.”

— Gretchen Rubin

182. “Also, there was a Princeton study that found that visual clutter reduces your ability to focus and process information.”

— Gretchen Rubin

183. “Research – and my own experience – suggests that the less we indulge in something, the less we want it. When we believe that a craving will remain unsatisfied, it may diminish; cravings are more provoked by possibility than by denial.”

— Gretchen Rubin

184. “By mindfully deciding how to act in line with my values instead of mindlessly applying my rules, I was better able to make the decisions that supported my happiness.”

— Gretchen Rubin

185. “The conduct of our lives is the true reflection of our thoughts. – Michel de Montaigne, “Of the Education of Children.”

— Gretchen Rubin

186. “Having less often leads us to use our things more often and with more enjoyment, because we’re not fighting our way through a welter of unwanted stuff.”

— Gretchen Rubin

187. “The imperfect book that gets published is better than the perfect book that never leaves my computer.”

— Gretchen Rubin

188. “Associate with people who are likely to improve you. – SENECA, Letters from a Stoic.”

— Gretchen Rubin

189. “Experts say that denying bad feelings intensifies them, acknowledging bad feelings allows good feelings to return.”

— Gretchen Rubin

190. “As Samuel Johnson said, “To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.”

— Gretchen Rubin

191. “Creativity arises from a constant churn of ideas, and one of the easiest ways to encourage that fertile froth is to keep your mind engaged with your project. When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.”

— Gretchen Rubin

192. “Rather than striving for a particular level of possessions – minimal or otherwise – it’s helpful to think about getting rid of what’s superfluous. Even people who prefer to own many possessions enjoy their surroundings more when they’ve purged everything that’s not needed, used, or loved.”

— Gretchen Rubin

193. “A willingness to be pleased requires modesty and even innocence – easy to deride as mawkish and sentimental.”

— Gretchen Rubin

194. “Although many people believe that habits form in twenty-one days, when researchers at University College London examined how long people took to adopt a daily habit, such as drinking water or doing sit-ups, they found that, on average, a habit took sixty-six days to form.”

— Gretchen Rubin

195. “When Churchill was running for office for the first time, he went door to door to ask for votes. He knocked on the door of an irritable man who, when Churchill introduced himself, said, “Vote for you? Why, I’d rather vote for the devil!” “I understand,” answered Churchill. “But in case your friend is not running, may I count on your support?”

— Gretchen Rubin

196. “When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

— Gretchen Rubin

197. “From my observation, habits in four areas do most to boost feelings of self-control, and in this way strengthen the Foundation of all our habits. We do well to begin by tackling the habits that help us to: 1. sleep 2. move 3. eat and drink right 4. unclutter.”

— Gretchen Rubin

198. “Secret of Adulthood: Make sure the things we do to make ourselves feel better don’t make us feel worse.”

— Gretchen Rubin

199. “I should pursue only those habits that would make me feel freer and stronger.”

— Gretchen Rubin

200. “See the child you have,” as the saying goes, “not the child you wish you had.” In the end, I agreed with Michel de Montaigne: “The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.”

— Gretchen Rubin