Sometimes, finding your own words to express comfort -- or even lighten the mood -- can be difficult. Quote collecting can be a fun hobby, especially when it seems like someone else can make a point more clearly stated. Finding comfort, positivity, or simple understanding in the words of another can reassure us that someone else out there “gets it”; they see the human side in you and share in it. Finding the right quote at just the right time can be enough to inspire to greater action, or even as simple as make the day a little brighter. With so much grief and turmoil both politically and locally, here is a small collection of positive quotes in the hopes to bring a smile to your day and to those you share it with.

1. “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” --Lyndon B. Johnson

Tomorrow is completely unmapped territory. It is pure, and not necessarily promised. Today, the present, is where we set our goals for the next day. It is where we fulfill our goals from yesterday. What's past is hard to let go, but it is important to know that letting go is not forgetting, but becoming at peace with it. And if that doesn't seem possible today, there is always tomorrow, but I assure you, peace is out there.

2. “Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” --Joseph Campbell

Being positive is a lot harder than being negative. It takes effort to see the good in every evil, the sunshine behind the clouds. Finding even one place of joy and optimism is something to hold onto and remember. Each painful experience heals to become a scar, but it is a character and memory of what made you stronger. Joy is one agent in striving to heal.

3. “You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” --Ralph Marston

Think back to every hard experience you've ever encountered. You got through it, didn't you? You're still here and stronger for it. Each challenge was directed in some way towards inevitable change. You still have the power to direct that energy and make changes. You are strong and that energy has the power to make mountains tremble.

4. “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.” --Walt Disney

Sometimes realism can come off as being too negative. It is true, life has a lot of negativity to it. It is important to have that balance between real life and the ideal so you don't end up disappointed. However, your personal mental happiness is rooted in perspective. Look at optimism as your hopes, your ideals and your goals. Even if you don't reach them you have set yourself among stars for learning, for effort and for what you know you can do. By pushing the boundaries of what is realistic, you forge for yourself a happy place that exists both in reality and in personal affirmation.

5. “Courage doesn't mean you don't get afraid. Courage means you don't let fear stop you.” --Bethany Hamilton

The hardest thing to do in life is to pick yourself up from the bottom and keep going. There will always be that dark, swirling negative pit in which all humans inevitably find themselves. The important bit is that you do find your way out, and if that happens to be with the help of another it is not weakness but even greater strength. Fear can hold you back from anything -- whether its something you love or something you hate -- and it is a healthy feeling. Fear tells us we are facing an unknown, a discomfort. Often you will find yourself learning more from that.

6. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” --Albus Dumbledore (J.K. Rowling)

It only takes a spark to make some darkness recede, and before you know it you'll have a fire. Sometimes we have to experience darkness in order to appreciate when the light comes on, and when it does we find out we had more courage than we could have known if we only lived in sunshine.

7. "Positive anything is better than negative nothing." --Elbert Hubbard

The nothingness of pure negativity can leave us feeling hopeless, lost, and utterly beaten. Sometimes looking for scant pieces of positive life can be misconstrued as being naive or, in short, finding positivity everywhere is essentially finding happiness nowhere. It is quite the opposite. Physically laughing or smiling is subconsciously contagious, and once you remind yourself of that joy, that simple pleasure means so much.