BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Self Development good and bad motivational quotes

Here's a bad motivational quote from my own mother:

"You look good from behind. Why don't you walk into a room backwards?"

We've only been posting motivational quotes. This wouldn't really qualify as one especially since it's so negative. How about we stick to positive productive quotes : )

Oh, sorry. I saw the title of the thread and it says "good and bad motivational quotes."

Okay, here's a positive one:

"Happiness and love are just a choice away."
Author: Leo Buscaglia

Motivational quotes that can be construed as good or bad vs. just something bad someone said to you to motivate you. I probably should have explained better.

Maybe we should start a post on that one. I'm sure plenty of us have heard nasty things that only drove us to succeed.

My high school counselor told me "you should go to trade school, you'll never graduate from college." What he said [censored] off my mom but I knew he was a complete loser who liked smoking pot with some of the students so I ignored his de-motivational advice and gradated with honors in my major. Can you believe that moron being a school counselor. I hope some of the other students ignored his advice too.

Hi Monica, so true! (JOY)

Hi Lori, that's a bad one all right. It's also quite funny. (JOY)

Hi Monica, in the UK, "bad motivational quotes" also means "really corny" ones. Saying that, I can't actually think of one at this moment! (JOY)

Thanks Dr. Joy. As usual a complete disconnect for me in the humor dept. I speak American English and think like a Mexican so the comment Lori posted is not corny/humorous to me. In Mexico if somebody says something like that to you they usually mean it and not as a joke or a motivational tool. They're saying it to hurt you. I think it's so interesting how different cultures find humor in different things. I still have trouble with the English or American sense of humor when it comes to personal jokes. MIL is English and sometimes I just don't get that she's poking fun and being corny but I'm learning : )


"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." Mahatma Gandhi

Hi Monica, yes, the way humour is told (and accepted) across the world is really interesting. Brits can have a very dry/dark sense of humour and it is not uncommon for things they say to be taken as insults rather than the compliments they actually are.

The next time your MIL says something that upsets you, just listen to her actual words and consider what else they could mean. I�m sure you�ll find that her comments have much affection behind them! (JOY)

Thanks so much for the tip. That helps a ton!

"A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life." William Arthur Ward

"A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself." Clifton Paul Fadiman (yes, I'm working on this one)

"Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth." Victor Borge