Pessimism Quotes - Page 11

• A pessimist is a man who looks both ways when he crosses the street.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Men, Looks, Literature

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• The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Stupid, Silly, Doctors

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2007). “Parerga and Paralipomena: A Collection of Philosophical Essays”, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Educated, eyes-open optimism pays; pessimism can only offer the empty consolation of being right.

  David Landes

  Wisdom, Eye, Optimism

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• Invest at the point of maximum pessimism.

  John Templeton

  Maximum

  "World of Investing : The rewards of a long view" by James K. Glassman, International Herald Tribune, www.nytimes.com. April 24, 2004.

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• The modern technological world appears overwhelming to many people. It drives some to pessimism and despair. It makes others doubt the future of mankind unless we retreat to simpler lives and even to the ways of our ancestors. What these people fail to realize is that we cannot go back to those ways and those days. Furthermore, for all our difficulties, life today is far better for more people and the possibilities for the future can be brighter than ever if we develop not only new knowledge, but a greater faith and confidence in the human mind and spirit.

  Glenn T. Seaborg

  People, Mind, Doubt

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• When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.

  Warren Buffett

  Enemy, Investing, Financial

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• The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Happy, Philosophical, Inspiration

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.15, Cosimo Classics

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• [Never give up hope. Never give in to pessimism. Never despair.] No horse named Morbid ever won a race!

  Ernest Hemingway

  Horse, Giving Up, Race

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• Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Mean, Reality, Men

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “the Wisdom of Life: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.43, 谷月社

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• Without [hope and] confidence in a cause, there is no action. Ignorance may be enlightened, superstition wiped out; intolerance may become tolerant, and hate be changed into love; ideas may be quickened, intelligence widened, and men's hearts may be ennobled; but from pessimism which can see nothing but gloomy visions nothing is to be expected.

  Klas Pontus Arnoldson

  Hate, Heart, Ignorance

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• Depression is not generalized pessimism, but pessimism specific to the effects of one's own skilled action.

  Robert M. Sapolsky

  Action, Effects

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• I have lived through many wars and have lost everything many times Yet, life is beautiful, and I have so much to learn and enjoy. I have no space nor time for pessimism and hate.

  Alice Herz-Sommer

  Beautiful, Hate, War

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• Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Strong Women, Philosophical, Enemy

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2004). “On the Suffering of the World”, p.65, Penguin UK

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• Some people learn from mistakes and don't repeat them,
  Others try to block the memories and just delete them.
  But I keep 'em as a reminder they're not killing me,
  And I thank God for teaching me humility.
  Son, remember when you fight to be free
  To see things how they are and not how you like em to be.
  Cause even when the world is falling on top of me,
  Pessimism is an emotion, not a philosophy.
  Knowing what's wrong doesn't imply that you right,
  And it's another when you suffer to apply it in life.
  But I'm no rookie...
  And I'm never gonna make the same mistake twice, pussy.

  Immortal Technique

  Memories, Block, Philosophy

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• The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  People, Disease, Melancholy

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• A few modern philosopher's assert that an individual's intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism.... With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.

  Alfred Binet

  Memories, Intelligent, Practice

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• Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Pain, Intelligent, World Suffering

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.30, Cosimo Classics

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• Optimism, pessimism, f**k that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.

  Elon Musk

  Optimism, Hell, Bent

  "Now 0-for-3, SpaceX's Elon Musk Vows to Make Orbit". Interview with Carl Hoffman, www.wired.com. August 5, 2008.

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• If cynicism and love lie at opposite ends of a spectrum, do we not sometimes fall in love in order to escape the debilitating cynicism to which we are prone? Is there not in every coup de foudre a certain willful exaggeration of the qualities of the beloved, an exaggeration which distracts us from our habitual pessimism and focuses our energies on someone in whom we can believe in a way we have never believed in ourselves?

  Alain de Botton

  Falling In Love, Lying, Believe

  Alain de Botton (2015). “On Love: A Novel”, p.15, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The entire concept of pessimism crumbles the moment one human being puts aside thoughts of self and reaches out to another to minister to her suffering. The experience of either person can neither be denied nor adequately explained by a negative philosophy.

  Michael J. Nelson

  Philosophy, Self, Suffering

  Michael J. Nelson (2009). “Mike Nelson's Mind over Matters”, p.12, Harper Collins

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• Trying to separate myself from my instincts of pessimism and cut out and define what it is that I really do love, what I'm here to be, why I'm here, and what I think is worth being alive for and fighting for. And those things change, but I think that that's something I am always chasing.

  El-P

  Fighting, Cutting, Thinking

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• To me, what I define as defiance, in some ways, is knowing the "reality" and having the ability to possess a realist mindstate yet still working towards the fantasy and still being childish. While still having the understanding and capacity that would generally inspire pessimism: some sort of more realist perspective that I think most people classify as adult. Anything like that and anything that's sort of fun.

  Alex Ebert

  Fun, Reality, Thinking

  "Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• Antonio Gramsci said that social reformers should have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. This means that one must have the intellectual ability to see how bad things are and the emotional ability to look forward with hope. It's a hard combination to sustain, but if you can do it, you can change the world.

  Andrew Solomon

  Mean, Emotional, Should Have

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• The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Mean, Eye, Fate

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism”, p.5, Arthur Schopenhauer

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• Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Distance, Past, Law

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.35, 谷月社

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