Optimism Quotes - Page 15

• Religion should be disentangled as much as possible from history and authority and metaphysics, and made to rest honestly on one's fine feelings, on one's indomitable optimism and trust in life.

  George Santayana

  Feelings, Religion, Authority

  George Santayana (2015). “Character and Opinion in the United States”, p.11, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• The fact of the religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Religious, Pain, Religion

  Science and the ModernWorld ch. 12 (1925)

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• Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me.

  Jack Layton

  Inspiration, Optimistic, Careers

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• Children, of course, don't understand at first that they are being cheated. They come to school with a degree of faith and optimism, and they often seem to thrive during the first few years. It is sometimes not until the third grade that their teachers start to see the warning signs of failure. By the fourth grade many children see it too.

  Jonathan Kozol

  Teacher, Children, School

  Jonathan Kozol (2012). “Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools”, p.70, Broadway Books

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• It was not possible for us to produce the same optimism and the same kind of humour or irony. Actually, it was not irony. Lichtenstein is not ironic but he does have a special kind of humour. That's how I could describe it: humour and optimism. For Polke and me, everything was more fragmented. But how it was broken up is hard to describe.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Broken, Ironic

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• The idea for each of the stories in this book came in a moment of belief and was written in a burst of faith, happiness, and optimism. Those positive feelings have their dark analogues, however, and the fear of failure is a long way from the worst of them. The worst - for me, at least - is the gnawing speculation that I may have already said everything that I have to say, and am now only listening to the steady quacking of my own voice because the silence when it stops is just too spooky.

  Stephen King

  Book, Writing, Dark

  Stephen King (2009). “Nightmares & Dreamscapes”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

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• A spiritually optimistic point of view holds that the universe is woven out of a fabric of love. Everything that is happening is ultimately for the good if we're willing to face it head-on and use our adversities for soul growth.

  Joan Z. Borysenko

  Encouragement, Optimistic, Adversity

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• Obama ran on a platform of unmitigated optimism - a promise to usher in a brighter day for America. But there could hardly be a greater contrast between his pledge and his performance in office, between his commitment to the nation and his current abandonment of all hope.

  David Limbaugh

  Commitment, America, Office

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• With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Men, Rights, Despair

  Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Rybalka, Michel Contat, Richard C. McCleary (1985). “The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre”, p.159, Northwestern University Press

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• You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that? Come up with a smiling face, It's nothing against you to fall down flat But to lie there - that's a disgrace.

  Edmund Vance Cooke

  Lying, Failure, Fall

  Edmund Vance Cooke, “How DID You Die?”

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• There is a fine line between optimism and delusion. I cross it often.

  Hal Elrod

  Inspirational, Lines, Crosses

  FaceBook post by Hal Elrod from Oct 11, 2013

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• I think our animals are angels, earth-angels, pointing out for us the steadfast path of love, loyalty, optimism, faith, joy, hope. They teach us everything important about life.

  Sophy Burnham

  Loyalty, Angel, Thinking

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• Gardening is all about optimism. I put a seed in the ground. I consistently tend it, confident I will see the results, in time, of the nurture I have provided.

  Mary Anne Radmacher

  Time, Stupid, Gardening

  Mary Anne Radmacher (2008). “Live Boldly: Cultivate the Qualities That Can Change Your Life”, Conari Press

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• I've always been sceptical about the notion that the market is a person you can engage in an argument with, and that that person is an intelligent, rational, well-intentioned person: it is fantasy. We know that ... the market is subject to irrational optimism and pessimism, and is vindictive ... You're dealing with a crazy man ... Having got what he wants he will still kill you.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Business, Crazy, Intelligent

  "The Money Man: Super-economist Joseph Stiglitz on how to fix the recession". Interview with Sean O'Grady, www.independent.co.uk. February 9, 2010.

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• [on the screenplay for "When Harry Met Sally"] It struck me that the movies had spent more than half a century saying, "They lived happily ever after" and the following quarter century warning that they'll be lucky to make it through the weekend. Possibly now we are now entering a third era in which the movies will be sounding a note of cautious optimism: You know, it just might work.

  Nora Ephron

  Movie, Weekend, Lucky

  The Los Angeles Times Interview, July 27, 1989.

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• David Cameron's message of change, optimism and hope is in tune with what Britain wants today

  Francis Maude

  Tunes, Want, Today

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• 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

  War, America, Democracy

  "Quotes: A Nation Reacts", www.foxnews.com. June 6, 2004.

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• For liberals, the observation that 'the peasants are revolting' is a pun. For conservatives, it is cause for uncharacteristic optimism. No matter how far the ideological pendulum swings in the short term, in the end the bedrock common sense of the American people will prevail.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Swings, People, Common Sense

  "The Great Peasant Revolt of 2010". www.jewishworldreview.com. January 29, 2010.

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• Construction is a matter of optimism; its a matter of facing the future with confidence.

  Cesar Pelli

  Matter, Construction

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• Optimism is an essential ingredient for innovation.

  Robert Noyce

  Innovation, Essentials, Ingredients

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• A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays And confident tomorrows.

  William Wordsworth

  Confidence, Men, Yesterday

  William Wordsworth (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of William Wordsworth (Illustrated)”, p.828, Delphi Classics

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• Patience is the key to content.

  Muhammad

  Patience, Keys

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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, Evil

  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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• Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams.

  Ann Landers

  Success, Dream, Glasses

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• L]iberalism holds that the resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism

  James Luther Adams

  Meaningful, Attitude, Achievement

  James Luther Adams (1976). “On being human religiously: selected essays in religion and society”, Beacon Press (MA)

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