Pessimism Quotes - Page 11

• The refuge from pessimism is the good men and women at any time existing in the world, -they keep faith and happiness alive.

  Charles Eliot Norton

  Men, Good Man, Alive

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• More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
  I speak, by the way, not with any sense of futility, but with a panicky conviction of the absolute meaninglessness of existence which could easily be misinterpreted as pessimism. It is not. It is merely a healthy concern for the predicament of modern man.

  Woody Allen

  Men, Healthy, Despair

  Side Effects "My Speech to the Graduates" (1980)

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• 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

  Tunnels, Light, Next

  Sydney J. Harris (1982). “Pieces of Eight”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Don't pessimism and caution naturally go hand in hand?

  Lynne Truss

  Hands, Caution, Hand In Hand

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• The merchant must be no more pessimist than optimist, since pessimism induces him to hold back his capital but optimism induces him to take such risks that he has more to tear than to hope. Abu al'Fadl Ja'far al-Dimishqi (c. 9th century) Arab writer. The Beauties of Commerce Business pays ... philanthropy begs.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Business, Optimism, Risk

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• I've learned that next to the atomic bomb, the greatest danger is defeatism, despair, and inadequate awareness of what human beings possess. I feel that any problem that can be defined is capable of being resolved. Out of this has come my conviction that no person knows enough to be a pessimist.

  Norman Cousins

  Despair, Bombs, Next

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• If only media people would stop reaching for the low-hanging fruit, which is cynicism and pessimism, and stopped trying so hard to be hip and cool and have a swagger.

  Emilio Estevez

  Media, People, Trying

  "Emilio Estevez On ‘The Way’: Actor Discusses New Movie, Life, Love, Faith And Micro-Farms" by Lauren Rosenblum, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 14, 2011.

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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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• When a country is strong... it accepts any dose of pessimism from its writers.

  Michel Houellebecq

  Country, Strong, Accepting

  "The cultural whipping boys' manifesto: France has vomited on us for too long" by Angelique Chrisafis, www.theguardian.com. October 2, 2008.

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• Though there are many differences between Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, they are strikingly similar in their poor economic records and even more so in their shared pessimism and bearishness on America.

  David Limbaugh

  Differences, America, Records

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• Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.

  John Ortberg

  Church, Resistance, Cynicism

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• Seeing the glass as half empty is more positive than seeing it as half full. Through such a lens the only choice is to pour more. That is righteous pessimism

  Criss Jami

  Inspirational, Optimistic, Positivity

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.91, Criss Jami

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• Let pessimism once take hold of the mind, and life is all topsy-turvy, all vanity and vexation of spirit. There is no cure for individual or social disorder, except in forgetfulness and annihilation.

  Helen Keller

  Vanity, Mind, Vexation

  Helen Keller (2010). “The World I Live In and Optimism: A Collection of Essays”, p.102, Courier Corporation

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• To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

  Walter Cronkite

  Yield, People, Democracy

  "Final Words: Cronkite's Vietnam Commentary". "All Things Considered" with Guy Raz, www.npr.org. July 18, 2009.

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• Zionism and pessimism are not compatible.

  Golda Meir

  Funny, Humorous, Israel

  Golda Meir, Israel Shenker, Mary Shenker (1970). “As good as Golda: the warmth and wisdom of Israel's Prime Minister”

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• Pessimism is the product of a hostile social state. Its answer is the substitution of a friendly social state. If this can be done it will disappear.

  Lester Frank Ward

  Friendly, Done, Answers

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• The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy.

  John Templeton

  Investing, Investment, Traders

  "Sir John Templeton" by Martin Adeney, www.theguardian.com. July 9, 2008.

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• All our anxieties relate to time. The major problems of psychiatry revolve around an analysis of the despair, pessimism, melancholy, and complexes that are the inheritances of what has been or with the fears, anxieties, worries, that are the imaginings of what will be.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Worry, Anxiety, Despair

  "Lift Up Your Heart". Book by Fulton J. Sheen. Chapter: "Sanctifying the Moment", 1950.

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• We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Positive

  Lady Windermere's Fan act 3 (1892)

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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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• 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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• When the outlook is steeped in pessimism, I remind myself, "Two and two still make four, and you can't keep humankind down for long."

  Bernard Baruch

  Two, Long, Perspective

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• I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism... I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year the country will make steady progress.

  Andrew Mellon

  Depression, Country, Spring

  "How It Was: The Year After the Crash of 1929" by Dan Agin, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 21, 2009.

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• Certainly, Gandhi is not inferior to Christ in goodness and sanctity, and he surpasses him in touching humility. Gandhi is the prophet of hope in this age of pessimism and disillusionment. He is a promise of sanity in the madness induced by our world's heedless drinking at the fount of war.

  Sudhir Kakar

  War, Drinking, Humility

  Sudhir Kakar (2008). “The Seeker: A Novel”, p.76, Shambhala Publications

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• I do not share the pessimism of the age about the novel. They are one of our greatest spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual inventions. As a species it is story that distinguishes us, and one of the supreme expressions of story is the novel. Novels are not content. Nor are they are a mirror to life or an explanation of life or a guide to life. Novels are life, or they are nothing.

  Richard Flanagan

  Spiritual, Mirrors, Expression

  "Man Booker prize-winner Richard Flanagan's acceptance speech in full" by Richard Flanagan, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2014.

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