Pessimist Quotes - Page 4

• The optimist pleasantly ponders how high his kite will fly; the pessimist woefully wonders how soon his kite will fall.

  William Arthur Ward

  Fall, Optimistic, Flying High

  William Arthur Ward (1968). “Thoughts of a Christian Optimist: The Words of William Arthur Ward”

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• The pessimist borrows trouble; the optimists lend encouragement.

  William Arthur Ward

  Inspirational, Motivational, Encouragement

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• An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows. An idealist, however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition sees something else: the possibility of changing the picture, of making the lights prevail over the shadows.

  Felix Adler

  Optimistic, Light, Optimism

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• Man is brilliant at solving problems; but solving them only makes him the victim of his own childishness and laziness. It is this recognition that has made almost every major philosopher in history a pessimist.

  Colin Wilson

  Men, Laziness, Recognition

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• Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Funny, Motivational, Humorous

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• Nothing of any importance has ever been accomplished by a pessimist.

  Jack Welch

  Morning, Accomplished, Importance

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• If the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.

  Jane Rule

  Gay, People, Inspire

  Jane Rule (2013). “Outlander: Short Stories and Essays”, p.247, Open Road Media

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• I find daily life not always joyous, but always interesting. I have some sad days and nights, but none that are dull. As I advance deeper into the vale of years, I live with constantly increasing gusto and excitement. I am sure it all means something; in the last analysis, I am an optimist because I believe in God. Those who have no faith are quite naturally pessimists and I do not blame them.

  William Lyon Phelps

  Life, Believe, Mean

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• I think I'm a realist. Which people who don't like me consider to be pessimism. It isn't pessimism at all. If I was a pessimist I wouldn't get up, I wouldn't shave, I wouldn't watch Batman at 7:30 a.m. Pessimists just don't do that sort of thing.

  Steven Morrissey

  Thinking, People, Watches

  "Stop me if you've heard this one before". "NME" Magazine, February 20, 1988.

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• I guess I'm a hopeful optimist, because to be a pessimist is to be suicidal.

  Peter Benchley

  Suicide, Suicidal, Hopeful

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• A pessimist sees problems in opportunities whereas an optimist sees opportunities in problems.

  Winston Churchill

  Opportunity, Problem, Optimist

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• Is there such thing as a cheerful pessimist? That's what I am.

  Charlie Munger

  Cheerful

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• I really am a pessimist. I've always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It's something essentially splendid because it's not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told, Yes, you may do this; no, you may not do that. So the secret of fascism is that it has this appeal to people whose later lives are not satisfactory.

  Norman Mailer

  People, Childhood, Grace

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• What if the Soviet intervention was a blessing in disguise? It saved the myth that if the Soviets were not to intervene, there would have been some flowering authentic democratic socialism and so on. I'm a little bit more of a pessimist there. I think that the Soviets - it's a very sad lesson - by their intervention, saved the myth.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Thinking, Blessing, Democratic Socialism

  "'Everybody in the World Except US Citizens Should Be Allowed to Vote and Elect the American Government' - Leading Intellectual Slavoj Žižek". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. March 11, 2008.

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• People don't like to follow pessimists.

  Bob Iger

  People

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• How happy are the pessimists! What joy is theirs when they have proved there is no joy.

  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

  Joy, Pessimism

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• I will be the first to admit that I am a pessimist by nature. It is, after all, the wisest way to be. We pessimists have everything to gain, whereas optimists have a fifty-fifty chance of being disappointed.

  Tamar Myers

  Optimistic, Fifty, Way

  Tamar Myers (2008). “As the World Churns”, p.82, NYLA

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

  Vladimir Bukovsky

  Believe, Men, Statistics

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• A pessimist is a man who tells the truth prematurely.

  Edmond Rostand

  Men, Telling The Truth, Optimists And Pessimists

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• The pessimist waits for better times, and expects to keep on waiting; the optimist goes to work with the best that is at hand now, and proceeds to create better times.

  Christian D. Larson

  Hands, Waiting, Optimist

  Christian D. Larson (2012). “The Optimist Creed”, p.322, Penguin

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• Every pessimist who ever lived has been buried in an unmarked grave. Tomorrow has always been better than today, and it always will be.

  Will Harvey

  Today, Tomorrow, Graves

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• A pessimist is a person who is always right but doesn't get any enjoyment out of it, while an optimist, is one who imagines that the future is uncertain. It is a duty to be an optimist, because if you imagine that the future is uncertain, then you mu

  Victor Cherbuliez

  Optimism, Imagine, Uncertain

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• Our notion of an optimist is a man who knowing that each year was worse than the preceding, thinks next year will be better. And a pessimist is a man who knows the next year can't be worse than the last one.

  Franklin P. Adams

  Men, Thinking, Years

  Franklin P. Adams (''F.P.A.'') (1944). “Nods and Becks”

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• I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a dyed-in-the-woo l possibilist! By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything's connected and change is the only constant.

  Frances Moore Lappé

  Mean, Mind, Optimist

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• There's no difference between a pessimist who says, "Oh it's hopeless, so don't bother doing anything." and an optimist who says, "Don't bother doing anything, it's going to turn out fine anyways. Either way, nothing happens."

  Yvon Chouinard

  Differences, Way, Hopeless

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