Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

It's really important to always have a positive mind-set, no matter what people have been through.

So many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren't always happy things happening to me or around me. But when you look at the core of goodness within yourself - at the optimism and hope - you realize it comes from the environment you grew up in.

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant - the digitalis of failure.

I learned that I'm really good with perseverance. I'm stronger than I thought I was inside. I also learned that I don't give up easily and that I trust and believe that things are going to be OK.

I've never really let any kind of negative things affect me, generally. I would take a positive out of the most desperately horrible situation.

When pain brings you down, don't be silly, don't close your eyes and cry, you just might be in the best position to see the sun shine.

No matter what you're going through, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. Discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.

Suffer not thy wrongs to shroud thy fate, But turn, my soul, to blessings which remain.

I know that in life there will be sickness, devastation, disappointments, heartache - it's a given. What's not a given is the way you choose to get through it all. If you look hard enough, you can always find the bright side.

Because of my faith and my imagination, I was able to enjoy my childhood, even though it was tough.

I do believe that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For despair, optimism is the only practical solution. Hope is practical. Because eliminate that and it's pretty scary. Hope at least gives you the option of living.

The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to because if you're really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

If you know that life is basically going to be horrendously difficult, at best, and all but unlivable at worst, or possibly even unlivable, do you go on? And the choice to go on is the only thing that I think can be called hope. Because if hope isn't forced to encounter the worst possibility, then it's a lie.

I faced quite a few challenging times, and in front of those, I was more positive than some people not facing those conditions. I'm actually of the belief now that it is that struggle that offers you that open-hearted hope.

The worst times can be the best if you think with positive energy.

Don't despair, even over the fact that you don't despair

Even when things are at their worst, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'Good story!'

All my life, I have been a positive thinker... I have always been able to survive by telling myself that no matter how bad things are, they will one day be better. And that out of every event - no matter how tragic - one can always find a way to survive and even, perhaps, to be a little bit happy.

Overcoming adversity not only makes you stronger, it makes you more hopeful.

When I wake up in the morning, I don't say, 'Oh, I have cancer. I say 'Another day. How you feeling? Good? Good.'

My favorite phrase is, 'God only gives struggles to people who can overcome it.' I saw it in a book, and it helped me out so much.

I do know that there is no reason for me to drown myself from sorrow since I haven't yet tried to achieve anything great.