Pessimist Optimist Quotes

I'm a realist all the way. I'm too cynical to be an optimist. But I've lived too much of a charmed life so far to ever be a pessimist. ~ Anthony Jeselnik

I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist. ~ Max Lerner

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right ~ Mark Twain

The world belongs to optimists; the pessimists are only spectators. ~ Francois Guizot

Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist. ~ Robert G. Allen

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

Vision involves optimism and hope. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. ~ J. Oswald Sanders

There's an old line that goes like this: An optimist is usually happy. And a pessimist is usually right. Maybe so. But which would you rather be, anyway? ~ Joe Posnanski

It is largely because the free-thinkers, as a school, have hardly made up their minds whether they want to be more optimist or more pessimist than Christianity that their small but sincere movement has failed. ~ G.K. Chesterton

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. ~ Helen Keller

The pessimist sees only the tunnel; the optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel; the realist sees the tunnel and the light - and the next tunnel. ~ Sydney J. Harris

In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right. ~ Jack Nicholson

An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out? ~ Rene Descartes

I have always had a passion for the beautiful. If the man in me is often a pessimist, the artist, on the contrary, is pre-eminently an optimist. ~ Jules Breton

On one hand, I'm an optimistic pessimist. On the other, I'm a pessimistic optimist. But while there's life, there's still hope, and I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if I didn't think there was still hope. ~ Helen Caldicott

A pessimist? That's a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist. ~ Elbert Hubbard

The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole. ~ Oscar Wilde

I try not to be too optimistic or pessimistic. If you're a pessimist then that's depressing all the time; if you're an optimist and things don't work out then that's depressing, too. ~ Nicholas Hoult

A pessimist is a well-informed optimist. ~ Mark Twain

An optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist sees the whole. ~ Navjot Singh Sidhu

Pessimists beat their heads against walls, while optimists open doors. ~ Wes Fesler

It is most important in creative science not to give up. If you are an optimist you will be willing to "try" more than if you are a pessimist. ~ Stanislaw Ulam

Optimists focus on the place they are going. Pessimists focus on the obstacles along the route. To become an optimist simply look ahead. ~ Simon Sinek

Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them. ~ Ted Koppel

Pessimists see problems as stemming from stable and universal causes, thus making them less susceptible to corrective action. Optimists, in contrast, view problems as temporary and resulting from specific factors that will either change or be changed. ~ Rosabeth Moss Kanter

I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right. ~ Albert Einstein

A pessimist says all women are loose. An optimist does not, but he has hopes. ~ Julian Tuwim

When hearing a door creak, the optimist thinks it's opening and the pessimist thinks it's closing. ~ Matthieu Ricard

Christians should not be optimists; we know too much about sin. We should also not be pessimists, for we know the living God. ~ Timothy Keller

It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance? ~ Elizabeth Peters

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive. ~ Mark Twain

Pessimists see a problem behind every opportunity. Optimists see an opportunity behind every problem. ~ Denis Waitley

Life inflicts the same setbacks and tragedies on the optimist as on the pessimist, but the optimist weathers them better. ~ Martin Seligman

I don't know if the optimists
or the pessimists are right.
But, the optimists are going to get something done. ~ Craig Venter

I think I probably hoped for it a little bit, but I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist ... or maybe even a pessimist. ~ Clay Aiken

The pessimist is the man who believes things couldn't possibly be worse, to which the optimist replies: 'Oh yes they could!' ~ Vladimir Bukovsky

I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history. ~ A.E. Housman

The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little. ~ Mark Twain

A pessimist is overwhelmed by the existential sufferings of life, he has no time to see the beauty and possibilities of life. ~ Debasish Mridha

If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation. ~ Helen Keller

Dad gave me two pieces of advice. One was, "No matter how good you think you are, there are people better than you." But he was an optimist too; his other advice: "Never worry about rejection. Every day is a new beginning." ~ John Ritter

Optimist: someone who isn't sure whether life is a tragedy or a comedy but is tickled silly just to be in the play. ~ Robert Breault

Meeting obstacles can be a blessing! Just know the lesson and change something with the lessons and you shall see a new lesson with a blessing! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

The pessimist is seldom an agitating individual. His creed breeds indifference to others, and he does not trouble himself to thrust his views upon the unconvinced. ~ Agnes Repplier

Whatever pretended pessimists in search of notoriety may say, most people are naturally kind, at heart. ~ James Branch Cabell

The hardworking men and women of this country identify with my father. He is tough, and he is persevering. He is honest, and he is real. He's an optimist, and he's a relentless believer in America and all of her potential. He loves his family, and he loves his country with his heart and his soul. ~ Ivanka Trump

I'm a pessimist, so I find everything limiting. ~ Grumpy Cat

I've gone through terrible periods of depression. But, at the core of my being, there's a strange, out-of-place optimist. Despite what I'm feeling, I'm always able to get up and do my job. Which means the world to me. ~ Jenny Lewis

Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege. ~ William Beveridge

But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. . . . As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. . . . The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything. ~ G.K. Chesterton

I am not a pessimist; to perceive evil where it exists is, in my opinion, a form of optimism. ~ Roberto Rossellini

I've never had a coconut chilli Martini before,' I tell him. 'That's the thing with getting older. You run out of new things to try.' 'Oh, I don't know,' he says, still the optimist. 'I have lived beside one ocean or another most of my life and I have yet to see the same wave twice. It's the mana, you see. It's everywhere. It's never still. It keeps the world new. The whole planet is a coconut chilli Martini. ~ Matt Haig

What would you do without me?" he asked one night. We were tangled in the silky sheets of his gigantic bed. My heart was still pounding as I came down from the high of what we'd just done, and he wasn't helping matters by putting his lips so close to my ear.
"Live a happy… happy life," I murmured. "I might even… be an optimist… if you weren't around."
"Liar." He bit my earlobe playfully. "You'd be absolutely miserable. Admit it, Duffy. I'm the wind beneath your wings."
I bit my lip, but I still couldn't hold back the laughter-and just as I was finally catching my breath, too. "You just referenced Bette Midler… in bed. I'm starting to question your sexuality, Wesley."
Wesley looked at me with a defiant glint in his eye. "Oh, really?" He grinned before moving his mouth back to my ear and whispering, "We both know that my manhood has never been in question… I think you're just changing the subject because you know it's true. I'm the light of your life."
"You…" I struggled for words as Wesley pressed his mouth into the crook of my neck. The tip of his tongue moved down to my shoulder and made my brain get all fuzzy. How was I supposed to argue under these conditions? "You wish. I'm just using you, remember?"
His laughter was muffled against my skin. "That's amusing," he said, his lips still grazing my collarbone. "Because I'm pretty sure your ex is out of town by now." One of his hands slid between my knees. "Yet you're still here, aren't you?" His f ~ Kody Keplinger

The gardener is the quintessential optimist: not only does he believe that the future will bear out the fruits of his efforts, he believes in the future. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

―Look. This
room is the Seal Room. See the big picture of the seal? And that room is the Pony Room.‖
―Is there a pony?‖ Hunter was an optimist. ~ Charlaine Harris

I am a congenital optimist about America, but I worry that American democracy is exhibiting fatal symptoms. DC has become an acronym for Dysfunctional Capital: a swamp in which partisanship has grown poisonous, relations between the White House and Congress have paralyzed basic functions like budgets and foreign agreements, and public trust in government has all but disappeared. These symptoms are rooted in the decline of a public ethic, legalized and institutionalized corruption, a poorly educated and attention-deficit-driven electorate, and a 'gotcha' press - all exacerbated by digital devices and platforms that reward sensationalism and degrade deliberation. Without stronger and more determined leadership from the president and a recovery of a sense of civic responsibility among the governing class, the United States may follow Europe down the road of decline. ~ Graham Allison

Why does everyone always leap to the awfullest conclusions right away. ~ Ransom Riggs

An optimist is a braver cynic. ~ Colum McCann

I am, if nothing else, an optimist. ~ Mike Barnicle

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. ~ Helen Keller

Call me a pessimist, but I think if bigotry could be solved by access to more information, it would have been solved by now. Hate isn't about lack of understanding: it's about hate. ~ Hank Green

I'm naturally an optimist, but my basis for hope is rooted in my understanding of human nature. ~ Al Gore

Authentic Christianity has a horror of the pessimism of inertia. It is pessimist, profoundly pessimist in the sense that it knows that the creature comes from nothingness, and that all that issues from nothing essentially tends of itself to return to nothing: but it's optimism is incomparably deeper than it's pessimism; for it knows that the creature comes from God, and all that comes from God tends to return to Him. ~ Jacques Maritain

A pessimist is someone who has forgotten the joy of beginning. ~ Marty Rubin

No one knows enough to be a pessimist ~ Wayne W. Dyer

I'm an optimist. You can't be an entrepreneur if you're not essentially an optimist, so I'm an optimist by nature. ~ John Sculley

Something I've realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we're smart about it. ~ Brian Eno

I am almost certain fishermen posess a peculiar bend to their makeup. Fisherman are optimists, and the fish in the future is always preferable to the fish at hand. Even the best fishermen catch fish only a small percentage of the time, which means we persevere in a sport that features failure as its main ingredient. Truly great days, when the fish hammer the fly as soon as it lands on the water are rare. ~ Joseph Monninger

The deep breathe you just took to show that your problems are bigger than you, is the final breathe someone had taken right now in his life! As long as your breathe is not the final one, you still have a hope! ~ Israelmore Ayivor

All that is required to become an optimist is to have the goal and to practice it. The more you rehearse optimistic thoughts, the more 'natural' and 'ingrained' they will become. With time they will be part of you, and you will have made yourself into an altogether different person. ~ Sonja Lyubomirsky

The optimist in me wants to believe sexuality will eventually become like handwriting: there's no right way and wrong way to do it. We're all just wired differently. It's also worth noting that when you meet someone, you never bother to ask if he's right or left-handed. After all: does it really matter to anyone other than the person holding the pen? ~ Jodi Picoult

Job is an optimist. He shakes the pillars of the world and strikes insanely at the heavens; he lashes the stars, but it is not to silence them; it is to make them speak. ~ G.K. Chesterton

Some of those who have killed themselves would readily kill themselves again if they could. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

You know you're a pessimist when you win an Oscar and think, "Oh God, I've peaked. ~ Cate Blanchett

Which is, I'm an optimist that two people can be together to work out their conflicts. And that commitment, I think, might be what love is, because they both grow from their relationship. ~ Garry Shandling

Cynicism is easy. An optimist is a braver cynic. ~ Colum McCann

I'm a pessimist by nature. A pot head, but a pessimist. ~ Bill Maher

my phone rings. I sense my hard-won optimism is about to get a smackdown. The Angel of Death, also known as my mother, Lenore Tate, long-suffering widow and professional pessimist. ~ Kristan Higgins

Immune to the blandishments of religions, countries, families, and whatever else that - with a smattering of emotive images and strains of maudlin music - can move the average citizen to tears or violence, the pessimist is invisible in both history books and the media. Without belief in gods or ghosts, unmotivated by a comprehensive delusion, he could never plant a bomb, plan a revolution, or shed blood for a cause. Pessimists are indeed lackadaisical as partisans in the human drama. ~ Thomas Ligotti