Quotessence
Home / Topics / Optimism Quotes

Optimism Quotes

Browse 2774 quotes about Optimism.

Related topics

OptimisticPessimismThinkingIfsPeopleWorldBelieveInspirationalAttitudeMenPessimistOptimism And PessimismOptimism In LifeLooksWayKnowsHumansOptimism And HopePositiveNeedsSpiritBeing OptimisticBeliefMayMindWantWellsHappinessProblemTodayAmericaGivingPersonsChildrenFeelsLifePositive OptimisticKindLongRealStillsHeartMotivationalOpportunityPositive ThinkingYearsMeanOptimists And PessimistsPossibilitySelfCountryDespairLittlesOptimistic LifePessimisticRealityShouldHas BeensHelpingJoyMatterReasonTomorrowActionEvilFactsFeelingsLife IsPastTryingAbilityCynicismDreamHappensIdeasImportantSometimesWorryBlind OptimismChallengesDoeEyeGoalHardI BelieveMomentsPowerfulSidesSuccessWorstBeautifulChristianEnergyEnjoyGood OptimisticNegativePoliticalSeemsViewsBlindmore

Optimism Quotes

“We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.”

IfsBelieveFactsProblemFacesFightingEvilVirtueBalanceOptimismDeedsSolveFoolishGravesSurrenderPessimismThreateningIgnoble
Book:Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century
Create image

“They [Americans] want to believe that Good and Evil can be defined in precise categories, that Good is already, or will be easily achieved. ... if this optimism appears too superficial, they will try to create a kind of anti-God: the U.S.S.R. That is Evil, and it only needs to be annihilated to re-establish the reign of Good.”

IfsWantNeedsTryingBelieveKindEvilUnited StatesOptimismDefinedGood And EvilCategoriesReignSuperficialPreciseAnti God
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
Create image

“To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species. The essence of man is imperfection. Imperfection and blazing contradictions-between mixed good and evil, altruism and selfishness, cooperativeness and combativeness, optimism and fatalism, affirmation and negation.”

MenNeedsEvilPerfectionOptimismEssenceSpeciesSelfishnessContradictionGood And EvilImperfectionAltruismAffirmationBlazingNegationFatalism
Book:Who Speaks for Man?
Create image

“To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary. Please, this is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.”

PersonsRealityBeautifulEvilFinePleaseOptimismBlindAppearanceContraryRepeatsSpiteRadarPollyanna
Book:The Furious Longing of God
Create image

“The world we live in is a world of mingled good and evil. Whether it is chiefly good or chiefly bad depends on how we take it. To look at the world in such a way as to emphasize the evil is the art of pessimism. To look at it in such a way as to bring out the good, and throw the evil into the background, is the art of optimism. The facts are the same in either case. It is simply a question of perspective and emphasis.”

WorldWayLooksArtFactsEvilCasesPerspectiveDependsOptimismBackgroundsGood And EvilPessimismEmphasis
Author:William DeWitt Hyde
Create image

“The fatal error of much science fiction has been to subscribe to an optimism based on the idea that revolution, or a new gimmick, or a bunch of strong men, or an invasion of aliens, or the conquest of other planets, or the annihilation of half the world--in short, pretty nearly anything but the facing up to the integral and irredeemable nature of mankind--can bring about utopian situations. It is the old error of the externalization of evil.”

MenWorldHas BeensIdeasEvilStrongHalfFictionSituationMankindPlanetsRevolutionOptimismScience FictionErrorsBunchAliensConquestInvasionUtopianAnnihilationNature Of ManStrong ManGimmicks
Author:Brian Aldiss
Create image

“Sapper, listen to me. It’s easy to listen and even easier to hear wrongly, so pay attention. I’m no wise man, but in my life I’ve learned that knowing something—seeing it clearly—offers no real excuse for giving up on it. And when you put what you see into words, give ’em to somebody else, that ain’t no invitation neither. Being optimistic’s worthless if it means ignoring the suffering of this world. Worse than worthless. It’s bloody evil. And being pessimistic, well, that’s just the first step on the path, and it’s a path that might take you down Hood’s road, or it takes you to a place where you can settle into doing what you can, hold fast in your fight against that suffering. And that’s an honest place, Cuttle.”

EvilOptimismPessimism
Book:Dust of Dreams
Create image

“Thinking based on evil is not pessimistic; it is the thinking based on misfortune that is pessimistic because it wants desperately to escape evil or, alternatively, to revel in it. Thought, for its part, does not cure human misfortune, the terrible obviousness of which it absorbs for purposes of some unknown transformation. Pessimism excludes any depth that eludes its negative judgement, whereas thought wishes to penetrate magically beyond the fracture of the visible. The rays of the black sun of pessimism do not reach down to the floor of the abyss. Absolute depth knows neither good nor evil. Thus the intelligence of evil goes far beyond pessimism. In reality, the only genuinely pessimistic, nihilistic vision is that of good since, at bottom, from the humanist point of view, the whole of history is nothing but crime. Cain killing Abel is already a crime against humanity (there were only two of them!) and isn't original sin already a crime against humanity too? This is all absurd, and, from the standpoint of good, the effort to rehabilitate the world's violence is a hopeless exercise. All the more so as, without all these crimes, there simply wouldn't be any history. 'If the evil in man were eliminated,' says Montaigne, 'you would destroy the fundamental conditions of life.”

EvilOptimismThoughtPessimismNihilism
Book:The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact
Create image