Pessimist Quotes - Page 8

• 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 don't want to be a pessimist. I'm a realist. One man's realist is another man's pessimist.

  Bill Maher

  Men, Want, Realist

  "Larry King Live", transcripts.cnn.com. September 14, 2010.

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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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• 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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• I'm a pessimist by nature. I don't think things are ever going to work out, I'm not particularly ambitious.

  Diablo Cody

  Thinking, Work Out, Ambitious

  "Diablo Cody Talks YOUNG ADULT, the EVIL DEAD Remake, SWEET VALLEY HIGH, Her Directorial Debut, and a Lot More". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. December 16, 2011.

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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 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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• Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible. And it is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century after century, are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief-optimistic, if you will, in the perfectibility of man.

  Arthur Miller

  Lying, Optimistic, Men

  Arthur Miller (2016). “The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller”, p.10, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Loneliness has little to do with what we do or where we do it, whether we're married or unmarried, optimists or pessimists, heterosexual or homosexual. Loneliness has to do with the sudden clefts we experience in every human relation, the gaps that open up with such stomach-turning unexpectedness. In a brief moment, I and my brother or sister have moved away into different worlds, and there is no language we can share.... It is in the middle of intimacy that the reality of loneliness most dramatically appears.

  Rowan Williams

  Brother, Loneliness, Reality

  Rowan Williams (1995). “A Ray of Darkness”, p.121, Cowley Publications

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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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• To be a prophet it is sufficient to be a pessimist.

  Elsa Triolet

  Pessimism, Prophet, Sufficient

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• People say I'm such a pessimist, but I always was. It never stopped me from doing what I had to do. I would say I'm a realist.

  Joan Baez

  People, Realist

  "Joan Baez on the new protest era: The whole world's watching". Interview with Greg Kot, articles.chicagotribune.com. October 26, 2011.

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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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• 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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• Most people who work with me can tell you I'm a bit of a pessimist about business stuff. Not because I don't believe in what I'm doing, I just don't like feeling presumptuous. Like, 'This is what's going to happen!' Honestly, I don't know what will happen.

  Ben Rector

  Believe, People, Feelings

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

  Thomas Buckner

  Optimism, Half, Optimist

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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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• 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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• I think I probably hoped for it a little bit, but I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist... or maybe even a pessimist.

  Clay Aiken

  Thinking, Afterlife, Littles

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• Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.

  Thomas Friedman

  Change, Optimistic, Optimism And Pessimism

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• Pessimists, we're told, look at a glass containing 50% air and 50% water and see it as half empty. Optimists, in contrast, see it as half full. Engineers, of course, understand the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

  Bob Lewis

  Glasses, Air, Water

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