Augusten Burroughs Quotes

I'm never at my worst because even at my lowest, its a learning experience. It's something that I'll bounce ideas off. I can take negatives and flip them to positives at all times.

When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you handle it. If Life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If the lemons are rotten, take out the seeds and plant them in order to grow new lemons.

Life gives no one immunity against adversity, but life gives to everyone the power of positive thought which is sufficient to master all circumstances of adversity and convert them into benefits.

When I look back on it now, I am so glad that the one thing that I had in my life was my belief that everything in life is a learning experience, whether it be positive or negative. If you can see it as a learning experience, you can turn any negative into a positive.

We all have unfair situations and things we don't like. You can get bitter, discouraged and sour, or you can see it as fertilizer and say, “ This difficulty is not going to defeat me; it's going to promote me. It's not going to hinder me; it's going to help me.” Don't just go through it, grow through it.

You're going to go through tough times - that's life. But I say, 'Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.' See the positive in negative events.

Someone said adversity builds character, but someone else said adversity reveals character. I'm pleasantly surprised with my resilience. I persevere, and not just blindly. I take the best, get rid of the rest, and move on, realizing that you can make a choice to take the good.

I have no major regrets. I've made the conscious decision not to look at life that way. I always try to learn something - to take something away from the situation.

If you will make a deliberate decision to develop a positive attitude toward opportunities and obstacles, you are on your way toward having what is the most important quality in education: the power of positive thinking.

The right attitude can transform a barrier into a blessing, an obstacle into an opportunity or a stumbling block into a stepping stone.

All of us have problems. We face them every day. How grateful I am that we have difficult things to wrestle with. They keep us young, they keep us alive, they keep us going, they keep us humble. Be grateful for your problems, and know that somehow there will come a solution. Just do the best you can, but be sure it is the very best.

'When you have a lemon, make a lemonade.' That is what a great educator does. But the fool does the exact opposite. If he finds that life has handed him a lemon, he gives up and says, 'I 'm beaten. It is fate. I haven't got a chance.' Then he proceeds to rail against the world and indulge in an orgy of self-pity .

The next time you encounter a difficult obstacle or problem, you should smile and say, 'Here's my chance to grow.'

It's not always the case that things will fall into your lap or that life will be great, but it's all about perspective and having a positive outlook. If something goes wrong you say: "That happened for a reason, what can I learn from that and how can I grow?"

Tonight is not a setback. It's just a learning experience.

There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self-mastery. From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.

We’ve all seen the same situation happen to two people. One looks for the lesson, sets their shoulders back and presses on while the other asks ‘why does it always happen to me?’ You can choose not to sit on the fence. You can choose not to criticise. You must stand as guard at the door of your own mind and choose to be positive.

The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.

A perspective that allows you to consistently make decisions based on the right set of criteria. Positivity and forward thinking. I work on that one every day, and every day I get a little better. Better at knowing that there is no obstacle that I cannot overcome. Nothing I can be faced with that I won't grow mentally stronger and wiser from having endured.

If we can use our problems and illnesses as opportunities to think about how we can change our lives, we have power.

Whatever that day has given, you have to make it the best of the best. That's one thing I've learned over my years. On days when you can't make everything what you want, do what you do best, make it as positive as possible, and go from there. Learn from your mistakes.

Failure usually works for me in the end.

For me, I try to see difficulties as a way of expanding and growing as a person inhabiting this planet.