{"author":"Gretchen Rubin","author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin","total_quotes":52,"quotes":[{"text":"This is one of the many paradoxes of happiness: we seek to control our lives, but the unfamiliar and the unexpected are important sources of happiness.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["anxiety","control","happiness"],"id":2621,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"Enthusiasm is a form of social courage.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["enthusiasm","social","form "],"id":10566,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"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.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["feelings","giving","happiness","selfishness","selflessness"],"id":21464,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"... One flaw throws the loveliness of [everything else] into focus. I remember reading that Shakers deliberately introduced a mistake into the things they made, to show that man shouldn't aspire to the perfection of God. Flawed can be more perfect than perfection.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["flaws","focus","god","humanity","mistakes","perfection"],"id":32521,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"One of my key realizations about happiness, and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists, given its emphasis in popular culture, is that outer order contributes to inner calm. More than it should.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["happiness","culture","calm "],"id":35674,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"Like most people, I have several pet subjects - that may or may not be interesting to other people. Don't get me started on happiness, or habits, or children's literature, or Winston Churchill, unless you really want to talk about it.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["happiness","children","me "],"id":55869,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"Volunteering to help others is the right thing to do, and it also boosts personal happiness; a review of research by the Corporation for National and Community Service shows that those who aid the causes they value tend to be happier and in better health. They show fewer signs of physical and mental aging. And it's not just that helpful people also tend to be healthier and happier; helping others causes happiness. 'Be selfless, if only for selfish reasons,' as one of my happiness paradoxes holds. About one-quarter of Americans volunteer, and of those, a third volunteer for more than a hundred hours each year.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["happiness","health","volunteer","volunteering","volunteerism"],"id":65080,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"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.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["anger","research"],"id":65781,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"When possible, the brain makes a behavior into a habit, which saves effort and therefore gives us more capacity to deal with complex, novel, or urgent matters.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["decisions","habits"],"id":84819,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"},{"text":"Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but everyday is a clean state and a fresh opportunity.","author":"Gretchen Rubin","tags":["happiness"],"id":90223,"author_id":"Gretchen+Rubin"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":52,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}