MOTIVATING TIPS

Karen Salmansohn

American graphic designer and author

1 verified quote1 topicAll with editorial commentary

[ Life ]

**Karen Salmansohn**

[ Words & Works ]

A Brooklyn-born graphic designer and author who made her name packaging wisdom for the visually overwhelmed, Salmansohn spent the 1980s and 1990s creating illustrated self-help books that treated the format as art form rather than afterthought. Her background in advertising and design—she worked as a creative director before turning to publishing—gave her work a distinctly different texture from the earnest prose of her contemporaries. She built a career on the conviction that good design and good thinking needn't be separate endeavors.

Her *Think Happy* series (starting in 1999) and *Instant Calm* (2000) proved that modern readers would engage with psychology, motivation, and mindfulness if presented with color, wit, and visual precision. She's written more than 50 books since, many featuring her signature hand-drawn illustrations and punchy, quotable observations. What keeps Salmansohn's work relevant is her refusal to separate aesthetics from substance—she demonstrates that a well-designed page and a meaningful sentence aren't luxuries but delivery systems for ideas that actually stick.

Frequently asked

What are the best Karen Salmansohn quotes?

Karen Salmansohn is best known for quotes on On Anxiety & Quiet Days. Among the most cited: "Let go of the thoughts that..." from Think Happy.

How many Karen Salmansohn quotes does MotivatingTips have?

MotivatingTips has 1 verified Karen Salmansohn quote, each with editorial commentary and source verification. Quotes are organized across On Anxiety & Quiet Days.

What book are Karen Salmansohn's quotes from?

Quotes on MotivatingTips are sourced from Think Happy.

Are these Karen Salmansohn quotes verified?

Every Karen Salmansohn quote on MotivatingTips includes verified attribution with source, book, chapter, or speech reference where available.

Best Karen Salmansohn Quotes

Hand-picked, verified, and explained.

Let go of the thoughts that don't make you strong.

VerifiedThink Happy
Why This Matters

The real wisdom here isn't about positive thinking—it's about recognizing that certain thoughts are *parasitic*, feeding on your energy while offering nothing in return. A persistent worry about what someone said three years ago, or the habit of rehearsing arguments you'll never have, doesn't merely distract; it actively weakens you by displacing the mental space you need for actual decisions. When you catch yourself circling the same anxious thought for the hundredth time, you're not being prudent or careful—you're simply training yourself to be smaller. The trick is distinguishing between thoughts worth sitting with (the difficult ones that build character) and thoughts worth releasing (the ones that only diminish you).

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Use the following citations to reference this page in academic or professional work.

APA Style

Karen Salmansohn Quotes. (n.d.). MotivatingTips. Retrieved May 13, 2026, from https://www.motivatingtips.com/authors/karen-salmansohn

Chicago Style

Karen Salmansohn Quotes. MotivatingTips, DSS Media, 2026. https://www.motivatingtips.com/authors/karen-salmansohn, accessed May 13, 2026.

MLA Style

"Karen Salmansohn Quotes." MotivatingTips. DSS Media, 2026. 13 May 2026. https://www.motivatingtips.com/authors/karen-salmansohn

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