IF YOU HAVE A LEMON, MAKE A LEMONADE
When you have a lemon, make lemonade. That is what the 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 am 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. But when the wise man is handed a lemon, he says: “What lesson can I learn from this misfortune? How can I improve my situation? How can I turn this lemon into lemonade?”
Two men looked out from prison bars,
One saw the mud, the other saw the stars
I made up my mind I would find out what was good in my present situation; I would look for the stars.
Harry Emerson Fosdick repeated it again in the 20th century: “Happiness is not mostly pleasure; it is mostly victory.” Yes, the victory that comes from a sense of achievement, of triumph, of turning lemons into lemonade.