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Pessimism Quotes

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Pessimism Quotes

“I'm not pessimistic, because poor people tend to bounce back. We've been through worse than this - working people been through worse than this. We've got slavery and Jim Crow. We've got workers with no rights up until `35. We're going to bounce back. We are resilient, resisting people. So, it's not pessimism, but it is blues-like. It's not optimistic. We're just prisoners of hope, that's all.”

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Author:Cornel West
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“Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair. If one truly responds to man and his future, ie , concernedly and "responsibly." one can respond only by faith or by despair. Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.”

IfsMenWellsFormDespairSurvivalOptimismCriticalRationalFactorsPessimismRelevantThorough
Book:The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
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“Nietzsche inveighs against every sort of historical optimism; but he energetically repudiates the ordinary pessimism, which is the result of degenerate or enfeebled instincts of decadence. He preaches with youthful enthusiasm the triumph of a tragic culture, introduced by an intrepid rising generation, in which the spirit of ancient Greece might be born again. He rejects the pessimism of Schopenhauer, for he already abhors all renunciation; but he seeks a pessimism of healthiness, one derived from strength, from exuberant power, and he believes he has found it in the Greeks.”

BelieveMightSpiritCultureFoundBornResultsGenerationsOrdinaryOptimismHistoricalInstinctAncientEnthusiasmTriumphGreekRisingTragicRejectsPessimismGreeceBorn AgainRenunciationDegeneratesDecadenceAncient Greece
Author:Georg Brandes
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“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.”

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Book:Moods of Life: Popular Psychological Studies of Affairs of Every Day
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“To the pessimist the light at the end of the tunnel is another train.”

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Book:Bouncing back: I've survived everything-- and I mean everything-- and you can too!
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“John Marks Templeton has achieved exemplary success in both business and philanthropy. For Looking Forward he has assembled a diverse and remarkable group of experts in their fields-including the environment, medicine, the physical sciences, religion, the family, and international relations-and contributed two stellar pieces as well. Together these essays dispel fashionable pessimism and show how the world can progress-and is progressing-toward a better future.”

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Author:Rupert Murdoch
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“The gravitation constant is the same always. But the economic constants-these elasticities of demand and supply-depending, as they do, upon human consciousness, are liable to vary. The constitution of the atom, as it were, and not merely its position, changes under the influence of environment.”

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Author:Arthur Cecil Pigou
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“Pessimism like calumny is easy to do, and attracts immediate attention. The gossiper and the writer may find this out soon enough, and a little encouragement from the current mood will procure them successes that bring endless imitators in their trail. On the other hand saying good things about life in general and individuals in particular and making it interesting is a serious task which few can achieve with credit.”

MayLittlesEnoughHandsIndividualEasyInterestingAttentionAchieveParticularSeriousTasksEncouragementGood ThingsCurrentsCreditMoodEndlessPessimismTrailsCalumnyImitatorSoon EnoughCalumny Is
Book:Sunset and Twilight: From the Diaries of 1947-1958
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“To believe that man's aggressiveness or territoriality is in the nature of the beast is to mistake some men for all men, contemporary society for all possible societies, and, by a remarkable transformation, to justify what is as what needs must be; social repression becomes a response to, rather than a cause of, human violence. Pessimism about man serves to maintain the status quo. It is a luxury for the affluent, a sop to the guilt of the politically inactive, a comfort to those who continue to enjoy the amenities of privilege.”

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Author:Leon Eisenberg
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“I think I am in my last days, but it doesn't really matter because I have had such a beautiful life. I have lived through many wars and have lost everything many times - including my husband, my mother and my beloved son. Yet, life is beautiful, and I have so much to learn and enjoy. I have no space nor time for pessimism and hate. Life is beautiful, love is beautiful, nature and music are beautiful. Everything we experience is a gift, a present we should cherish and pass on to those we love.”

ThinkingShouldWarMatterLastsBeautifulLife IsMotherHateLostEnjoySpaceLove IsSonHusbandIncludingBelovedMy HusbandCherishPessimismBeautiful LifeLast DayThose We LoveLife Is BeautifulLost EverythingBeautiful LoveBeautiful NatureHate LifeBeloved Son
Author:Alice Herz-Sommer
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