Optimism Q Quotes

An eye for beauty instead of bleakness might have lightened some of his load. ~ John Piper

Negative thoughts are the causes of all depression and all stress.
Be positive; never infect your mind with negative thoughts. ~ Debasish Mridha

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. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Because emotion systems coordinate learning, the broader the range of emotions that a child experiences the broader will be the emotional range of the self that develops. This is why childhood abuse is so devastating. If a significant proportion of the early emotional experiences one has are due to activation of the fear system rather than positive systems, then the characteristic personality that begins to build up from the parallel learning processes coordinated by the emotional state is one characterized by negativity and hopelessness rather than affection and optimism. ~ Joseph E. LeDoux

President Reagan fueled the spirit of America. His smile, his optimism, his total belief in the ultimate triumph of democracy and freedom, and his willingness to act on that belief, helped end the Cold War and usher in a new and brighter phase of history. ~ Colin Powell

Optimists are usually inexperienced. ~ Wayne Gerard Trotman

Yet in another way, calculus is fundamentally naive, almost childish in its optimism. Experience teaches us that change can be sudden, discontinuous, and wrenching. Calculus draws its power by refusing to see that. It insists on a world without accidents, where one thing leads logically to another. Give me the initial conditions and the law of motion, and with calculus I can predict the future -- or better yet, reconstruct the past. I wish I could do that now.
~ Steven H. Strogatz

I don't think anyone who has been to Africa comes away untouched by the place. You see a lot of beauty and optimism, but you also come away with an awareness of the huge gulf between what most of us have and what most of them have to make do with. Then, every now and then, a famine or a war makes everything a hundred times worse. ~ Gary Frank

If we lose our optimism, we lose our greatest power to make things better. ~ Gary Edward Gedall

Real optimism sees the negatives but accentuates the positive. ~ William Arthur Ward

May I make two citations from the words of a discerning editorial writer, not one of my faith, but one of much faith: "If we neglect the divine ... and give ourselves over wholly to the human," he said, "we may certainly count upon nothing but the triumph of pessimism ... True optimism must rest upon a calm, unshakable faith in eternal life and in the unlimited goodness of him who gives it." ~ Richard L. Evans

California to me as a concept or as an idea always seems like endless optimism and endless opportunity - when people think of California they think of palm trees and blue skies and gorgeous sunsets and beaches and everything else. ~ Mark Hoppus

And don't forget to enjoy simple stuff like...being alive, which in itself is amazing news. For me, personally, it means I'm not dead, and I'm a fan of that. Optimism can start small, ya know? ~ Chad Eastham

A world without God to give people faith that all their suffering is not meaningless is a nightmare. A world without religion means a world without any systematic way of ennobling people. A world without countries is a world without the United States of America, and it is a world governed by the amoral United Nations, where mass murderers sit on "human rights" councils. A world without heaven or hell is a world without any ultimate justice, where torturers and their victims have identical fates. A world without possessions is a world in which some enormous state possesses everything, and the individual is reduced to the status of a well-fed serf. Liberals frequently criticize conservatives for fearing change. What we fear is transforming that which is already good. The moral record of humanity does not fill us with optimism about "fundamentally transforming" something as rare as America. Evil is normal. America is not. ~ Dennis Prager

Money managers have to account for their actions to their shareholders, which means they have an undue fear of underperformance. We invest only our own money. Our investments are driven by optimism, not fear. ~ Richard Chandler

You can eliminate depression without making someone happy. You can cure anxiety without teaching someone optimism. You can return someone to work without improving their job performance. If all you strive for is diminishing the bad, you'll only attain the average and you'll miss out entirely on the opportunity to exceed the average. ~ Shawn Achor

When you believe, the impossible becomes possible. What you believe will become what is true. Your optimism today will determine your level of success tomorrow. Don't look at your challenges; look up and look out into the future. Don't focus on your circumstances. Focus on the right beliefs that will help you build your success. ~ Jon Gordon

But before looking to the future, let's glance back at the road we've traveled these past two years because that is the source of much of the optimism we are all feeling about the future. ~ Linda Lingle

The biggest emotion in creation is the bridge to optimism. ~ Brian May

Even if you aren't independent or career wise, at least show that you have a passion for life and an optimistic outlook. ~ Auliq Ice

The key is if the economic data stays soft, maybe we don't have to worry much about interest rates anymore. Then we need to worry about earnings. What gave us a really strong move in stock prices from late May until about two weeks ago was this heightened optimism that maybe interest rates are at that high. That gave you a relief rally. Now reality is setting in - if we've seen the worst on interest rates then we've seen the best on earnings. ~ Douglas Cliggott

World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism. ~ Stephen Ambrose

I think Edward Sharpe's music is counter-cultural music in the strangest sense where you have a time now where love, optimism, hope and community are uncool and not part of the mainstream culture. ~ Alex Ebert

Whenever I see an ambulance, I like to think there is a baby being born, rather than a death. ~ Phil Lester

An optimist is a braver cynic. ~ Colum McCann

Optimism is a belief and I adapt belief as a way of life. ~ Fe-en-Dios

Men are always optimists when they look inwards, and pessimists when they look round them. ~ Ouida

I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain ending - an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check, and nihilism at bay. ~ William Kentridge

Gardening is all about optimism. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

The heart's optimism always
conquers reality ~ J.S. Watts

She leaves an empty hole behind her. There was this feeling of optimism and joy in the house when she was around that's now turned into void. Like Vincent, I feel hollow. Sad. And as the days pass, I begin to realize I've grown to care for Kate. Not as my best friend's girlfriend, but as someone in and of herself. And I realize I miss her. ~ Amy Plum

The unbearable silliness of English newspapers from about 1900 onward has had two main causes. One is that nearly the whole of the Press is in the hands of a few very big capitalists who are interested in the continuance of capitalism and therefore in preventing the public from learning to think; the other is that peacetime newspapers live off advertisements for consumption goods, building societies, cosmetics and the like, and are therfore interested in maintaining a "sunshine mentality" which will induce people to spend money. Optimism is good for trade, and more trade means more advertisements. Therefore, don't let people know the facts about the political and economic situation; divert their attention to giant pandas, channel swimmers, royal weddings and other soothing topics. ~ George Orwell

Life has no remote ... get up and change it yourself! ~ Mark A. Cooper

Buying flowers is not just a way to bring home beauty. It's an expression of confidence that better days are coming. It's a defiant finger in the face of those naysayers who would have you believe your fortunes will never improve. ~ Pearl Cleage

For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity. ~ Hermann Hesse

Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. ~ Richie Norton

Those who believe the axiom that "Ignorance is bliss" only discovered its true meaning when the bliss began to hiss. ~ Kevin Ansbro

I love the Restoration. It's a bit like coming out of the John Major era into the optimism of Tony Blair. ~ Charles Dance

The fact that we can't see the beauty in something doesn't suggest that it's not there. Rather, it suggests that we are not looking carefully enough or with a broad enough perspective to see it. ~ Richard Carlson

Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift. I don't want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad? ~ Oscar Niemeyer

Christian hope is not a ghost and it does not deceive. It is a theological virtue and therefore, ultimately, a gift from God that cannot be reduced to optimism, which is only human. God does not mislead hope; God cannot deny himself. God is all promise. ~ Pope Francis

I don't believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism. And to alter now, cleanly and sanely, I want to shuffle off this loose living randomness: people; reviews; fame; all the glittering scales; and be withdrawn, and concentrated. ~ Virginia Woolf

Pessimists fear becoming the dupes of Hope. Optimists enjoy Hope's company, and consider being duped no great matter. ~ Mason Cooley

Renouncing false beliefs will not usher in the millennium. Few things about the strategy of contemporary apologists are more repellent than their frequent recourse to spurious alternatives. The lesser lights inform us that the alternative to Christianity is materialism, thus showing how little they have read, while the greater lights talk as if the alternative were bound to be a shallow and inane optimism. I don't believe that man will turn this earth into a bed of roses either with the aid of God or without it. Nor does life among the roses strike me as a dream from which one would not care to wake up after a very short time. ~ Walter Kaufmann

We form our impression not globally, by placing ourselves in the broadest possible context, but locally, by comparing ourselves to people in the same boat as ourselves. ~ Malcolm Gladwell