50 Negativity Quotes: Wisdom to Overcome Negative Thinking

Life can be difficult, and sometimes it can be hard to find the right words. We all have days filled with negative thoughts, but with the right motivation and knowledge, we can focus our minds on the positive. The following 50 negativity quotes will help us achieve this.

These negativity quotes come from some of the wisest people throughout history and can help encourage us to push away any negative energy and focus on the good. Enjoy exploring these amazing negativity quotes, creating positive energy in the process!

So without any further delay, here are our 50 negativity quotes:

1. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It’s simple math: Either you are happy or unhappy, and the happiest people in the world simply don’t have time to devote to unhappiness.

2. You become what you think about all day long. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you think positive or negative thoughts, you become these thoughts.

3. Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is an inside job. Hoping for someone else to make us happy is a losing tactic. To be happy we need to invest in learning the science and art of happiness. It’s a one-time investment after which point we are forever happy!

4. When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote suggests that even in the worst possible case scenario, there is a silver lining. We just need to find it.

5. All cruelty springs from weakness. – Seneca

Happy people aren’t wicked, meaning that for the most part it is the unhappy people who cause problems in the world.

6. Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. – Seneca

This is correct, but we need to be careful not to become overly negative in the process, as both labor and negativity can cause permanent damage.

7. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. – Seneca

Wanting means that we don’t have something, which stands at the root of unhappiness. Conversely, if we can only stop wanting, we immediately find inner peace.

8. You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. – Buddha

Science confirms that anger and negativity come with numerous disadvantages, while happiness and positivity come with numerous advantages, which in turn confirms the above quote.

9. We should not be afraid of negative emotions, but afraid not to know how to deal with them. – Buddha

Problems, difficulties, and unhappiness are a normal part of life. We can’t avoid them, but we can prepare for them, so we are standing tall and strong when they come!

10. The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. – William James

Sometimes the easiest way to overcome a negative thought is to simply stop thinking about it. Emphasis on sometimes, but it certainly works.

11. The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude. – William James

Similar to the above quote, we can choose positive thoughts over the negative ones.

12. A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. – William James

Many people say they are serious and “realistic” while in reality they are “rearranging their prejudices”. Certainly, we need to call everything by the right names, especially if we want to overcome these negative emotions.

13. If there is a way to free ourselves from suffering, we must use every moment to find it. – Dalai Lama

It is common knowledge in the happiness circles that happiness is the #1 goal, so it makes complete sense to let go of suffering as much as possible.

14. Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It’s like baggage that we accumulate in our life. The longer we live, the more baggage we accumulate, all the while we need to let go of whatever doesn’t bring us joy.

15. I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Here, I find the truth to be somewhere in the middle. Too much freedom leads to anarchy, while too many rules lead to slavery.

16. Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy. – Aristotle

In the end, negative emotions serve a very specific role, such as making us aware that something needs to be fixed in our lives. Certainly, we aren’t supposed to feel negative all the time or to accumulate negative emotions.

17. The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. – Marcus Aurelius 

If someone is negative to us, the best thing to do is not to become negative, as negativity hurts, and by not picking up negative emotions, we keep all the pain with the person who tries to hurt us.

18. If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. – Marcus Aurelius

I admire ancient Greek philosophers for their sense of morality, as something we no longer value highly in today’s world.

19. Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. – Roy T. Bennett

As mentioned in one of the previous quotes, happy people don’t have time for unhappiness.

20. Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go. – Roy T. Bennett

Some people wait for their negative emotions to somehow disappear. They might disappear or not. It is more productive to learn how to deal with these negative emotions.

21. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy 

This is one of my favorite happiness quotes, speaking to the uniqueness of the happiness formula, saying that if we don’t follow it, then unhappiness will appear in our lives, and this unhappiness will come in many forms.

22. If we practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless. – Gandhi

Often people hurt each other, because they hurt each other, creating a vicious cycle of pain. To end this cycle of pain, both parties must stop hurting each other, swallowing their pride and prejudices, and forgiving each other for all past transgressions.

23. It’s not events, but our opinions about them, which cause us suffering. – Epictetus

In the end, good and evil, positivity and negativity, and happiness and unhappiness are all fabricated concepts. Yes, they are useful concepts nonetheless, but remembering this quote helps us to better choose the positive over negative and happiness over unhappiness.

24. The past can’t hurt you anymore, not unless you let it. – Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

Past is gone and only exists in our minds, so we have the freedom of letting go of it, especially if it is unpleasant and full of unhappiness.

25. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. – Plato

In one way or another, most people are hurt and it isn’t worth adding more negativity to their lives.

26. Comedy is tragedy plus time. – Carol Barnett

If you really think about it, in every joke someone always gets hurt.

27. Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by a-holes. – William Gibson

We are the average of the 5 people we surround ourselves with. If they are negative influences, we are likely to become unhappy.

28. We stopped checking for monsters under our bed when we realized they are inside us. – Joker

This is just a pessimistic quote by Joker about the darker human nature. However, Joker mentions that there is something positive about being human, which we can cultivate.

29. I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet. – Helen Keller

Often we compare ourselves upwards, with people who have more, altogether forgetting about the downwards comparison with people who have less than we do. This latter form of comparison often helps to realize that our lives aren’t as bad as sometimes we believe them to be.

30. Every man dies, but not every man truly lives. – William Wallace

Living requires enjoying our lives and making the most of them. I’m referring to proactive forward actions, and not reactive nature, which many people adopt.

31. Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism. – Arnold Bennett

Many people believe that their unhappiness is completely justified, clinging to their negative emotions. However, we always have a choice to either be positive or negative.

32. If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present. – Lao Tzu

Happiness literature has definitively concluded that happiness can only be experienced in the present moment, so it’s not worth waiting for the future or reminiscing about the past if what we truly want is to be happy.

33. Worry is a sustained form of fear caused by indecision. –  Brian Tracy

To stop worrying, we just need to make a decision, even if it is to make a decision in the future.

34. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. – Dr. Seuss

We only live once, so let’s make the most out of them.

35. Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them. – Steve Maraboli

Similar to what Buddha said in quote #9, to have a happy life, we just need to learn how to deal with whatever comes our way.

36. A solved problem creates two new problems, and the best prescription for happy living is not to solve any more problems. – Russell Baker

If we are problem-oriented, we will always find a problem, no matter how many we solve. To resolve this happiness paradox, we should simply reframe our life from a negatively-oriented to a positively-oriented outlook, stopping to think of things as “problems,” and instead thinking of them, for example, as “opportunities.”

37. Roll with the punches and enjoy every minute of it. – Meghan Markle

Life will continually punch you. To think otherwise is unrealistic. However, just because we have problems, doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy life.

38. We are the architects of our own destruction. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Most people create their own problems and they are their worst enemies.

39. We are all born to die. – Socrates

Again, to think otherwise is unrealistic, but we also get an opportunity to live. 

40. If you’re not having fun, what’s the point? – Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos

Even if we are doing something we don’t like, we can still enjoy the fact that we are doing it at all, since we are alive.

41. There is no money back guarantee on future happiness. – Unknown

I didn’t find the author of this quote, but I absolutely loved it because future happiness is never guaranteed no matter how much we try to attain it, especially because so many people sacrifice today for something that may or may not make them happy.

42. The first 100 years are the hardest – Unknown

Naturally, this expression expresses humor about life being hard.

43. There is not a person alive that does not look into the mirror and see some deformity. – The Witcher Quote

Personally, I regularly find wisdom in my overall surroundings, such as books, movies, and in this case TV series. Of course, we are our own harshest critics. We are harsher with ourselves, often much more than anyone else.

44. I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. – Mark Twain

Mark Twain was clever in formulating the above statement as most of the things that we worry about never actually come true.

45. Worrying doesn’t take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away today’s peace. – Louise Armstrong

Tomorrow is not guaranteed, and like Mark Twain said in a previous quote, most of our worries never actually come true.

46. 80% of thoughts are negative and 95% are repeating – National Science Foundation

I read that this quote isn’t necessarily correct scientifically speaking, as the National Science Foundation didn’t really conclude the above. However, I decided to add it here because it is true that there is a lot of negativity in the world and most of it is the same thing over and over again.

47. How did I screw up today? – Tom Hanks

I believe that Tom Hanks was trying to learn from his negative experiences.

48. Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent – Isaac Asimov

We always have options even if the right ones are harder than the easy ones.

49. It’s no use crying over spilt milk. – James Howell

Past negativity is in the past. We can move on without crying over spilled milk.

50. There is a difference between optimism and stupidity. Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Stupidity is the belief that they will get better without any effort on your part. – Albert Einstein

In line with Albert Einstein’s quote, negativity stems from inaction.

Last Words About 50 Negativity Quotes

Negativity quotes can act as powerful reminders of our inherent resilience and the ability to bounce back from adversity. These words of wisdom can help us find comfort in tough times, and remind us to always stay positive. Additionally, negativity quotes can provide much-needed encouragement during difficult moments, serving as a source of strength and helping us focus on the brighter side. 

From famous quotes to timeless proverbs, exploring these uplifting negativity quotes can help us move in the right direction. Together, we can learn to find positivity in the face of our greatest challenges and grow stronger for it. And if life ever becomes unbearably negative, remember that happiness is just around the corner. So, use these negativity quotes, or ask for help. We are here for you!

And remember, even though these are 50 negativity quotes, it doesn’t mean that we can’t learn to be happier because of them! So, the next time life feels overwhelmingly negative, take a moment to reflect on these inspiring sayings and know that you are never alone in your journey.