The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
Categories: optimism

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
Sir Winston Churchill speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, London, November 9, 1954
Categories: optimism

Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist.
Robert G. Allen
Categories: optimism

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Colin Powell
Categories: optimism

The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum.
Havelock Ellis
Categories: optimism

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
James Branch Cabell The Silver Stallion, 1926
Categories: optimism

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.
Peter Ustinov
Categories: optimism

I find nothing more depressing than optimism.
Paul Fussell
Categories: optimism

Some folks go through life pleased that the glass is half full. Others spend a lifetime lamenting that it's half-empty. The truth is: There is a glass with a certain volume of liquid in it. From there, it's up to you!
Dr. James S. Vuocolo Integrity Newsletter
Categories: optimism attitude

Your outlook on life is a conscious choice.
Susan Murray Young Making Choices : Discover the Joy in Living the Life You Want to Lead
Categories: attitude optimism pessimism

Enthusiasm reflects confidence, spreads good cheer, raises morale, inspires associates, arouses loyalty, and laughs at adversity... it is beyond price.
Allan Cox Words for All Occasions
Categories: enthusiasm attitude optimism

When it comes to staying young, a mind-lift beats a face-lift any day.
Marty Bucella Up Words for Down Days
Categories: attitude optimism hope

There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover,
Tomorrow, just you wait and see.
Nat Burton White Cliffs of Dover (song, 1941)
Categories: birds nature optimism

It's very much easier to be tragic than it is to be comic. I have known people who embrace the tragic view of life, and it is a cop-out. They simply feel rotten about everything, and that is terribly easy.
Robertson Davies, novelist Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Categories: attitude pessimism optimism joy

All the technology in the world will never replace a positive attitude.
Harvey Mackay "Technology can't substitute for good attitude" by Harvey Mackay, Arizona Republic, December 19, 1999
Categories: positive attitude thinking optimism

...positive attitudes...come in unlimited quantities. Everybody can have one free!
Harvey Mackay "Technology can't substitute for good attitude" by Harvey Mackay, Arizona Republic, December 19, 1999
Categories: positive thinking attitude optimism

Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today: you can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.
     Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
     Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or a bad mood. The bottom line: it's your choice how you live life.
Jerry, a friend of Harvey Mackay 'Bottom line: your choice how to live' by Harvey Mackay Arizona Republic April 18, 1999
Categories: attitude optimism happiness choice

You are not living by human laws but by divine laws. Expect miracles and see them take place. Hold ever before you the thought of prosperity and abundance, and know that doing so sets in motion forces that will bring it into being.
Eileen Caddy Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: expectations optimism positive thinking

Half-heartedness never won a battle.
William McKinley Power Quotes
Categories: enthusiasm optimism positive thinking

I am asking people to go from Why me? to Try me!
Bernie S. Siegel, MD Love, Medicine & Miracles
Categories: attitude optimism enthusiasm success try

Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.
James Allen As a Man Thinketh
Categories: thought optimism pessimism happiness

I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble.
Rudyard Kipling Words for All Occasions
Categories: optimism relationships friendships trust

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulus--the digitalis of failure.
Elbert Hubbard The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: optimism failure success attitude

Optimists are right. So are pessimists. It's up to you to choose which you will be.
Harvey Mackay Syndicated column (United Features Syndicate)
Categories: optimism pessimism attitude choice

Outlook determines outcome; attitude determines action.
Warren W. Wiersbe Be Hopeful
Categories: attitude optimism positive thinking

"When you first get up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

A.A. Milne The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh
Categories: expectation gratitude optimism simplicity

Greet the unseen with a cheer.
Robert Browning The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: hope faith courage strength optimism

I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude.
Judith M. Knowlton Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: attitude choice thoughts optimism pessimism

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
William Shakespeare Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: attitude pessimism optimism thoughts choice

Attitudes are more important than facts.
Dr. Karl Menninger Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude optimism optimistic self-confidence success

What you see (in your mind's eye) is what you get. Proof: What you saw is pretty much what you got!
Joe Klock Private correspondence with Karen Weber
Categories: joy attitude expectations visualization optimism pessimism

Happiness is not a possession to be prized. It is a quality of thought, a state of mind.
Daphne du Maurier, in the novel, Rebecca Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: happiness joy positive thinking optimism feelings emotions

Dare to believe in miracles. Look beyond the mud on the windshield, beyond the impossible, and know life is more than anguish and stress. Reach out to someone, when your heart is too heavy to feel the sunlight or to taste the rain. Rid yourself of dark thought and melancholy. Open your mind to fresh air, to the unlimited music in your soul.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations
Categories: hope optimism positive thinking service action

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
George Bernard Shaw Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: purity optimism self-examination integrity honesty motives

A merry heart doeth good like medicine.
King Solomon Proverbs 17:22, Holy Bible
Categories: attitude joy happiness enthusiasm optimism health wellness

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude success determination self-esteem self-confidence optimism

Pessimism is a very easy way out when you're considering what life really is, because pessimism is a short view of life...If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of man or the future of the world.
Robertson Davies, novelist Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Categories: pessimism optimism life living attitude future

It has to be dark for the stars to appear.
Warren Wiersbe Be Hopeful
Categories: optimism problems difficulties adversity hope faith

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
Helen Keller The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: optimism attitude faith achievement success hope confidence

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
Henry Ford Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: optimism pessimism self-confidence belief expectations success failure

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
Helen Keller The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: pessimism optimism attitude discovery vision imagination spirituality

... because your thoughts -- whether positive or negative -- have a profound effect on what you do, there are times when it is vital to make yourself consciously aware of precisely what you are thinking... Learning how to challenge a conclusion to which your brain has leaped will help you to recognize when that conclusion is unjustified by facts... The time to challenge your thoughts is when you feel yourself getting upset...
Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How to Avoid : Simple and Sure Techniques for Gaining Greater Control of Your Life
Categories: thoughts emotions feelings optimism pessimism self-fulfilling prophecy

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face and show the world all the love in your heart. Then people are going to treat you better. You're going to find, yes you will, that you're beautiful as you feel.
Carole King Tapestry by Carole King
Categories: inner beauty attitude optimism self-image happiness appearances joy joy confidence

Our ways of thinking make our happiness or unhappiness, our success or nonsuccess. We can, by effort, change our ways of thinking.
H. Emilie Cady Lessons in Truth
Categories: optimism thoughts habits beliefs success happiness achievement

Many of us unconciously create drama in our minds, expecting the worst from a situation only to have our expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Inadvertantly we become authors of our own misfortune. And so we struggle from day to day, from crisis to crisis, bruised and battered by circumstances without realizing that we always have a choice...
What if you began to expect the best from any situation? Isn't it possible that you could write new chapters in your life with happy endings?...Suspend your disbelief. Take a leap of faith. After all, what have you got to lose but misery and lack?
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: expectations self-defeating thoughts attitude pessimism optimism choice

No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities -- they're always there.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
Categories: optimism hope faith adversity challenges problems difficulties

The difficult is done at once, the impossible takes a little longer.
Slogan of the US Armed Forces The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation
Categories: action self-confidence work effort positive thinking optimism just do it

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't!
If you want to win, but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of the mind.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
Walter D. Wintle Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude optimism succes optimistic pessimism pessimistic failure

So don't think you can't think you can.
Charles Inge The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation
Categories: thought negativity optimism pessimism self-confidence positive thinking

Each day of your life, as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, you can square away for a happy and successful day. It's the mood and the purpose at the inception of each day that are the important facts in charting your course for the day. We can always square away for a fresh start, no matter what the past has been. It's today that is the paramount problem always. Yesterday is but history.
George Matthew Adams Soar...If You Dare
Categories: attitude optimism goals past regrets fresh start

How easily we can forget how precious life is! So long as we can remember, we've just been here, being alive. Unlike other things for which we have a good comparison--black to white, day to night, good to bad--we are so immersed in life that we can see it only in the context of itself. We don't see life as compared to anything, to not-being, for example, to never having been born. Life just is.
But life itself is a gift. It's a compliment just being born: to feel, breathe, think, play, dance, sing, work, make love, for this particular lifetime.
Today, let's give thanks for life. For life itself. For simply being born!
Daphne Rose Kingma A Grateful Heart
Categories: gratitude life joy attitude enthusiasm optimism living thankfulness

An optimist is someone who goes after Moby Dick in a rowboat and takes the tartar sauce with him.
Zig Ziglar Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude optimism optimistic optimist enthusiasm self-confidence success

There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.
Clement Stone Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude optimist optimism pessimist pessimism enthusiasm success failure

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
Winston Churchill The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: optimism pessimism attitude focus vision perspective negative positive

There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.
Charles F. Kettering Words for All Occasions
Categories: opportunities attitude optimism optimist optimistic self-confidence vision success

For myself, I am an optimist--it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
Winston Churchill Power Quotes
Categories: optimism pessimism attitude positive positivity outlook faith hope

Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.
Henry Hoskins Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: enthusiastic positive thinking optimism energy work effort success achievement

Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it as it is, is the only way of being happy.
Jennie Jerome Churchill The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness attitude optimism positive thinking inner peace self-control joy feelings emotions choice

He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstances.
David Hume The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness choice optimism positive thinking flexibility emotions feelings self-control inner peace

All things are possible until they are proved impossible--even the impossible may only be so, as of now.
Pearl S. Buck Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: possibility possibilities attitudes choice self-assurance positive thinking optimism impossible excuses

You would be surprised how many people quit when faced with obstacles. As every good salesman knows, everything may not be possible today, but sooner or later, it is possible.
Earl Graves To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: failure mistake giving up give up pessimism optimism vision goals success self-confidence possibility possibilities

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist, the opportunity in every difficulty.
L.P. Jacks Words for All Occasions
Categories: optimism optimistic pessimism pessimistic attitude choice opportunity opportunities problems obstacles difficulties challenges adversity

Habits of pessimism lead to depression, wither achievement, and undermine physical health. The good news is that pessimism can be unlearned, and that with its removal depression, underachievement, and poor health can be alleviated.
Martin Seligman What You Can Change... and What You Can't
Categories: pessimism wellness sadness depression failure success achievement health attitude emotions feelings negative thinking optimism

Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex their trunks and main branches, so that the sap is drawn up to nourish the budding leaves. Perhaps we need the gales of life in the same way, though we dislike enduring them. A blustery period in our fortunes is often the prelude to a new spring of life and health, success and happiness, when we keep steadfast in faith and look to the good in spite of appearances.
Jane Truax Words for All Occasions
Categories: storms difficulties challenges obstacles opportunities problems growth maturity faith success happiness attitude optimism optimistic

In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage, so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, and then only, are you grown old.
General Douglas MacArthur Words for All Occasions
Categories: thought young at heart attitude optimism hope beauty courage love strength bravery pessimism cynicism age aging old

Success breeds success. Attend to your mind's most joyful, effective discovery process. Bolster the self-beliefs that add confidence, lucidity, and tenacity to your efforts. You'll get more out of what you notice, so heed whatever gives you wisdom.
Marsha Sinetar To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: self-confidence self-esteem optimism positive thinking success achievement joy happiness work effort learning knowledge wisdom growth self-improvement

Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: attitude faith hope belief positive thinking optimism believe prayer inner wisdom problems solving difficulty difficulties obstacles challenges adversity

As in all other events in our lives, the major impact of aging isn't so much what actually happens to us, especially since it is one of those things that are beyond our control.
Rather the significant factor is what we think is happening to us and what we think about what we think is happening us.
Joe Klock Like Klockwork: The Whimsy, Wit, and (sometime) Wisdom of a Key Largo Curmudgeon
Categories: age aging attitude thought getting old elderly physical changes of aging optimism senior citizens young at heart

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.
Benjamin Franklin Jump Start Your Brain
Categories: control self-control attitude optimism challenges difficulties problems

The positive thinker is a hard-headed, tough-minded, and factual realist. He sees all the difficulties clearly... which is more than can be said for the average negative thinker. But he sees more than difficulties -- he tries to see the solutions of those difficulties.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
Categories: optimism pessimism realism positive thinking negative thinking

What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while.
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.
George Asaf (George H. Powell) The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: attitude optimism worry stress anxiety smiling happiness enthusiasm balance joy smiles attitude positive thinking

A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.
Rita Mae Brown Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: action fear courage apprehension optimism the best defense is a good offense independence freedom liberty strength bravery self-confidence proactive action control self-determination

There are few, if any, jobs in which ability alone is sufficient. Needed, also, are loyalty, sincerity, enthusiasm and team play.
William B. Given, Jr. The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work job vocation ability skill talent character loyalty sincerity integrity honesty enthusiasm business team leadership teamwork diligent effort actions attitude optimism cooperation relationships enthusiastic morale career success