diff --git a/monai/optimizers/novograd.py b/monai/optimizers/novograd.py
index a1008b4b9e..62e42cc9ab 100644
--- a/monai/optimizers/novograd.py
+++ b/monai/optimizers/novograd.py
@@ -44,15 +44,15 @@ def __init__(
         grad_averaging: bool = False,
         amsgrad: bool = False,
     ):
-        if not 0.0 <= lr:
+        if 0.0 > lr:
             raise ValueError("Invalid learning rate: {}".format(lr))
-        if not 0.0 <= eps:
+        if 0.0 > eps:
             raise ValueError("Invalid epsilon value: {}".format(eps))
         if not 0.0 <= betas[0] < 1.0:
             raise ValueError("Invalid beta parameter at index 0: {}".format(betas[0]))
         if not 0.0 <= betas[1] < 1.0:
             raise ValueError("Invalid beta parameter at index 1: {}".format(betas[1]))
-        if not 0.0 <= weight_decay:
+        if 0.0 > weight_decay:
             raise ValueError("Invalid weight_decay value: {}".format(weight_decay))
         defaults = dict(
             lr=lr,