quotations about optimism
Only the optimist looks wisely on life. Though the actual world is not to his liking, it is the happiness of the optimist to carry a nobler in his thought.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
attributed, The Optimistic Environmentalist: Progressing Towards a Greener Future
The habit of looking at the best side of any event is worth far more than a thousand pounds a year.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
attributed, A Dictionary of Terms, Phrases, and Quotations
A pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.
REX STOUT
Fer-de-Lance
Optimism, no matter how false it may seem, is necessary for species survival at a time when the ozone layer is disintegrating, mass extinctions are rampant, wars are as plentiful as ever, toxins pervade every meal and every breath, and nuclear power plants function near populated areas with human error as likely there as anywhere else.
GLORIA GARFUNKEL
"Lifeline", A Perilous Calling
Optimism is hopefulness, and as I understand the word, continual, everyday hopefulness that is based on willingness to serve and to help, for without that sense of participation in motive power, one cannot keep one's cheer.
WILLIAM KENT
Here's Hoping; the Optimism of Experience
Optimism and pessimism are mere matters of optics, of how you look at things, and that can change from day to day, or with a new prescription for your glasses -- or with a new set of ideological filters.
GEORGE WEIGEL
Letters to a Young Catholic
Optimism is life--Pessimism, slow suicide.
WILLIAM CROSBIE HUNTER
Brass Tacks
My optimism is grounded in two worlds, myself and what is about me. I demand that the world be good, and lo, it obeys. I proclaim the world good, and facts range themselves to prove my proclamation overwhelmingly true.
HELEN KELLER
Optimism: An Essay
I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
Gramsci's Prison Letters
The genial optimist who praises much scatters flowers in our way. Grant that he over-praises, or that he applauds where he might condemn, still he makes--no mean result--the world to appear better than it is. A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The positive outlook that optimists project does not come from ignoring or denying problems. Optimists simply assume that problems are temporary and can be solved, so optimists naturally want more information about problems because then they can get to work and do something. Pessimists are more likely to believe that there is nothing they can do anyway, so what's the point of even thinking about it?
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER
Confidence
Optimism gives an added zest to life.
MEREDITH F. TITTERINGTON
"Is Optimism Irrational?", The Plebs Magazine, February 1910
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
OSCAR WILDE
Lady Windermere's Fan
As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?
CASSANDRA CLARE
City of Ashes
Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living.
SRI AUROBINDO
Thoughts and Aphorisms
We should cultivate the optimistic temperament, and endeavour to see the good that dwells in everything. If we sit down and lament over the imperfection of our bodies and our minds, we profit nothing; it is the heroic endeavour to subdue adverse circumstances that carries our spirit upward.
VIVEKANANDA
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
For the record, I am not a nut. I am an optimist. That's exactly like a nut except with a better attitude.
SCOTT ADAMS
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well this isn't to bad, I don't have a left arm anymore but at least nobody will ever ask me if I'm left-handed or right-handed" but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaaa! My arm! My arm!"
DANIEL HANDLER
as Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
HELEN KELLER
Optimism: An Essay