“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. At the same time, it is often within your power to make them better.”
I find it an interesting way to look at situations - it’s realistic, yet somewhat optimistic.
(In case you haven’t heard of it, “The Last Lecture” is a book based on a talk given by Randy Pausch, a professor from Carnegie Mellon, after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. You can read more about it here.)