Pessimism Quotes - Page 14

• Pessimism, she is a fond friend of yours, yes?" - That's uncalled for. I barely know her. Mere acquaintances, at best.

  Robert Jordan

  Acquaintance, Mere, Knows

  Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson (2010). “The Gathering Storm: Book 12 of the Wheel of Time”, p.569, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• the thing about pessimism is that in most cases it's nothing more than a front behind which a body can hide its most sweetful yet painful hopes. please forgive mine.

  Eric Clapton

  Forgiving, Body, Painful

  12 Copy quote

• Only from the perspective of such a utopia is it possible to use the concepts of pessimism and optimism with full justification: an optimist is someone who thinks that on planet number five the history of mankind will be less bloody. A pessimist is one who thinks otherwise.

  Milan Kundera

  Thinking, Numbers, Optimism

  4 Copy quote

• Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope as old as your despair. In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young. When your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old. And then, indeed as the ballad says, you just fade away

  Douglas MacArthur

  Confidence, Cheer, Giving Up

  84 Copy quote

• Stop moping, sule," galladon said with a grunt."It doesn't suit you-it takes a fine sense of pessimism to brood with any sort of respectability.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Suits You, Said, Fine

  Brandon Sanderson (2011). “Elantris”, p.442, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• He realized at last that the arguments of pessimism were powerless to comfort him

  Joris-Karl Huysmans

  Comfort, Lasts, Argument

  Joris-Karl Huysmans (2015). “Against the Grain: (À rebours)”, p.170, BoD – Books on Demand

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act.

  Tobias Wolff

  Art, Writing, Optimistic

  4 Copy quote

• This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  World, Limits, Consideration

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “The World as Will and Representation”, p.273, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Men, Tunes, Variation

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “The World as Will and Representation”, p.322, Courier Corporation

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Passion, World, Stuff

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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Faith is a luxury for those who are able to ignore what the rest of us must see every day. Pessimism, distrust, and irony are the holy trinity of my religion, irony in particular.

  Brando Skyhorse

  Luxury, Able, Irony

  Brando Skyhorse (2010). “The Madonnas of Echo Park: A Novel”, p.156, Simon and Schuster

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come and seek me out, we'd talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine.

  Wole Soyinka

  Depression, Way, Found

  FaceBook post by Wole Soyinka from Feb 22, 2015

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is understandable how some people could give way to this kind of pervasive pessimism, but we speak of a gospel which brings good tidings of great joy and this must be reflected in our lives, if we are to be believable especially as we suggest to others that there is, in fact, not only a better way, but also the way. Scriptures that speak of man as a being who "might have joy" have more impact when falling from the lips or pens of men and women whose lives give fresh evidence of the validity of that scripture.

  Neal A. Maxwell

  Fall, Men, Impact

  4 Copy quote

• Optimism is a much more enabling mindset than hard-core realism, and it's far superior to pessimism...[because] Hope helps move us in the direction of our goals and ambitions.

  Price Pritchett

  Moving, Ambition, Goal

  4 Copy quote

• Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.

  Robertson Davies

  Life, Future, Views

  4 Copy quote

• We need more pessimism that the future might be a lot worse, and we need more optimism that the future might be better.

  Peter Thiel

  Optimism, Needs, Might

  8 Copy quote

• I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism.

  Andrew Mellon

  Depression, Situation, Warrants

  "How It Was: The Year After the Crash of 1929" by Dan Agin, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 21, 2009.

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Able, Bad Things

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Religion: a Dialogue”, p.132, Arthur Schopenhauer

  39 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mine is an enthusiastic and dionysian pessimism, like a flame that sets my vital exuberance ablaze, that mocks at any theoretical, scientific or moral prison.

  Renzo Novatore

  Flames, Moral, Prison

  13 Copy quote

• No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Doubt, Fool, Modesty

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.44, Cosimo Classics

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Character, Men, Way

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Counsels and Maxims”, p.107, Arthur Schopenhauer

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In truth the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Strong, Men, Two

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “The World as Will and Representation”, p.209, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• On the path of actions, great heart is the chief recommendation; on that works, a great head.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Heart, Path, Action

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “the Wisdom of Life: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.65, 谷月社

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I say, choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Doubt, Unseen

  45 Copy quote

• I don't think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story.

  Doris Lessing

  Writing, Thinking, Optimism

  4 Copy quote