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Need a pick-me-up?
By Mehruba Chowdhury — Written on Dec 01, 2022
In today’s chaotic world, it can be difficult to stay positive. Everyone is stressed, busy, lonely, or just plain sad at some point or another and it's important to be there to lift your friends' spirits when they feel down.
Positive quotes have a way of picking us up when we need it most, so why not share them with those who are struggling to keep their head up?
Certain words have the power to bring that positivity back into our lives and brighten our moods instantly.
Life is full of negative experiences and struggles. We're human, which means we are wired to focus on the bad to avoid threats. It takes actual work to remain positive but it's worth it.
Support your loved ones as they power through setbacks with inspiring quotes about the benefits of a positive attitude and choosing to look on the bright side no matter what.
Positive quotes to brighten your day
1. "A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you." — Joyce Meyer
2. "You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you." — Brian Tracy
3. "A negative thinker sees a difficulty in every opportunity. A positive thinker sees an opportunity in every difficulty." — Zig Ziglar
4. "Being positive in a negative situation is not naive. It's leadership." — Ralph Marston
5. "A negative mind will never give you a positive life." — Ziad K. Abdelnour
6. "To succeed, we must believe that we can." — Michael Korda
7. "Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe that you deserve it, and believe it's possible for you." — Jack Canfield
8. "Life always offers you a second chance, it's called tomorrow." — Dylan Thomas
9. "Be like a very small joyous child, living gloriously in the ever-present now, without a single worry or concern about even the next moment of time." — Eileen Caddy
10. "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." — Charles R. Swindoll
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11. "Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power." — William James
12. "The most effective way to achieve the right relations with any living thing is to look for the best in it, and then help that best into the fullest expression." — Allen J. Boone
13. "People get disturbed not so much by events, but by the view which they take of them." — Epictetus
14. "And I think to myself, what a wonderful world." — Louis Armstrong
15. "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." — Lou Holtz
16. "A positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible." — Winston Churchill
17. "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." — Zig Ziglar
18. "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." — Zig Ziglar
19. "Forget all the reasons why it won't work and believe the one reason why it will." — Ziad K. Abdelnour
20. "Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen." — Sukhraj Dhillon
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21. "In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years." — Abraham Lincoln
22. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” — Maya Angelou
23. “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It's what the sunflowers do.” — Helen Keller
24. "Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory." — Dr. Seuss
25. “All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” — Earl Nightingale
26. "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
27. "Do good and good will come to you." — Adam Lowy
28. “Each day provides its own gifts.” — Marcus Aurelius
29. "Inspiration comes from within yourself. One has to be positive. When you're positive, good things happen." — Deep Roy
30. "Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results." — Willie Nelson
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31. "You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination." — Ralph Marston
32. "Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." — Joseph Campbell
33. "Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!" — Donna Karan
34. "Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will." — Zig Ziglar
35. "In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision." — Dalai Lama
36. "You're going to go through tough times - that's life. But I say, 'Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.' See the positive in negative events." — Joel Osteen
37. "Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation." — Michael Jordan Quotes
38. "If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges." — Pat Riley
39. "Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A 'you can do it' when things are tough." — Richard M. DeVos
40. "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." — Colin Powell
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41. "When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist. I choose to be an optimist. It's all a matter of perspective." — Harvey Mackay
42. "It's a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient." — Daniel Kahneman
43. "I believe in karma, and I believe if you put out positive vibes to everybody, that's all you're going to get back." — Kesha
44. "Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up." — Allen Klein
45. "Positive anything is better than negative nothing." — Elbert Hubbard
46. "The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything." — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
47. "It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts." — Robert H. Schuller
48. "People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?" — Thich Nhat Hanh
49. "Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen." — Thomas Carlyle
50. "I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative." — James Baldwin
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51. "A lot of times people look at the negative side of what they feel they can't do. I always look on the positive side of what I can do." — Chuck Norris
52. "A positive attitude is something everyone can work on, and everyone can learn how to employ it." — Joan Lunden
53. "You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind." — Emmet Fox
54. "Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits." — William Hazlitt
55. "Even when bad things happen you have to try to use those bad things in a positive manner and really just take the positive out of it." — Natalie du Toit
56. "The best thing to do when you find yourself in a hurting or vulnerable place is to surround yourself with the strongest, finest, most positive people you know." — Kristin Armstrong
57. "But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious." — Elizabeth Edwards
58. "So long as you've got your friends about you, and a good positive attitude, you don't really have to care what everyone else thinks." — Gail Porter
59. "Chaotic people often have chaotic lives, and I think they create that. But if you try and have an inner peace and a positive attitude, I think you attract that." — Imelda Staunton
60. "A positive attitude can really make dreams come true." — David Bailey
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61. "Positive thinking is more than just a tagline. It changes the way we behave. And I firmly believe that when I am positive, it not only makes me better, but it also makes those around me better." — Harvey Mackay
62. "There is a sense that things, if you keep positive and optimistic about what can be done, do work out." — Hillary Clinton
63. "A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results." — Wade Boggs
64. "Don't forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally." — Hannah Bronfman
65. "Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success." — Shiv Khera
66. "Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one." — Hans Selye
67. "In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact." — Les Brown
68. "I think it's important to get your surroundings as well as yourself into a positive state - meaning surround yourself with positive people, not the kind who are negative and jealous of everything you do." — Heidi Klum
69. "In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive." — Lee Iacocca
70. "When you think positive, good things happen." — Matt Kemp
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71. "Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can't be done." — Bo Bennett
72. "Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don't give up hope. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm and genuine people." — Tena Desae
73. "Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them." — Jack Canfield
74. "Anything that's not positive, I don't have the energy to focus on it. Anything that's not going in the right direction, I don't have the time or the energy." — DMX
75. "Positive attitude plus effort equals performance." — Tommy Tuberville
76. "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." — W. Clement Stone
77. "Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive." — Jean Chatzky
78. "A lot of things are going to happen that you can't necessarily control all the time, but you can control what you do after it happens. So that's what I try to do, keep my head up, keep moving forward, stay positive and just work hard." — Lonzo Ball
79. "We can bring positive energy into our daily lives by smiling more, talking to strangers in line, replacing handshakes with hugs, and calling our friends just to tell them we love them." — Brandon Jenner
80. "Don't focus on negative things; focus on the positive, and you will flourish." — Alex Wek
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81. "I truly believe in positive synergy, that your positive mindset gives you a more hopeful outlook, and belief that you can do something great means you will do something great." — Russell Wilson
82. "I'm not sure what the future holds but I do know that I'm going to be positive and not wake up feeling desperate. As my dad said 'Nic, it is what it is, it's not what it should have been, not what it could have been, it is what it is.'" — Nicole Kidman
82. "Stress is a downward spiral, and you can only overcome it with a positive perspective." — Jen Lilley
83. "A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug." — Patricia Neal
84. "It doesn't matter what cards you're dealt. It's what you do with those cards. Never complain. Just keep pushing forward. Find a positive in anything and just fight for it." — Baker Mayfield
85. "Really you just gotta keep chugging along and keep a positive attitude and get through all the problems. You gotta face them, otherwise you don't get through." — Lesley Gore
86. "Positive thinking is a valuable tool that can help you overcome obstacles, deal with pain, and reach new goals." — Amy Morin
87. "Mentally, you can't expect positive things to start happening in your life with a negative attitude." — Jinder Mahal
88. "I really believe in the 'Glow' and live my life that way. It's about being positive inside and out and being the best version of yourself possible." — Naomi
89. "Positive energy knows no boundaries. If everyone were to spread positive energy on the Internet, the world would be a much better place." — Lu Wei
90. "Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” — Dalai Lama
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91 "I realized that if my thoughts immediately affect my body, I should be careful about what I think. Now if I get angry, I ask myself why I feel that way. If I can find the source of my anger, I can turn that negative energy into something positive." — Yoko Ono
92. "Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look." — Jodi Picoult
93. "Say something positive, and you’ll see something positive.” — Jim Thompson
94. “Each day provides its own gifts.” — Marcus Aurelius
95. “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne
96. "You do not find the happy life. You make it." — Thomas S. Monson
97. "Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning." — S. C. Lourie
98. “Salvation lies within.” — Warden Samuel Norton
99. "The more you are positive and say, 'I want to have a good life,' the more you build that reality for yourself by creating the life that you want." — Chris Pine
100. "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." — Jack Layton
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Mehruba Chowdhury is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture and relationship topics.