Optimism Quotes - Page 32

• It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words. That is, if it doesn't destroy us, if it doesn't burn away the optimism and the spirit, the capacity for visions, and the respect for simple yet indispensable things.

  Anne Rice

  Simple, Giving, Suffering

  Anne Rice (1983). “The Queen of the Damned”, Ballantine Books

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• optimism, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong. It is held with greatest tenacity by those most accustomed to the mischance of falling into adversity, and is most acceptably expounded with disproof - an intellectual disorder, yielding to no treatment but death. It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Beautiful, Fall, Adversity

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

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• In all probability the Human Genome Project will, someday, find that I carry some recessive gene for optimism, because despite all my best efforts I still can't scrape together even a couple days of hopelessness. Future scientists will call it the Pollyanna Syndrome, and if forced to guess, I'd say that mine has been a way-long case history of chasing rainbows.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Couple, Best Effort, Chasing Rainbows

  "Damned". Book by Chuck Palahniuk, 2011.

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• but sometimes optimism is the only drug that works. But it’s sadly temporary in its effects.

  Rachel Caine

  Drug, Sometimes, Effects

  Rachel Caine (2011). “Windfall”, p.173, Allison & Busby

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• Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience". "What's pessimism?" I said. "Religion without God.

  Jonathan Kellerman

  Denial, Life Experience, Pessimism

  Jonathan Kellerman (2007). “Obsession: An Alex Delaware Novel”, p.43, Ballantine Books

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• While optimism makes us live as if someday soon things will soon go better for us, hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us alone but will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart... Joy in this perspective is the fruit of hope.

  Henri Nouwen

  Heart, Perspective, Joy

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2005). “The Dance of Life: Weaving Sorrows and Blessings Into One Joyful Step”

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• I have always believed that scientific research is another domain where a form of optimism is essential to success: I have yet to meet a successful scientist who lacks the ability to exaggerate the importance of what he or she is doing, and I believe that someone who lacks a delusional sense of significance will wilt in the face of repeated experiences of multiple small failures and rare successes, the fate of most researchers.

  Daniel Kahneman

  Believe, Fate, Successful

  Daniel Kahneman (2011). “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, p.299, Macmillan

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• The true Christian can nurture a trustful optimism, because he is certain of not walking alone. In sending us Jesus, the eternal Son made man, God has drawn near to each of us. In Christ he has become our travelling companion.

  Pope John Paul II

  Christian, Jesus, Son

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• I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Optimistic, Criticism, Pessimistic

  "A Conversation With Author Carlos Fuentes". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. 1987.

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• Real optimism is not the pep talk you give yourself. It is earned through the labor involved in emotional housekeeping.

  Augusten Burroughs

  Real, Emotional, Giving

  Augusten Burroughs (2012). “This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.”, p.17, Macmillan

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• In my ninety-plus years, I have learned a secret. I have learned that when good men and good women face challenges with optimism, things will always work out! Truly, things always work out! Despite how difficult circumstances may look at the moment, those who have faith and move forward with a happy spirit will find that things always work out.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Moving, Men, Years

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• Optimism sprouts from the knowledge that you are in control of your own life, not your past and not those around you. Part of being in control is taking responsibility for how you feel. This means not just admitting to uncomfortable feelings but then examining your circumstances to see what can be done to change these feelings at the source.

  Augusten Burroughs

  Mean, Responsibility, Past

  Augusten Burroughs (2012). “This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.”, p.17, Macmillan

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• I think today will be the day. Today our luck will change,' I proclaimed on the wings of the first coffee of the day, pure optimism in a liquid state.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Coffee, Thinking, Wings

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2012). “The Prisoner of Heaven: A Novel”, p.9, Harper Collins

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• One has to have a complicated kind of optimism. You can't refuse to look at how horrible things are.

  Tony Kushner

  Looks, Kind, Complicated

  Tony Kushner, Robert Vorlicky (1998). “Tony Kushner in Conversation”, p.148, University of Michigan Press

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• Optimism is the first symptom that any disease is fatal.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Disease, Firsts, Symptoms

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• In the eulogy by the graveside, I told everyone how my sister and I used to sing to each other on our birthday. I told them that, when I thought of my sister, I could still hear her laughter, sense her optimism, and feel her faith. I told them that my sister was the kindest person I;ve ever known, and that the world was a sadder place without her in it. And finally, I told them to remember my sister with a smile, like I did, for even though she was being buried near my parents, the best parts of her would always stay alive, deep within our hearts.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Laughter, Heart, Parent

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• Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.

  Stephen King

  Kings, Writing, Response

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

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• I wished I could share my own optimism.

  Jasper Fforde

  Share, My Own

  "The Eyre Affair". Book by Jasper Fforde, 2003.

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• Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

  Alain de Botton

  Good Life, Crazy, Feelings

  Twitter post from Jan 13, 2013

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• But hey, what's life without a little adversity?" That had to have been the fakest attempt at optimism since my fourth grade teacher tried reasoning that we were better off without the dead kids in our class because it'd mean more turns on the playground swings for the rest of us.

  Alexandra Bracken

  Teacher, Mean, Adversity

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• To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary. Please, this is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.

  Brennan Manning

  Beautiful, Reality, Evil

  Brennan Manning (2009). “The Furious Longing of God”, p.59, David C Cook

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• Sanguine chuckled. "I like you, boy. You got optimism in these bones. I like you so much that I ain't gonna tell you what I did to poor old Jethro, the first Jethro, may he rest in peace, may they someday find his head.

  Derek Landy

  Rest In Peace, I Like You, Boys

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• I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.

  Joseph Addison

  Mind, Mirth, Pessimism

  Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.103

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• We can see well into the past; we can guess shrewdly into the future, but that which is rolled up and muffled in impenetrable folds is today.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Future, Past, Today

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

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• No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mind, Anticipation, Pessimism

  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

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