Optimism is joyful searching; pessimism is a prison of fear and a clutching at illusionary safety.
KATHLEEN A. BREHONY, After the Darkest Hour
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts.
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
JAMES BRANCH CABELL, The Silver Stallion
Optimism refuses to believe that the road ends without options.
ROBERT H. SCHULLER, Don't Throw Away Tomorrow
Optimism is the opium of the people.
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
OSCAR WILDE, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
OSWALD SPENGLER, Man and Technics
It's not that optimism solves all of life's problems; it is just that it can sometimes make the difference between coping and collapsing.
LUCY MACDONALD, Learn to Be an Optimist
Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness as its aim and object. Starting from this, everyone then believes he has the most legitimate claim to happiness and enjoyment. If, as usually happens, these do not fall to his lot, he believes that he suffers an injustice, in fact that he misses the whole point of his existence.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, The World As Will and Representation
Optimism is wide-open in contrast to pessimism's closed heart.
KATHLEEN A. BREHONY, After the Darkest Hour
Optimism works in conjunction with your life energy, strengthening your roots and keeping you grounded, stimulating the growth of new shoots and the development of new branches that form your life, energizing the creation that is you.
DANA LIGHTMAN, Power Optimism
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. It's not just a mind-set, it is behavior.
LARRY ELDER, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America
There is abundant reason to believe that optimism – big, little, and in between – is useful to a person because positive expectations can be self-fulfilling.
CHRISTOPHER PETERSON, American Psychologist, Jan. 2000
The predominant quality of successful people is optimism.... Your level of optimism is the very best predictor of how happy, healthy, wealthy, and long-lived you will be.
Faith and optimism are contagious.
THOM S. RAINER, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched
Optimism, no matter how false it may seem, is necessary for species survival at a time when the ozone layer is disintigrating, 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
For myself I am an optimist -- it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
WINSTON CHURCHILL, speech, Nov. 9, 1954
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
|
