"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
— Kurt Vonnegut (Mother Night)

"The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances."
— Martha Washington

"Ah, pay no heed if your enemies laugh. They'll not be able to once you lop off their heads."
— Christopher Paolini (Eragon, Eldest & Brisingr)

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."
— Marcus Aurelius

"I've had it with being nice, understanding, fair and hopeful. I feel like being negative all day. The chip on my shoulder could sink the QE2. I've got an attitude problem and nobody better get in my way...I'm in a bad mood and the whole stupid little world is gonna pay!"
— John Waters

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
— Viktor E. Frankl

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

"Humor is just an attitude. Insanity is a way of life."
— Chloe Scarborough

"Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. "
— Mary Ellen Chase

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
Martha Washington (1732 - 1802) "
— Martha Washington (1732 - 1802)

"If I can't joke about imminent death, then I might as well just resign."
— James A. Owen (The Search for the Red Dragon)

"Just because I'm a murdering, thieving, cowardly, traitorous sort doesn't mean I can't do my job properly."
— James A. Owen (The Search for the Red Dragon)

""A positive attitude is the key to success.""
— Katrina walker

"said Jack matter-of-factly. "I'm a man. We're made to think more quickly."

...Aven swung her fist and clocked Jack square on the chin, knocking him backward into the balloon, which was still under repair.

...Aven rubbed her knuckles and looked at the others. "Sorry about that. I might have stopped myself from hitting him, but I didn't think of it quickly enough.""
— James A. Owen

""Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses." "
— Alphonse Karr

"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."
— Marcus Aurelius

"Were you born this infuriating?"
"It's taken me years of practice."
— Misty Massey (Mad Kestrel)

"I happen to feel that the degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic."
— Lisa Alther

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
— Herm Albright

"Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, but sometimes it's hard not to get a jump on it yourself."
— Robin Brande (Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature)

"Kebajikan yang ringan adalah menunjukkan muka berseri-seri dan mengucapkan kata-kata yang lembut"
— Umar bin Khattab

"I try to maintain a positive attitude at all times, because clients notice little things like that, and if you're frowning and crying all the time and saying "why? why?", they get worried."
— John Swartzwelder (The Time Machine Did It)

"Dissident Natan Sharansky writes that there are two kinds of states -- "fear societies" and "free societies," two kinds of consciousness. The consciousness derived of oppression is despairing, fatalistic, and fearful of inquiry. It is mistrustful of the self and forced to trust external authority. It is premised on a dearth of self-respect. It is cramped.

In contrast, the consciousness of freedom is one of expansiveness, trust of the self, and hope. It is a consciousness of limitless inquiry. It builds up in a citizen a wealth of self-respect."
— Naomi Wolf (Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries)

"The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I like what I like and not what I'm supposed to like because of mass rating. And I very much dislike the things I don't like."
— Erle Stanley Gardner (The Case of the Careless Cupid)

"Attitude is the first quality that marks the successful man. If he has a positive attitude and is a positive thinker, who likes challenges and difficult situations, then he has half his success achieved."
— Lowell Peacock

"Adventures are only interesting once you've lived to see the end of them. Before that, they are nothing but fear, and being too cold or too hot or too wet or too hungry, and getting hurt."
— Holly Lisle (The Silver Door)

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . ."
— Marcus Aurelius

"A man's life is what his thoughts make it."
— Marcus Aurelius

"The celebrity syndrome. When people forget who they are and start to believe what other people say about them."
— Paulo Coelho The Winner Stands Alone

"With hair, heels, and attitude, honey, I am through the roof."
— Rupaul

"Are you in any way qualified?

Yes? No? It doesn't matter. In America, "Qualification" is simply an attitude. I've adopted it. So, yes. I am qualified."
— Eugene Mirman (The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life)

"Age wrinkles the body; quiting wrinkles the soul."
— Douglas MacArthur

"Idly, Wick wondered if he should feel insulted. Then he decided there really wasn't any room for considering an insult with all the fear running rampant in his mind. Maybe he was quiet on the outside, but he knew he was running around screaming inside his thoughts."
— Mel Odom (The Quest for the Trilogy: A Rover Novel of Three Adventures)

"At the most one could say that his chi or ... personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed. "
— Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart)

"An attitude of gratitude brings great things.

"
— Yogi Bhajan

""Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.""
— Goethe/J.W.