PESSIMISM QUOTES III

quotations about pessimism

The pessimism that protests and defends itself cannot be truly said to be pessimism.

MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO

Tragic Sense of Life

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The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

JAMES BRANCH CABELL

The Silver Stallion

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Cease to anticipate misfortune--there are still many chances of escape.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER

Proverbial Philosophy

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Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.

JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH

The Age of Uncertainty

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I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.

CLINT EASTWOOD

American Cowboy, January/February 2000

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Pessimism is the natural outcome of the carping, fault-finding disposition. This variety of temper involves, besides that fundamental irritability and quarrelsomeness of disposition already referred to, the cooperation of the sentiment of power. To perceive the defects of our dwelling-place is to set ourselves above it, to prove the superiority of our conception to the actual object before us. By how much, one wonders, would the amount of human criticism be diminished if men no longer derived from the process any agreeable feeling of intellectual elevation. And this critical and condemnatory spirit can address itself to the arrangements of the inanimate world no less than to the work of one's fellow-beings. Even when there is no distinct recognition of a Demiurgus behind the fabric, it is possible to gain this species of satisfaction by imagining how much better we should have put things together than we find them actually combined.

JAMES SULLY

Pessimism: A History and a Criticism


Pessimism has never done anything but tear down and destroy what optimism has built up.

ORISON SWETT MARDEN

Getting On

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This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

NERO WOLFE

Fer-de-Lance


In truth, if I were asked to say briefly what Pessimism is, I should say it is disappointed Egotism; and the description will hold good, whether we apply it to an individual, to a community, or to an age.

ALFRED AUSTIN

The Bridling of Pegasus

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Pessimism requires action, whereas optimism means staying the course. Pessimism is "SELL, GET OUT, RUN," which grabs your attention because it's an action you need to take right now. You don't want to read the article later or skim over the details, because you might get hurt. Optimism is mostly, "Don't worry, stay the course, we'll be alright," which is easy to ignore since it doesn't require doing anything.

MORGAN HOUSEL

"Why Does Pessimism Sound So Smart?", Motley Fool, January 21, 2016


Pessimism is a product of our civilization. It is not natural to the savage; he feels pain, or discomfort, and suffers from these palpable conditions, but when he recovers from wounds he forgets the torments, and when he is well fed he is joyous in the light of day.

ARTHUR LYNCH

Moods of Life

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The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

attributed, Quotable Quotes

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The essence of my optimism is constructive pessimism.

FAUSTO CERCIGNANI

attributed, Quotes We Cherish: Quotations from Fausto Cercignani


The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.

HELEN KELLER

Optimism: An Essay

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The world is, in fact, a much better place than the optimists allow: and that is why pessimism is needed.

ROGER SCRUTON

The Uses of Pessimism: And the Danger of False Hope

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Pessimism, distrust, and irony are the holy trinity of my religion.

BRANDO SKYHORSE

The Madonnas of Echo Park


If pessimism is true, happiness is nothing but a chimera, and to make it the end of conduct is to bid oneself and others to grasp at the unattainable.

JAMES SULLY

Pessimism: A History and a Criticism


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

letter to James F. Morton, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Churchill By Himself

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Oh happy pessimists! What a joy it is to them to be able to prove again and again that there is no joy.

MARIE VON EBNER-ESCHENBACH

Aphorisms