From lds.org “Viewpoint: Be a Voice of Gladness”, Contributed By the Church News, 9 NOVEMBER 2014

President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “We have every reason to be optimistic in this world. Tragedy is around, yes. Problems everywhere, yes. … You can’t, you don’t, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen” (Jeffrey R. Holland, “President Gordon B. Hinckley: Stalwart and Brave He Stands,” Ensign, June 1995).

In his April 1991 general conference address, Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said: “In the world, where there are often voices of pessimism and negative feelings, the voice of gladness is welcome indeed. … If it is our nature to criticize or demean, we can cause the voices of gladness to be silenced. We need those who bring gladness into our lives. We need those who give encouragement and reflect optimism.

“Sincere yet simple words of praise can lift souls and bring gladness. Mark Twain remarked that he could live two months on one good compliment. In the words of the biblical proverbs of Solomon: ‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver’ (Proverbs 25:11).

“Encouragement can be quick and simple, but it is a voice of gladness that is needed by everyone” (“A Voice of Gladness,” Ensign, May 1991).

President Thomas S. Monson, in an article in the February 2000 issue of the Ensign, wrote of what he called the plagues of today: “They linger; they debilitate; they destroy. They are to be found everywhere. Their pervasiveness knows no boundaries. We know them as selfishness, greed, indulgence, cruelty, and crime, to identify but a few. Surfeited with their poison, we tend to criticize, to complain, to blame, and, slowly but surely, to abandon the positives and adopt the negatives of life.”

He recited the lyrics of a Johnny Mercer song, “Accentuate the Positive”:

Accentuate the positive;

Eliminate the negative.

Latch on to the affirmative;

Don’t mess with Mr. In-between.

“Good advice then. Good advice now,” President Monson declared (“An Attitude of Gratitude”).