“It isn't what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it's what we say to ourselves about what happens.”

“It's not what happens to us that molds us. It's what we do with what happens to us.”

Anita Stansfield (1961) American writer

“What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

“He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

“History isn't what happened, history is just what historians tell us.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

“Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.”

Tony Hoagland (1953–2018) American writer

“Disruption isn't about what happens to you, it's about how you respond to what happens to you.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

“It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

“The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

“I think we have much more to say about what happens to us than most people believe.”

Yanni (1954) Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer, and music producer