Life Quote by Gretchen Rubin

““Thoreau admonished, “Our life is frittered away by detail.… Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” This longing for simplicity is so powerful and complex that it needs its own term, much like nostalgie de la boue (yearning for the mud) or wabi sabi (the beauty of the imperfect and impermanent). When I asked on my blog if anyone knew a term to capture this idea, one reader coined the wonderful word “Waldenlust.” This longing takes several forms: fantasies of the freedom that dispossession would bring; nostalgia for earlier, supposedly simpler times; and reverence for the primitive, which is assumed to be more authentic and closer to nature. I””

Gretchen Rubin

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.4 out of 5 (9 ratings)

More by Gretchen Rubin

“Second Splendid Truth One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

Knowing what you admire in others is a wonderful mirror into your deepest, as yet unborn, self.

Gretchen Rubin

Image

Being taken for granted is an unpleasant but sincere form of praise. Ironically, the more reliable you are and the less you complain, the…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

“one Secret of Adulthood is “Never start a sentence with the words ‘No offense’”? “And”

Gretchen Rubin

Image

One of the findings that really interests me is that, although we think we ACT because of the way we FEEL, we often FEEL…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

We all want to get along well with other people, and one way to do this is to help people feel good about themselves.…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

During my study of happiness, I noticed something that surprised me: I often learn more from one person's highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

There is a preppy wabi-sabi to soft, faded khakis and cotton shirts, but it's not nice to be surrounded by things that are worn…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

“There are times in the lives of most of us,” observed William Edward Hartpole Lecky, “when we would have given all the world to…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

“I started thinking more about music. I thought I'd accepted the fact that, as part of "Being Gretchen," I didn't really like music, but in fact, the truth was slightly different: I thought I didn't like music, but in fact, I didn't approve of my own taste--I wished I liked sophisticated music, like jazz or classical or esoteric rock. Instead,…

Gretchen Rubin

If you've had something for more than six months, and it's still not repaired, it's clutter.

Gretchen Rubin

Image

“The pleasure of doing the same thing, in the same way, every day, shouldn't be overlooked. The things I do every day take on…

Gretchen Rubin

Image

Explore all 346 Gretchen Rubin quotes

More Life quotes

Of all the people who have affected my life and influenced the choices I've made, none has been more important than my father. I…

Teddy Atlas

Image

What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and pecularities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of…

Octavio Paz