Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
As quoted in The Ring of Truth (2004) by Joseph O'Day
Positive quotes page 2
Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”
Jimmy Johnson (1928) American Chicago blues guitarist and singer
“The road to success is always under construction”
Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”
Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
Dale Carnegie, quoted in Permission to Play : Taking Time to Renew Your Smile (2003) by Jill Murphy Long, p. 69
“I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.”
Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Works and Days
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)
“if you tell yourself you feel fine, you will.”
Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper
Source: My Sister's Keeper
“The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
"Proclamation 3560 — Thanksgiving Day, 1963" (5 November 1963) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9511<!-- Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project --> <br class="br">1963 <br class="br">Context: Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers — for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.<br>Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings — let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals — and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
Variant: Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb (1982) British tennis player
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”
Helen Keller book Optimism
Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
No known source in Emerson's works; first found as a piece of anonymous folk-wisdom in a 1936 newspaper column:<br>: Every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.<br>:* Junius, "Office Cat" https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/85995624/, The Daily Freeman [Kingston, NY] (30 December 1936), p. 6 <br class="br">Misattributed
“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”
Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker
Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.”
Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter
Source: Letter to My Daughter
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker
“Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier.”
Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“It is better for the heart to break, than not to break.”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”
Duke Ellington (1899–1974) American jazz musician, composer and band leader
Source: Music is My Mistress
“Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) American businessman and philanthropist
“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.”
Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games
Source: The Hunger Games
“It makes a big difference in your life when you stay positive.”
Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
“The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.”
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
“Positive expectations are the mark of the superior personality.”
Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
Source: Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills that Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
Jodi Picoult book Small Great Things
Source: Small Great Things
“it's wrong to be right; it's right to be wrong.”
Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer
“T is what you will,—or will be what you would.”
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) French writer
First Week, Third Day.
La Semaine; ou, Création du monde (1578)
“The more you know, the less you are.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter
1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
“You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.”
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist
Unknown, but also attributed to Les Brown, a motivational speaker. Commonly attributed to C.S. Lewis, but never with a primary source listed.
Misattributed
Jack Layton (1950–2011) Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada
"A letter to Canadians from the Honourable Jack Layton." https://pdf.yt/d/RKyhnDdu-DXG3J6s 20 August 2011. <br class="br">Released upon his death.
“Either you will be you or you will not be at all.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
“The Knight,” p. 81
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “What After”
“Life is everything and nothing all at once.”
Billy Corgan (1967) American musician, songwriter, producer, and author
From the Pisces Iscariot liner notes.
“All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman
Source: How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004), Ch. 3 : Imagination Unlimited, p. 63; Unsourced variant: All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.
“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”
Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers
As quoted in The Pocket Philosopher/ Psychologist (2004) by Mark J. Merten, p. 87
Miguel Ángel Ruiz book The Four Agreements
The Four Agreements (1997)
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
Source: 1900s, Up From Slavery (1901), Chapter XI: Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
As quoted in Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003) edited by Edison & Ford Winter Estates.
Date unknown
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
As quoted in: [J. L.] Elkhorne. Edison — The Fabulous Drone, in 73 Vol. XLVI, No. 3 (March 1967) http://www.arimi.it/wp-content/73/03_March_1967.pdf, p. 52 <br class="br">Disputed
“The most positive men are the most credulous…”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) scientist and inventor known for his work on the telephone
Bell Telephone Talk (1901)
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
Truman Capote (1924–1984) American author
From "Self-Portrait" (1972)
Truman Capote: Conversations (1987)
“There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way.”
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
The source is likely to be either modern Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, or Calvinist clergyman Abraham Johannes Muste. The phrase appears in Thich Nhat Hanh's writings; but it also appears in a volume of US senate hearings from 1948, when Thich Nhat Hanh had not yet been ordained as a monk. Muste is known to have used a variant of the phrase – "'peace' is the way" in 1967, but this was not the first time he had used it, and he had a connection with the 1948 hearing.
Misattributed
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
Vince Lombardi (1913–1970) American football player, coach, and executive
“Positive thinking must be followed with positive doing.”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
“And you do not think that this is possible?”
Alastair Reynolds book Terminal World
“I’ll believe in anything when I see evidence for it.”
Chapter 12 (p. 188)
Terminal World (2010)
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer
“A strong, positive self – image is the best possible preparation for success”
Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers
“It's a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.”
Daniel Kahneman (1934) Israeli-American psychologist
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) American author and Unitarian clergyman
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist