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# Thursday
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/33787/
- Published: 2014-08-28T07:58:31.000Z
- Updated: 2014-08-28T07:58:31.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Miscellaneous, #wpChunk

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/fd/eafdb338-c9b6-4f87-8363-78ab94cc3a18/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Sumner.gif "Sumner")

"The minds of men always dwell more on bad luck. They accept ordinary prosperity as a matter of course. Misfortunes arrest their attention and remain in their memory." William Graham Sumner, *Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals* (1906).

That 100-year-old observation has been borne out by modern science. Winifred Gallagher explored the strength of negative thoughts in her excellent *Rapt, Attention and the Focused Life*. Unpleasant thoughts and feelings like sadness, fear, and anger occupy our attention more than pleasant thoughts for the simple reason that the negative ones are more powerful. It's a natural inclination and one we need to struggle against, just like we struggle against natural inclinations in many areas of our existence.