Pessimist Quotes - Page 5

• I don't know if the optimists
  or the pessimists are right.
  But, the optimists are going to get something done.

  Craig Venter

  Done, Optimist, Knows

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• A pessimist is a person who is always right but doesn't get any enjoyment out of it, while an optimist, is one who imagines that the future is uncertain. It is a duty to be an optimist, because if you imagine that the future is uncertain, then you mu

  Victor Cherbuliez

  Optimism, Imagine, Uncertain

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• I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a dyed-in-the-woo l possibilist! By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything's connected and change is the only constant.

  Frances Moore Lappé

  Mean, Mind, Optimist

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• I have always had a passion for the beautiful. If the man in me is often a pessimist, the artist, on the contrary, is pre-eminently an optimist.

  Jules Breton

  Beautiful, Passion, Artist

  Jules Breton (1891). “The Life of an Artist: Art and Nature”

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• Some of my cronies call me a pessimist and a decadent, but there is always a background of faith behind resignation.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Cronies, Call Me, Resignation

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joseph C. Landis (1986). “Aspects of I.B. Singer”

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• Optimists think that this is the best of all possible worlds; pessimists fear they are right.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Thinking, World, Optimist

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• Men are always optimists when they look inwards, and pessimists when they look round them.

  Ouida

  Men, Optimism, Looks

  Ouida (1870). “Puck: His Vicissitudes, Adventures, Observations, Conclusions, Friendships, and Philosophies”, p.131

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• I'm an optimist in my heart - I'm a hopeless pollyanna just like my mother - but a pessimist in my head. I think that's the dialectic we all need to be in.

  Bill Ayers

  Mother, Heart, Thinking

  "The Rumpus Long Interview with Bill Ayers". Interview with Scott Hutchins, therumpus.net. February 20, 2009.

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• It is most important in creative science not to give up. If you are an optimist you will be willing to "try" more than if you are a pessimist.

  Stanislaw Ulam

  Giving Up, Creative, Important

  "Adventures of a Mathematician". Book by Stanislaw Ulam, 3rd edition. Chapter 3: "Travels Abroad", p. 55, 1991.

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• A pessimist doesn't see the sunset outside, he sees the dirt on the window.

  Jim Rohn

  Sunset, Dirt, Window

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• Optimists focus on the place they are going. Pessimists focus on the obstacles along the route. To become an optimist simply look ahead.

  Simon Sinek

  Focus, Looks, Obstacles

  Twitter post from May 06, 2010

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• The bottom line on attitude is that a good one helps to increase your possibilities. Pessimists usually get what they expect. So do optimists.

  John C. Maxwell

  Attitude, Lines, Helping

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• People don't like to follow pessimists.

  Bob Iger

  People

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• Pessimists are just as illogical as optimists; insomuch as both envisage the aims of mankind as unified, and as having a direct relationship (either of frustration or of fulfilment) to the inevitable flow of terrestrial motivation and events. That is - both schools retain in a vestigial way the primitive concept of a conscious teleology - of a cosmos which gives a damn one way or the other about the especial wants and ultimate welfare of mosquitos, rats, lice, dogs, men, horses, pterodactyls, trees, fungi, dodos, or other forms of biological energy.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Dog, Horse, Motivation

  Letter to James F. Morton (1929), quoted in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, (p. 483), 1996.

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• Christians should not be optimists; we know too much about sin. We should also not be pessimists, for we know the living God.

  Timothy Keller

  Christian, Too Much, Sin

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• I'm not a pessimist. Maybe I don't have a primitive feeling of happiness, that is true. Sometimes my color is happy but not the expression.

  Karel Appel

  Expression, Color, Feelings

  "Karel Appel - the complete sculptures". Book edited by Harry de Visser and Roland Hagenberg, Edition Lafayette, New York, p. 85 'Quotes', 1990.

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• When I look at history, I am a pessimist...but when I look at prehistory, I am an optimist.

  Jan Smuts

  Looks, Prehistory, Optimist

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• I am pessimistic, I think that's the best way to be, because if you're always expecting the best - the best doesn't always happen. Nine times out of 10 it doesn't. I'm surprised when things go smoothly. I don't know what's wrong with being pessimistic - unless you are such a pessimist that you don't do anything.

  Karl Pilkington

  Thinking, Pessimistic, Nine

  Source: www.listener.co.nz

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• Elend shook his head. "We can survive this. But, the only way that will happen is if our people don't give up. They need leaders who laugh, leaders who feel that this fight can be won. So, this is what I ask of you. I don't care if you're an optimist or a pessimist—I don't care if secretly, you think we'll all be dead before the month ends. On the outside, I want to see you smiling. Do it in defiance, if you have to. If the end does come, I want this group to meet that end smiling. As the Survivor taught us.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Giving Up, Don't Give Up, Fighting

  Brandon Sanderson (2008). “The Hero of Ages: Book Three of Mistborn”, p.117, Macmillan

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• Pessimists fear becoming the dupes of Hope. Optimists enjoy Hope's company, and consider being duped no great matter.

  Mason Cooley

  Hope, Fear, Optimism

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• Every generation thinks things are happening that have never happened before. Every generation of people thinks we're in the last days. Every generation's filled with pessimists. But when you have the Millennials generation, a majority of which have never had a job - you might even be able to put the period there: "Have never had a job, period" - or never had a job in a healthy economy.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Thinking, People, Healthy

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• Our notion of an optimist is a man who knowing that each year was worse than the preceding, thinks next year will be better. And a pessimist is a man who knows the next year can't be worse than the last one.

  Franklin P. Adams

  Men, Thinking, Years

  Franklin P. Adams (''F.P.A.'') (1944). “Nods and Becks”

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• The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is right from his own particular point of view, and this point of view is the determining factor in the life of each. It determines as to whether it is a life of power or impotence, of peace or of pain, of success or of failure.

  Ralph Waldo Trine

  Pain, Dark, Light

  Ralph Waldo Trine (2013). “In Tune With the Infinite: Fullness of Peace, Power and Plenty (New Thought Edition)”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

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• An optimist is presented with a problem and sees an opportunity. A pessimist is presented with an opportunity and sees a problem.

  Harry S. Truman

  Opportunity, Problem, Optimist

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• It is largely because the free-thinkers, as a school, have hardly made up their minds whether they want to be more optimist or more pessimist than Christianity that their small but sincere movement has failed.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  School, Mind, Movement

  "The Victorian Age in Literature". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Ch. II: The Great Victorian Novelists, p. 73, 1913.

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