Top 250 Gretchen Rubin Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 5 of 6

201. “It’s been freeing to focus on what works for me rather than what’s wrong with me.”

— Gretchen Rubin

202. “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “New England Reformers.”

— Gretchen Rubin

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

— Gretchen Rubin

204. “I had everything I could possibly want – yet I was failing to appreciate it. Bogged down in petty complaints and passing crises, weary of struggling with my own nature, I too often failed to comprehend the splendor of what I had.”

— Gretchen Rubin

205. “Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. – Journal of Thomas Merton.”

— Gretchen Rubin

206. “Any beginning is a time of special power for habit creation, and at certain times we experience a clean slate, in which circumstances change in a way that makes a fresh start possible – if we’re alert for the opportunity.”

— Gretchen Rubin

207. “It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that if you have something you love or there’s something you want, you’ll be happier with more.”

— Gretchen Rubin

208. “I have a passion for children’s literature. Young adult literature. I love it. I’ve always loved it.”

— Gretchen Rubin

209. “Questioners... can add tremendous value to relationships and organizations by ensuring that they-and the people around them- don’t unthinkingly accept expectations that aren’t well justified.”

— Gretchen Rubin

210. “I used to think I was pretty typical, but now I see that I’m extreme. I can’t judge people according to what works for me.”

— Gretchen Rubin

211. “One study estimated that for every hour of interrupted sleep during the previous night, people wasted 8.4 minutes in online puttering.”

— Gretchen Rubin

212. “One of my Secrets of Adulthood is that we’re more like other people than we suppose and less like other people than we suppose.”

— Gretchen Rubin

213. “Use counters for activities, not for storage.”

— Gretchen Rubin

214. “I don’t want to reject my life. I want to change my life without changing my life.”

— Gretchen Rubin

215. “One of my favorite Zen sayings is “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

— Gretchen Rubin

216. “To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends.”

— Gretchen Rubin

217. “I should make one healthy choice, and then stop choosing.”

— Gretchen Rubin

218. “One of life’s small pleasures is to return something to its proper place;.”

— Gretchen Rubin

219. “For Rebels, the ability to choose is so important that sometimes they make a choice – even when it’s against their own self-interest or it’s not what they prefer – just to reassure themselves that they can make that choice.”

— Gretchen Rubin

220. “Hugging relieves stress, boosts feelings of closeness, and even squelches pain. In one study, people assigned to give five hugs each day for a month, aiming to hug as many different people as they could, became happier.”

— Gretchen Rubin

221. “But while it’s true that helping other people makes us happier, and that people feel a distinct “helper’s high,” it’s also true that when people are unhappy, they often find it tough to help others. If they did, they’d likely feel happier, but unhappy people often feel preoccupied with their own problems and don’t have the emotional reserves to turn outward. By contrast, happy people volunteer more, give away more money, and naturally take an interest in others.”

— Gretchen Rubin

222. “Many strategies help us change our habits, and four strategies tower above the others: Monitoring, Foundation, Scheduling, and Accountability.”

— Gretchen Rubin

223. “Being taken for granted is an unpleasant but sincere form of praise.”

— Gretchen Rubin

224. “Pierre Reverdy: “There is no love; there are only proofs of love.”

— Gretchen Rubin

225. “If I feel anxious about the fact that I haven’t started, I become even more reluctant to start, which just makes me more anxious.”

— Gretchen Rubin

226. “It’s a Secret of Adulthood: I can’t make people change, but when I change, others may change; and when others change, I may change.”

— Gretchen Rubin

227. “Outer order isn’t a matter of having less or having more; it’s a matter of wanting what we have.”

— Gretchen Rubin

228. “As one Questioner pointed out, ‘The Rebels’ best asset is their voice of dissent. We shouldn’t try to school it out of them, or to corporate-culture it out, or shame it out. It’s there to protect us all.”

— Gretchen Rubin

229. “Although we presume that we act because of the way we feel, in fact we often feel because of the way we act.”

— Gretchen Rubin

230. “What I do most days matters more than what I do once in a while.” That kind of self-encouragement is a greater safeguard than self-blame.”

— Gretchen Rubin

231. “Studies show that people tend to persevere longer with problems they’ve been told are difficult as opposed to easy.”

— Gretchen Rubin

232. “By doing a little bit each day you can get a lot accomplished.”

— Gretchen Rubin

233. “Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time. Do it now, or decide when you’ll do it.”

— Gretchen Rubin

234. “Feeling right” is about living the life that’s right for you – in occupation, location, marital status, and so on. It’s also about virtue: doing your duty, living up to the expectations you set for yourself. For some people, “feeling right” can also include less elevated considerations: achieving a certain job status or material standard of living.”

— Gretchen Rubin

235. “The words of the writer Colette had haunted me for years: “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”

— Gretchen Rubin

236. “Boredom can be important. That’s when you have to figure out what you want to do.”

— Gretchen Rubin

237. “What we assume will be temporary often becomes permanent; what we assume is permanent often proves temporary.”

— Gretchen Rubin

238. “Getting in control of our possessions makes us feel more in control of our fates. If this is an illusion, it’s a helpful illusion – and it’s a more pleasant way to live.”

— Gretchen Rubin

239. “You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.”

— Gretchen Rubin

240. “For most people, whenever possible, important habits should be scheduled for the morning. Mornings tend to unfold in a predictable way, and as the day goes on, more complications arise –.”

— Gretchen Rubin

241. “A University of Exeter study showed that people who have control over their workspace design are happier at work, more motivated, healthier, and up to 32 percent more productive.”

— Gretchen Rubin

242. “Understanding the Four Tendencies gives us a richer understanding of the world.”

— Gretchen Rubin

243. “I’ve learned to put great store in my own observations of everyday life, because while laboratory experiments are one way to study human nature, they aren’t the only way.”

— Gretchen Rubin

244. “By getting rid of the things I don’t use, don’t need, or don’t love, as well as the things that don’t work, don’t fit, or don’t suit, I free my mind – and my shelves – for what I truly value. And that’s true for most people.”

— Gretchen Rubin

245. “Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life, and a significant element of happiness. If we have habits that work for us, we’re much more likely to be happy, healthy, productive, and creative.”

— Gretchen Rubin

246. “When money or health is a problem, you think of little else; when it’s not a problem, you don’t think much about it. Both money and health contribute to happiness mostly in negative; the lack of them brings much more unhappiness than possessing them brings happiness.”

— Gretchen Rubin

247. “With habits, we don’t make decisions, we don’t use self-control, we just do the thing we want ourselves to do – or that we don’t want to do.”

— Gretchen Rubin

248. “When I clean up that mess, I’m always surprised by the disproportionate energy and cheer I gain, plus I’m able to find my keys.”

— Gretchen Rubin

249. “The more we notice, the more we can enjoy.”

— Gretchen Rubin

250. “Every time you break the law you pay, and every time you obey the law you pay.” Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels, we all must grapple with the consequences of our Tendency – with its strengths and its weaknesses, its foibles and its frustrations.”

— Gretchen Rubin