Pessimism Quotes - Page 12

• 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)

  180 Copy quote

  Show source

• The past doesn't change no matter how much time you spend thinking about it. Good and bad all add up to the whole. Take away one piece, no matter how small, and the whole changes. Whether it's optimism, pessimism or fatalism, I don't spend my time wishing for the past to be different so present would be different, too. I control my future with what I choose now.

  Megan Hart

  Thinking, Past, Optimism

  15 Copy quote

• To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

  Nhat Hanh

  Peace, Truth, Reality

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2016). “The Miracle of Mindfulness, Gift Edition”, p.52, Beacon Press

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Children, Men, Race

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.216, Simon and Schuster

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• The entire concept of pessimism crumbles the moment one human being puts aside thoughts of self and reaches out to another to minister to her suffering. The experience of either person can neither be denied nor adequately explained by a negative philosophy.

  Michael J. Nelson

  Philosophy, Self, Suffering

  Michael J. Nelson (2009). “Mike Nelson's Mind over Matters”, p.12, Harper Collins

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...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

  13 Copy quote

• The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Mean, Eye, Fate

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism”, p.5, Arthur Schopenhauer

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• If cynicism and love lie at opposite ends of a spectrum, do we not sometimes fall in love in order to escape the debilitating cynicism to which we are prone? Is there not in every coup de foudre a certain willful exaggeration of the qualities of the beloved, an exaggeration which distracts us from our habitual pessimism and focuses our energies on someone in whom we can believe in a way we have never believed in ourselves?

  Alain de Botton

  Falling In Love, Lying, Believe

  Alain de Botton (2015). “On Love: A Novel”, p.15, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Matthew Quick

  Watches, Defeated

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every optimistic path will take you farther, faster, and to greater altitude than any road of pessimism.

  Wes Fesler

  Optimistic, Optimism, Path

  4 Copy quote

• Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Clever, Stupid, Quality

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.261, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Both hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader.

  John Ortberg

  Leader, Contagious

  6 Copy quote

• Antonio Gramsci said that social reformers should have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. This means that one must have the intellectual ability to see how bad things are and the emotional ability to look forward with hope. It's a hard combination to sustain, but if you can do it, you can change the world.

  Andrew Solomon

  Mean, Emotional, Should Have

  36 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source