Pessimism Quotes - Page 12

• I really like dark music and darkness in general and cynicism and pessimism and negativity because it allows you to create an even bigger contrast.

  Andrew W.K.

  Dark, Negativity, Cynicism

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• That's why our comics are important: they're pointing things out and laughing at the same time. There have been horrible, horrible times in history. They're mostly horrible times. But not to laugh? Not to find humor in something like dark optimism/bright pessimism - I think that's sad, frankly.

  Lynne Tillman

  Dark, Thinking, Laughing

  Interview with James Yeh, believermag.com. January 1, 2018.

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• No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

  Samuel Johnson

  Optimism, Mind, Anticipation

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.476

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• A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it.

  Aldous Huxley

  Freedom, Food, Optimistic

  Aldous Huxley (2000). “Complete Essays: 1926-1929”, Ivan R Dee

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• You can never plan the future by the past.

  Edmund Burke

  Time, Smart, Inspiration

  'Letter to a Member of the National Assembly' (1791) p. 73

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• You better watch out, or you're going to be defeated by pessimism!

  Matthew Quick

  Watches, Defeated

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• Both men and women today see marriage not as a way of creating character and community but as a way to reach personal life goals. They are looking for a marriage partner who will 'fulfill their emotional, sexual, and spiritual desires.' And that creates an extreme idealism that in turn leads to a deep pessimism that you will ever find the right person to marry.

  Timothy Keller

  Spiritual, Character, Men

  Timothy Keller (2011). “The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God”, p.23, Penguin

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• An egocentric pessimist is a person who thinks he hasn't changed, but that other people are behaving worse than before.

  Idries Shah

  Thinking, People, Pessimist

  Idries Shah (1983). “Reflections”, p.61, Octagon Press Ltd

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• The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Life, Optimistic

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• On domestic policy, one of the major stories in American politics has been the growing ideological and political self-confidence of the Democratic Party, and the growing ideological and political pessimism of the Republican Party.

  Peter Beinart

  Party, Political, Republican

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• If you begin the day with a laugh, you may, nevertheless, end it with a sob and a sigh.

  Herman Melville

  Laughing, May, Ends

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1524, Delphi Classics

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• If you do not throw in a few promises of better things to come, gloomy one, I am going to take you back to the library.

  Mason Cooley

  Reading, Promise, Library

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• [T]he syndrome known as life is too diffuse to admit of palliation. For every symptom that is eased, another is made worse. The horse leech's daughter is a closed system. Her quantum of wantum cannot vary.

  Samuel Beckett

  Life, Daughter, Horse

  Samuel Beckett (2011). “Murphy”, p.36, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Enough to know no knowing.

  Samuel Beckett

  Knowledge, Knowing, Enough

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “Company / Ill Seen Ill Said / Worstward Ho / Stirrings Still”, p.63, Faber & Faber

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• There is a good and a bad light in which every thing that befalls us may be taken. If the human mind will busy itself to make theworst of every disagreeable occurrence, it will never want woe.

  Samuel Richardson

  Taken, Light, Optimism

  Samuel Richardson (2014). “Clarissa Harlowe, or The History of a Young Lady - Complete”, p.1863, Simon and Schuster

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• ...we should all fortify ourselves against the dark hours of depression by cultivating a deep distrust of the certainties of despair. Despair is relentless in the certainties of its pessimism. But we have seen again and again, from our own experience and others', that absolute statements of hopelessness that we make in the dark are notoriously unreliable. Our dark certainties are not sureties.

  John Piper

  Dark, Despair, Hopelessness

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• The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Art, Achievement, Mind

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.69, Cosimo Classics

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• I regard these people who are peddling angst and peddling pessimism and all that stuff as so 'two minutes ago'.

  Terence McKenna

  Two, People, Stuff

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• We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Believe, Fighting, Optimism

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.58, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Every person has the power to make others happy. Some do it simply by entering a room others by leaving the room. Some individuals leave trails of gloom; others, trails of joy. Some leave trails of hate and bitterness; others, trails of love and harmony. Some leave trails of cynicism and pessimism; others trails of faith and optimism. Some leave trails of criticism and resignation; others trails of gratitude and hope. What kind of trails do you leave?

  William Arthur Ward

  Happiness, Gratitude, Hate

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• . . . if there is a way for the world to be transformed for the better, it can only be done by pessimism; optimists will never change the world for the better.

  Jose Saramago

  Done, World, Way

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• Unsatisfied desire is the characteristic feature of human life. That is the common fact out of which both pessimism and optimism are constructed. Dwell on the impossibility of ever getting a state of complete and permanent satisfaction with what you have, and you become a pessimist. Dwell on the opportunity for endless growth and conquest which this same fact makes possible, and you become an optimist.

  William DeWitt Hyde

  Opportunity, Optimism, Growth

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• If there is a sort of national American emotion I would call it optimism. If there is an English one I would call it embarrassment - not even pessimism - just sheer shame, embarrassment and confusion.

  Stephen Fry

  Optimism, Confusion, Emotion

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• Despite the immense challenges that we have faced and continue to face, we refuse to indulge in negativity or pessimism.
  We are an organization that believes in empowering people to be their best.

  Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

  Inspirational, Encouragement, Business

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• Our life as consumers seems light years away from that of our grandparents. But you don't change human nature. Optimism, for me, is the belief that we can spread the opportunity for everyone to be fully human. Sustainability, like music, is an impulse to make sense of the world around us. It is core to our humanity. If you only like one composer, or think all the best music has already been written, you have reason for pessimism. If not, it is within us to have good reason for hope

  Ed Mayo

  Future, Thinking, Opportunity

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