Pessimist Quotes - Page 7

• I'm a pessimist by nature. A pot head, but a pessimist.

  Bill Maher

  Pot

  FaceBook post by Bill Maher from Jun 21, 2011

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• I have one good characteristic: I'm a pessimist, so I always imagine the worst - always. To me, the future is a black hole.

  Krzysztof Kieslowski

  Black, Imagine, Good Character

  "Krzysztof Kieslowski: I'm So-So..." Documentary, www.imdb.com. 1995.

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• I'm a realist all the way. I'm too cynical to be an optimist. But I've lived too much of a charmed life so far to ever be a pessimist.

  Anthony Jeselnik

  Cynical, Too Much, Way

  "Comedian Anthony Jeselnik: 'He's The Best!' - Everybody". Interview with David Dean, www.serialoptimist.com. November 29, 2010.

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• Whatever pretended pessimists in search of notoriety may say, most people are naturally kind, at heart.

  James Branch Cabell

  Heart, People, May

  James Branch Cabell (2001). “The Cream of the Jest”, p.78, Wildside Press LLC

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• A French critic referred to me as a gay pessimist, with gay used in its older sense, and talked of Cocteau in the same breath.

  Peter Greenaway

  Gay, Used, Critics

  Peter Greenaway, Vernon W. Gras (2000). “Peter Greenaway: Interviews”, p.49, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• an optimist is the man who looks after your eyes, and the pessimist the person who looks after your feet.

  Ada Leverson

  Eye, Men, Feet

  Ada Leverson (1951). “The limit”

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• The soul must have its chosen sewers to carry away its ordure. This function is performed by persons, relationships, professions, the fatherland, the world, or finally, for the really arrogant - I mean our modern pessimists - by the Good God himself.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Mean, Soul, Atheism

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• A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Motivational, Attitude

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• The world belongs to optimists; the pessimists are only spectators.

  Francois Guizot

  Investing, World, Optimist

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• Most dreams die a slow death. They're conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born. Slowly, subtly, a dream becomes elusive and ephemeral. People who've lost their own dreams become pessimists and cynics. They feel like the time and devotion spent on chasing their dreams were wasted. The emotional scars last forever.

  Dean Karnazes

  Dream, Passion, Emotional

  Dean Karnazes (2017). “Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner”, p.78, Atlantic Books

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• Now the pessimist proper is the most modest of men. ... under no circumstances does he presume to imagine that he, a mere unit of pain, can in any degree change or soften the remorseless words of fate.

  Agnes Repplier

  Pain, Fate, Men

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• A pessimist says all women are loose. An optimist does not, but he has hopes.

  Julian Tuwim

  Doe, Optimist, Having Hope

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• I am a profound pessimist both about life and about human relations and about politics and ecology. Humans are inadequate and stupid creatures who sooner or later make a mess, and those who are trying to do good do a lot more damage than those who are muddling along.

  A. S. Byatt

  Stupid, Profound, Trying

  FaceBook post by A.S. Byatt from Aug 31, 2011

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• Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression. The argument goes that, if people could see just how many of us there are, some in very important places, the negative stereotype would vanish overnight. ...It is far more realistic to suppose that, 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, Political

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

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• People, particularly over-moralistic Americans, have often seen me as a pessimist and humourless to boot, yet I think I have an almost maniacal sense of humour. The problem is that it's rather deadpan.

  J. G. Ballard

  Thinking, People, Boots

  "Age of Unreason". Interview with Jeannette Baxter, www.theguardian.com. June 22, 2004.

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• If empathy channels our optimism, we will see the empathy and the diseases and the poor school. We will answer with our innovations and we will surprise the pessimists.

  Bill Gates

  School, Optimism, Empathy

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• But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails

  William Arthur Ward

  Taken, Climbing, Wind

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• I am glad I am an optimist. The pessimist is half-licked before he starts.

  Thomas Buckner

  Optimism, Half, Optimist

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• I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Perspective, Optimist, Conclusion

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

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• Dear optimist, pessimist, and realist--while you guys were busy arguing about the glass of wine, I drank it! Sincerely, the opportunist!

  Lori Greiner

  Wine, Glasses, Guy

  FaceBook post by Lori Greiner from Jan 08, 2014

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• People tell me, "You're such an optimist". Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, "Call it what you want, but just fill the glass." I believe in filling the glass.

  Louis Zamperini

  Believe, Glasses, People

  Louis Zamperini, David Rensin (2014). “Don't Give Up, Don't Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life”, p.6, Harper Collins

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• On one hand, I'm an optimistic pessimist. On the other, I'm a pessimistic optimist. But while there's life, there's still hope, and I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if I didn't think there was still hope.

  Helen Caldicott

  Future, Optimistic, Thinking

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• First, I was an idealist (that was early - fools are born, not made, you know); next I was a realist; now I am a pessimist, and, by Jove! if things get much worse I'll become a humorist.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Next, Fool, Firsts

  Ellen Glasgow (1900). “The Descendant”

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• A politician or political thinker who calls himself a political realist is usually boasting that he sees politics, so to speak, in the raw; he is generally a proclaimed cynic and pessimist who makes it his business to look behind words and fine speeches for the motive. This motive is always low.

  Mary McCarthy

  Political, Looks, Speech

  Mary McCarthy (1964). “The humanist in the bathtub”

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• I'm a kind of hard-wired pessimist. I can't help but see the world in a certain kind of way.

  Nick Cave

  World, Way, Helping

  Interview with Keith Phipps, www.avclub.com. November 24, 2004.

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