Optimists And Pessimists Quotes

• 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

  50 Copy quote

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

  George Bernard Shaw

  Funny, Motivational, Humorous

  451 Copy quote

• The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  117 Copy quote
• 

  The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

  William Arthur Ward

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Leadership

  298 Copy quote

• The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

  George Will

  Inspirational, Funny, Nice

  George F. Will (1995). “The Leveling Wind: Politics, the Culture, and Other News, 1990-1994”, Penguin Group USA

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1089, RosettaBooks

  227 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

  Harry S. Truman

  Change, Attitude, Optimistic

  113 Copy quote

• The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.

  Khalil Gibran

  Inspirational, Meaningful, Spiritual

  91 Copy quote

• 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)

  164 Copy quote

  Show source

• An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.

  Bill Vaughan

  New Year, Fun, New Beginnings

  124 Copy quote

• Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Attitude, Two

  21 Copy quote

• There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Happiness, Success

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.356, Courier Corporation

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Optimistic, Men

  Notebook, Dec. 1902

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Beauty, Beautiful, Attitude

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.175, University of Georgia Press

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be.

  Oscar Wilde

  Glasses, Optimism, Needs

  125 Copy quote

• I have never seen a monument erected to a pessimist.

  Paul Harvey

  Encouragement, Optimism, Pessimist

  "Breatharians" by Callan Wink, www.newyorker.com. October 22, 2012.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Edmond Rostand

  Men, Telling The Truth, Pessimist

  9 Copy quote

• I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.

  Antonio Gramsci

  Inspirational, Life Changing, Optimistic

  Antonio Gramsci (2011). “Letters from Prison”, p.299, Columbia University Press

  250 Copy quote

  Show source

• The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

  Oscar Wilde

  Positive, Funny Inspirational, Attitude

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.52, Oxford University Press on Demand

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Creeds matter very little... The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label.

  James Branch Cabell

  Optimistic, Optimism, Labels

  The Silver Stallion bk. 4, ch. 26 (1926) See Leibniz 3; Voltaire 7; Voltaire 8

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Funny, Sarcastic, Optimistic

  "The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard". Book by Elbert Hubbard, 1927.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pessimist is one who builds dungeons in the air.

  Walter Winchell

  Crazy, Air, Mad

  9 Copy quote

• We live in the best of all possible worlds

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Optimistic

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2008). “Discourse on Metaphysics and the Monadology”, Cosimo, Inc.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them.

  Leonard Louis Levinson

  Attitude, Optimistic, Dark

  105 Copy quote

• A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

  Don Marquis

  Funny, Life, Witty

  29 Copy quote