Pessimist Quotes - Page 3

• A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is a man who hopes they are.

  Chauncey Depew

  Funny, Women, Silly

  "FPA Book of Quotations : A New Collection of Famous Sayings". Book by Franklin Pierce Adams, 1952.

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• Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Life, Hilarious

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• I am not a pessimist; to perceive evil where it exists is, in my opinion, a form of optimism

  Roberto Rossellini

  Evil, Optimism, Opinion

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• Pessimists see a problem behind every opportunity. Optimists see an opportunity behind every problem.

  Denis Waitley

  Opportunity, Problem, Optimist

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• The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Optimism, Perspective

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• If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Happiness, Encouragement

  Helen Keller (2010). “The World I Live In and Optimism: A Collection of Essays”, p.102, Courier Corporation

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• 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

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• No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

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• Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist-a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist-only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Depression, Fighting, Vitality

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• When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist. I choose to be an optimist. It's all a matter of perspective.

  Harvey Mackay

  Positive Thinking, Two, Perspective

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• To the pessimist the light at the end of the tunnel is another train.

  Joan Rivers

  Humor, Las Vegas, Tunnels

  Joan Rivers (1997). “Bouncing back: I've survived everything-- and I mean everything-- and you can too!”, Thorndike Pr

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• Contrary to what you may assume, I am not a pessimist but an indifferentist- that is, I don't make the mistake of thinking that the... cosmos... gives a damn one way or the the other about the especial wants and ultimate welfare of mosquitoes, rats, lice, dogs, men, horses, pterodactyls, trees, fungi, dodos, or other forms of biological energy.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Dog, Horse, Mistake

  Letter to James F. Morton (1929), quoted in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, p. 483,

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• Optimism is a tonic. Pessimism is poison. Admittedly, every businessman must be realistic. He must gather facts, analyze them candidly and strive to draw logical conclusions, whether favorable or unfavorable. He must not engage in self-delusion. He must not view everything through rose-colored glasses. Granting this, the incontestable truth is that America has been built up by optimists, not by pessimists, but by men possessing courage, confidence in the nation's destiny, by men willing to adventure to shoulder risks terrifying to the timid.

  B. C. Forbes

  Adventure, Destiny, Men

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• Pessimists see problems as stemming from stable and universal causes, thus making them less susceptible to corrective action. Optimists, in contrast, view problems as temporary and resulting from specific factors that will either change or be changed.

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter

  Views, Optimism, Causes

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• The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don't look clearly and objectively at situations, they don't recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.

  Benjamin Hoff

  Believe, Play, Risk

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• In my next life I want to be a pessimist. Then other people could spend all their time cheering me up.

  Katharine Whitehorn

  Cheer, People, Want

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• Too often we jump to the conclusion that something is impossible simply because we cannot see the solution. No one knows enough to be a pessimist.

  Wayne Dyer

  Optimistic, Impossible, Enough

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• The pessimist borrows trouble; the optimists lend encouragement.

  William Arthur Ward

  Inspirational, Motivational, Encouragement

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• The optimist pleasantly ponders how high his kite will fly; the pessimist woefully wonders how soon his kite will fall.

  William Arthur Ward

  Fall, Optimistic, Flying High

  William Arthur Ward (1968). “Thoughts of a Christian Optimist: The Words of William Arthur Ward”

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• Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the worlds at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.

  Helen Keller

  Struggle, Moving, Twilight

  Helen Keller (2012). “The World I Live In and Optimism: A Collection of Essays”, p.106, Courier Corporation

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• Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!

  Shimon Peres

  Life, Death, Positive Thinking

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• People who are optimistic see a failure as due to something that can be changed so that they can succeed next time around, while pessimists take the blame for the failure, ascribing it to some characteristic they are helpless to change.

  Daniel Goleman

  Optimistic, People, Succeed

  Daniel Goleman (2012). “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”, p.147, Bantam

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• Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them.

  Ted Koppel

  Believe, Odds, Overcoming

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• When hearing a door creak, the optimist thinks it's opening and the pessimist thinks it's closing.

  Matthieu Ricard

  Thinking, Doors, Hearing

  Matthieu Ricard (2011). “The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill”, p.172, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• The opposite of a leader isn't a follower. The opposite of a leader is a pessimist.

  Marcus Buckingham

  Opposites, Leader, Followers

  Marcus Buckingham (2008). “The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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