Pessimistic Quotes - Page 9

• Losing my mind sounds so pessimistic. I prefer the term winning my insanity.

  Dane Cook

  Winning, Insanity, Mind

  FaceBook post by Dane Cook from Mar 05, 2011

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• When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.

  Paul Hawken

  Optimistic, Odds, Order

  "Paul Hawken: programming a new operating system for civilization" by James Epstein-Reeves and Ellen Weinreb, www.theguardian.com. September 23, 2013.

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• I can't blame anyone for being pessimistic when they look around, after all the blood spilled and energy spent to gain ground for working people in the past, and see it all happening again. I wasn't pointing a finger when I wrote the book, but sometimes the message is there even when you aren't actively trying to be the messenger.

  James Vance

  Book, Past, Blood

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I'm quite pessimistic about climate change. This is an urgent problem, and much of the world is only now waking up to the easiest part of solving - the realization that anthropogenic global warming is real.

  Philip Kitcher

  Real, Climate, Wake Up

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Nothing makes me more pessimistic than the obligation not to be pessimistic.

  Eugene Ionesco

  Obligation

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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, Optimism, Criticism

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

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• First of all, Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and the world. It looks at things objectively (yath?bh?tam). It does not falsely lull you into living in a fool's paradise, nor does it frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins. It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is, and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness.

  Walpola Rahula

  Optimistic, Buddhism, Views

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• You have the freedom to choose to be optimistic or pessimistic. You can peel off your old attitude like a suit of clothes, and put on a brand spanking new attitude every single day. It's as simple as that.

  Rhonda Byrne

  Attitude, Optimistic, Simple

  Rhonda Byrne (2013). “Hero”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

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• There is something very quiet and reserved and pessimistic about Obama's temperament that is deeply un-American. There are those people who claim, "Oh, he wasn't born here" - all that is nonsense.

  Jess Row

  People, Quiet, Nonsense

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I'm very pessimistic about the future of the human species. We have been so indifferent to life on the whole that it will take its toll. It's not just the polar bears that are having a hard time; what we're doing is gradually impoverishing and poisoning the whole of the rest of life.

  W. S. Merwin

  Hard Times, Rest Of Life, Tolls

  "An Interview with W. S. Merwin, Poet Laureate". Interview with Ed Rampell, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. October 25, 2010.

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• In the midst of my skeptical, cynical, often pessimistic nature exists a slender capacity to believe, if only temporarily, in a guiding, unseen power, and whenever this happens, I go with it. That's what inspiration is. You don't get it from the gods. You make it.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Believe, Inspiration, Cynical

  "How to believe in yourself - even if you sometimes don't" by Jeffrey Eugenides, www.cnn.com. October 18, 2012.

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• I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Inspirational, Life, Attitude

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• Most people have desires that are great and they want to do great things, and they don't want to be negative people or they don't want to live in pessimistic attitudes, but the problem is a lot of them were not given the right tools. They were not given the right blueprint of how to build a building.

  Kirk Franklin

  Attitude, People, Desire

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I talk about going to his [George W. Bush's] Inauguration and crying when he took the oath, 'cause I was so afraid he was going to "wreck the economy and muck up the drinking water"... the failure of my pessimistic imagination at that moment boggles my mind now.

  Sarah Vowell

  Drinking, Water, Imagination

  "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, www.cc.com. February 21, 2006.

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• I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially.

  E. B. White

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

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• I might not be able to use the word "hope," but I could certainly use the word "optimism." I'm very optimistic. I don't feel that it helps to be pessimistic. At some point in my life I made a conscious decision that I would try to be optimistic - not blind to anything at all - but to always hear the way that had the best chance for happiness.

  Louise Erdrich

  Optimistic, Optimism, Decision

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• As far as the environment is concerned, I am becoming pessimistic because I do not see anybody stepping up and taking the long view approach. It seems like we're stuck in a tragedy of the commons where everyone is trying to contribute as little as possible to get out of this situation.

  Frans de Waal

  Views, Long, Trying

  "Frans de Waal on Political Apes, Science Communication, and Building a Cooperative Society". Interview with Eric Michael Johnson, blogs.scientificamerican.com. July 11, 2011.

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• But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker.

  Tim Ferriss

  Average, People, Stronger

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I'm generally pessimistic about the dumbing down of America - especially with summer movies.

  Elmer Bernstein

  Summer, America, Dumbing Down

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• It has been said that the United States was deceived into entering and expanding the Vietnam War by its own overoptimistic propaganda. The record suggests, however, that the policy-makers stayed in Vietnam not so much because of overly optimistic hopes of winning ... as because of overly pessimistic assessments of the consequences of losing.

  Jonathan Schell

  War, Optimistic, Winning

  Jonathan Schell (1987). “The real war: the classic reporting on the Vietnam War with a new essay”, Pantheon

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• I'm now beginning to feel that the pessimistic vision is not for the movies.

  Karel Reisz

  Vision, Feels

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