
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Living to Tell the Tale (2002)
Variant: Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
“What's happening is merely what's happening. How you feel about it is another matter.”
Source: Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1
To Mr. Harper, contending the Prime Minister used advocate cleaning up government and caring for the environment; 2011 English Language Federal Election Debate http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/obituary-jack-layton-in-quotes/article2135661/?from=sec368
“Can I remember— “I remember lots,” I say. How much of what I remember is true is another matter.”
Source: Glasshouse (2006), Chapter 15, “Recovery” (p. 250)