The things that go wrong often make the best memories.

—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project

planning surprise memories

About Gretchen Rubin

Portrait of Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Craft Rubin (born December 14, 1965) is an American author, blogger and speaker.

More quotations from Gretchen Rubin

The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.

—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project

happiness belief effort generosity feelings discipline energy unhappiness selfishness care selflessness lightheartedness

The days are long, but the years are short.

—Gretchen Rubin

time perception

There's a great satisfaction in knowing that we've made good use of our days, that we've lived up to our expectations of ourselves.

—Gretchen Rubin in Better Than Before

satisfaction expectations good use

Although people sometimes assume that the happy are self-absorbed and complacent, just the opposite is true. In general, happiness doesn't make people want to drink daiquiris on the beach; it makes them want to help rural villagers gain better access to clean water.

—Gretchen Rubin in Happier at Home

I grasped two things: I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasn't going to change unless I made it change.

—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project

life change happiness

More quotations tagged with “memories”

You see, for me, memories are difficult. Very often, they hurt. A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they're inaccessible.

—Casey McQuiston in White & Royal Blue

pain grief absence memories

There is a time in life when you expect the world to be always full of new things. And then comes a day when you realize that is not how it will be at all. You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realize, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps, though you can put your hand out to where things were and feel that tense, shining dullness of the space where the memories are.

—Helen Macdonald in H is for Hawk

life expectations loss absence memories

Memories do not always soften with time; some grow edges like knives.

—Barbara Kingsolver in The Lacuna

Experience had taught me that even the most precious memories fade with the passage of time.

—Nicholas Sparks in The Wedding

time experience memories

Some days I imagined getting on a bus and leaving this town behind. The memories weren't good. At least most of them weren't.

—Abbi Glines in Because of Low

memories leaving

History

4 Jul 2015 Added