quotations about optimism
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
HELEN KELLER
Optimism
The world cures alike optimist and the misanthrope.
BULWER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Thus will we deal with life, my little help-meet. Will we not, eh? What though it blink at us like an owl that is blinded by the sun, we will yet force it to smile.
LEONID ANDREYEV
The Life of Man
To me it seems not unreasonable to find a re-enforcement of optimism, a renewal of courage and hope, in the modern theory that man has mounted to what he is from the lowest step of potentiality, through toilsome grades of ever-expanding existence, even thought it have been by a spiral stairway, mainly dark or dusty, with loop-holes at long intervals only, and these granting but a narrow and one-sided view.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Progress of the World
I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?
EPICTETUS
Discourses
Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that ensures the successful outcome of the venture.
WILLIAM JAMES
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Protracted optimism must eventually end in hopeless fatuity.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Optimism is good for overcoming obstacles that are part of daily life, but over-optimism can blind us to adversities that need addressing.
MICHAEL SHERMER
"Defying the Doomsayers", Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2012
Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.
RANDY PAUSCH
The Last Lecture
Like pride, blind optimism may go before a fall.
DAVID G. MYERS
Exploring Psychology
Optimism works in conjunction with your life energy, strengthening your roots and keeping you grounded, stimulating the growth of new shoots and the development of new branches that form your life, energizing the creation that is you.
DANA LIGHTMAN
Power Optimism
Optimism is a product of a man's heart rather than of his head; of his emotions rather than of his reason; and on that account is rather frowned on by physicians.
EDWARD L. TRUDEAU
"Value of Optimism in Medicine", The Journal of the American Medial Association, 1910
I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist ... or maybe even a pessimist. The glass has water in it; that's all I know.
CLAY AIKEN
interview, Ability Magazine
The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
Letters and Papers from Prison
But optimism is more than abundant food, more even than good digestion; it is a hopeful philosophy that is justified by things as they have been and things as they are. So that the answer to the question: "Is life worth living?" depends not entirely upon the liver as the cynic has said, but upon our acceptance of the unavoidable, our courage to combat adversity and wrong, our seeking out and appreciating what is good.
WILLIAM KENT
Here's Hoping; the Optimism of Experience
Optimism is the spice of Life. It is the Science and Art of Life. It teaches us to know Life as it really is, and not as the vile stench of fever vapours which rise from the pestilential marsh, nor the distorted grotesque visions which come from a warped and disordered brain or liver. It teaches us to live. Not like bestial denizens of an under-world, but like Olympian Joves with a Greece and Athens at our feet, the powers of nature at our command and the laurel crown of rationality on our brows.
MEREDITH F. TITTERINGTON
"Is Optimism Irrational?", The Plebs Magazine, February 1910
Optimism is cowardice.
OSWALD SPENGLER
Man and Technics
Unsatisfied desire is the characteristic feature of human life. That is the common fact out of which both pessimism and optimism are constructed. Dwell on the impossibility of ever getting a state of complete and permanent satisfaction with what you have, and you become a pessimist. Dwell on the opportunity for endless growth and conquest which this same fact makes possible, and you become an optimist.
WILLIAM DEWITT HYDE
The Art of Optimism
The near cousin of optimism is hope: knowing the steps needed to get to a goal and having the energy to pursue those steps. It is a primal motivating force, and its absence is paralyzing.
DANIEL GOLEMAN
Working With Emotional Intelligence
Despite the cautions just raised, there is abundant reason to believe that optimism -- big, little, and in between -- is useful to a person because positive expectations can be self-fulfilling.
CHRISTOPHER PETERSON
American Psychologist