When something bad happens, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or let it strengthen you

This line is credited to Dr. Seuss almost everywhere it circulates, yet we can find no primary source for it: it appears in none of Theodor Seuss Geisel's books, letters, interviews, or speeches, and its flat prose "three choices" self-help cadence is nothing like his signature rhymed verse. Tellingly, when the line surfaces in print it is often not credited to Seuss at all — it appears as "Anonymous," as "Unknown," or with no author in several published books, and an early 2013 web posting carried it with no attribution to him. Its prominence owes much to Jeff Bezos, who quoted it as "Theodor Seuss Geisel" in his 2019 Amazon shareholder letter, but that is a repetition of the popular attribution, not evidence of its origin. We could not identify a credible, named alternative author or a documented instance proving the line predates Geisel, so we stop short of calling it misattributed. Dr. Seuss is a well-known "magnet" name for uplifting prose he never wrote, and on the evidence this is best treated as widely attributed to him but unverified against any primary source.