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We’ve all been there. Laying in bed at night and the negative thoughts start.
She was right to leave you. Your friends and colleagues don’t like you. You should have finished grad school. The black mold in your walls could have been prevented if you had just scheduled regular sump pump maintenance like a decent human being. The rainforest is burning, and you’re just lying here feeling sorry for yourself. Your 401(k) investments are poorly diversified, too.
It happens even to the best of us! Fortunately, there is a way to mitigate all that negativity, and don’t worry—we’re not about to segue into a pitch for a miracle cure. Staying present can be as easy as thinking positive things. Think about your positive qualities and the things you did today that made you proud. See? You’re starting to feel better already!
When the darkest thoughts take hold—you know the ones—take a moment to reflect on the positive affirmations and quotes of others for inspiration. Here are just a few positive attitude quotes to get you started!
Quotes About Positivity and Having a Positive Attitude
Groucho Marx
“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”
Victor Frankl
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”
George Soros
“To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.”
Kurt Vonnegut
“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”
– Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
Gary Vaynerchuk
“Positivity always wins… Always.”
Aristotle
“Happiness is a quality of the soul… not a function of one’s material circumstances.”
“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.”
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“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
– Meditations
“Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you’ll love it up here.”
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“Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”
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“I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?”
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“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life,the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.
Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.”
– A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
“To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit that serves as the life-blood of our own country – your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our talents.”
– Think and Grow Rich
Oscar Wilde
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Maya Angelou
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
Bruce Lee
“Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are weeds that strangle confidence.”
Colin Powell
“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
Walt Disney
“I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.”
Muhammad Ali
“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
Aristotle
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
Hal Borland
“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
