Overly Optimistic Quotes

You dance?"
"I think that might be overly optimistic," he said. "I do something. I'll try not to hurt you. ~ Robyn Carr

Early SETI efforts were marked by overly optimistic estimates of the probable number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. In light of new findings and insights, it seems appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest and to take a more down-to-earth view. Earth may be more special, and intelligence much rarer, in the universe than previously thought.

Skeptical Inquirer Volume 30.3, May / June 2006 ~ Peter Schenkel

This figuring-out step is crucial, since overly optimistic economic models have often assumed that demand and incentives are enough to stimulate the production of any product. Incentives work to motivate intermediaries and traders, but makers, who are the ones that provide the substance of what is traded, need more than an incentive to make something. They need to know how to do it. ~ Cesar Hidalgo

The advent of civilization--an overly optimistic word--didn't change things as much as one might think, because no matter how large a city or empire became there was always another "them" to go out and kill. And when organized religion really got going... well, there's a fantastic excuse to murder people in bunches. ~ Gene Doucette

Analysts have always been overly optimistic. ~ David Dreman

Perhaps it only applies in the States, where emotional optimism is a constitutional duty ~ Julian Barnes

Of course the fall semester didn't start for another eight weeks or so. There was always a chance we were both being overly optimistic in thinking I'd be alive when it rolled around. ~ Jenna Black

the New Testament does not talk about human beings furthering or spreading or building up or working for God's reign. Human efforts to achieve social justice are not destined to be successful. "Our responsibility is not to save the world. We are not required to transform This Age."13 The problem about human society is too deep. As human beings living in God's world, our vocation is to do what we can to restrain disorder in society, in light of what the Scriptures tell us about God's creation purpose, but not to be overly optimistic about what we can do to bring in the kingdom.14 ~ John E. Goldingay

Trusting people to be creative and constructive when given more freedom does not imply an overly optimistic belief in the perfectibility of human nature. It is, rather, belief that the inevitable errors and sins of the human condition are far better overcome by individuals working together in an environment of trust and freedom and mutual respect than by individuals working under a multitude of rules, regulations, and restraints imposed upon them by another group of imperfect individuals. ~ Peter Senge

I'm a long-term optimist, and I don't think the problems with our society are from being overly optimistic. ~ Ken MacLeod

It has been said that the United States was deceived into entering and expanding the Vietnam War by its own overoptimistic propaganda. The record suggests, however, that the policy-makers stayed in Vietnam not so much because of overly optimistic hopes of winning ... as because of overly pessimistic assessments of the consequences of losing. ~ Jonathan Schell

When forecasting the outcomes of risky projects, executives too easily fall victim to the planning fallacy. In its grip, they make decisions based on delusional optimism rather than on a rational weighting of gains, losses, and probabilities. They overestimate benefits and underestimate costs. They spin scenarios of success while overlooking the potential for mistakes and miscalculations. As a result, they pursue initiatives that are unlikely to come in on budget or on time or to deliver the expected returns - or even to be completed. In this view, people often (but not always) take on risky projects because they are overly optimistic about the odds they face. I will return to this idea several times in this book - it probably contributes to an explanation of why people litigate, why they start wars, and why they open small businesses. ~ Daniel Kahneman

Look at me being all optimistic and shit.
Remy would be so proud. ~ Jay Crownover

At any given moment, it is a beautiful day in many parts of the world. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

I wake up early. At 6:30 A.M., I'm at my most optimistic. ~ Emily Mortimer

I'm deeply in love with my wife, and she's my best friend, and yet we share different viewpoints of life, which I think is one of the things that holds our marriage together. She came from Texas, and she has an optimistic view of life. I came from Detroit and have a very pessimistic view. ~ David Small

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Psychedelics helped me to escape.. albeit momentarily.. from the prison of my mind. It over-rode the habit patterns of thought and I was able to taste innocence again. Looking at sensations freshly without the conceptual overly was very profound. ~ Ram Dass

I'm an optimistic person. ~ Clayton Christensen

He's always overly dressed which makes him look stiff – like he wants to do taxes, not women. ~ Jonas Eriksson

I am optimistic because I will use power of love to find the miracles of life. ~ Debasish Mridha

It was against Ronan's nature to appear overly interested in anything, but he couldn't help staring at the Gray Man. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Anyone born and bred in Northern Ireland can't be too optimistic. ~ Seamus Heaney

People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy. ~ Laurence Sterne

My parents said marrying was an optimistic thing to do in pessimistic times. ~ Olivia Wilde

I wish that I could say I was optimistic about the human race. I love us all, but we are so stupid and shortsighted that I wonder if we can lift our eyes to the world about us long enough not to commit suicide. ~ Isaac Asimov

Soon enough it will be me struggling (valiantly?) to walk - lugging my stuff around. How are we all so brave as to take step after step? Day after day? How are we so optimistic, so careful not to trip and yet do trip, and then get up and say O.K. Why do I feel so sorry for everyone and so proud? ~ Maira Kalman

Seattle is not an overly friendly city. It is a civil city, but not altogether friendly. People from outside mistake the civility for friendliness. Seattle is full of people who have their own lives to live. They won't waste their time being friendly. But they are civil. ~ Jonathan Raban

I'm eternally optimistic about the future. I believe that if we are committed towards it and if we continue to educate people and get the whole world community to implement green features and aspects in not just the built environment not just in their lifestyles but in their businesses in their industries then we're heading towards a green future. ~ Ken Yeang

I think dismissing female pain as overly familiar or somehow out-of-date
twice-told, thrice-told, 1,001-nights-told
masks deeper accusations: that suffering women are playing victim, going weak, or choosing self-indulgence over bravery. I think dismissing wounds offers a convenient excuse: no need to struggle with the listening or telling anymore. Plug it up. Like somehow our task is to inhabit the jaded aftermath of terminal self-awareness once the story of all pain has already been told. ~ Leslie Jamison

It's not the tools that you have faith in - tools are just tools. They work, or they don't work. It's people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I'm still optimistic I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long. ~ Steve Jobs

The light is nostalgic about mornings past and optimistic about mornings to come. ~ Wallace Stegner

Confidence is highly overrated when it comes to creating literature. A writer who is overly confident will not engage in the struggle to get it exactly right on the page - but rather, will assume that she's getting it right without the struggle. ~ Dani Shapiro

My family is just embarrassingly proud of me. My brothers get a little protective ... overly protective. I've made rules now where I say: "You can't go outside and scream at people if they have cameras!" ~ Kristen Stewart

How often since then has she wondered what might have happened if she'd tried to remain with him; if she'd returned Richard's kiss on the corner of Bleeker and McDougal, gone off somewhere (where?) with him, never bought the packet of incense or the alpaca coat with rose-shaped buttons. Couldn't they have discovered something larger and stranger than what they've got. It is impossible not to imagine that other future, that rejected future, as taking place in Italy or France, among big sunny rooms and gardens; as being full of infidelities and great battles; as a vast and enduring romance laid over friendship so searing and profound it would accompany them to the grave and possibly even beyond. She could, she thinks, have entered another world. She could have had a life as potent and dangerous as literature itself.

Or then again maybe not, Clarissa tells herself. That's who I was. This is who I am--a decent woman with a good apartment, with a stable and affectionate marriage, giving a party. Venture too far for love, she tells herself, and you renounce citizenship in the country you've made for yourself. You end up just sailing from port to port.

Still, there is this sense of missed opportunity. Maybe there is nothing, ever, that can equal the recollection of having been young together. Maybe it's as simple as that. Richard was the person Clarissa loved at her most optimistic moment. Richard had stood beside her at the pond's edge at dusk, wearing cut-off ~ Michael Cunningham

I'm an optimistic believer in good deeds, surprise endings, and the pleasant twists of life. ~ Josh Walker

Do you go see her?"
"No," I said, refusing to acknowledge that I'd just seen Lissa last night. "That's not my life anymore."
"Right. Your life is all about dangerous vigilante missions."
"You wouldn't understand anything that isn't drinking, smoking, or womanizing."
He shook his head. "You're the only one I want, Rose."
"Well, you can keep feeling that way, but you're going to have to keep waiting."
"Much longer?" He asked me.
"I don't know."
Hope blossomed on Adrian's face. "That's the most optimistic thing you've told me so far. ~ Richelle Mead

It is during fertility that a female loses herself and enters that cloud overly rich in estrogen. ~ Sandra Tsing Loh

We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving ... We pride ourselves on getting as little sleep as possible and thrive on self-deprivation. We drink coffee, a lot of it. We are on birth control, Prozac, and multivitamins ... We are relentless, judgmental with ourselves, and forgiving to others. We never want to be as passive-aggressive as our mothers, never want to marry men as uninspired as our fathers ... We are the daughters of the feminists who said, "You can be anything," and we heard, "You have to be everything. ~ Courtney Martin

Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt. It is now the only place in our overly active world that does. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

Scientific progress isn't a parade of miraculously wrong theories - it's an optimistic snowball, gathering the structure of reality as it rolls. ~ Amanda Gefter

The Lamb's Club is going to be a luxury bar and grill; we're not doing an overly fancy restaurant. We wanted to make a space that people will come to every day, almost like a very high-end bistro. ~ Geoffrey Zakarian

These are the soul's changes. I don't believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism. ~ Virginia Woolf

I'm a very optimistic person. I have the chance to listen to so much phenomenal music. Connecting with social networking to create music is a progression of what electronic music does anyway - it connects people. ~ Paul Van Dyk

Though we are optimistic, we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense of urgency. ~ Jeff Bezos

Post-national, welfare-state, cooperative, pacific Europe was not born of the optimistic, ambitious, forward-looking project imagined in fond retrospect by today's Euro-idealists. It was the insecure child of anxiety. ~ Tony Judt

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. ~ Paul Hawken