Fundamental Guide to Living   

Quotes on Pessimism

   In his personal case, Buddha left us an example of fortitude to follow; in living, not in running away from life. His doctrine shows evil immanent, not in matter, which is eternal, but in the illusions created by it: through the changes and transformations of matter generating life--because these changes are conditioned and such life is ephemeral.  At the same time those evils are shown to be not only unavoidable, but necessary. For if we would discern good from evil, light from darkness, and appreciate the former, we can do so only through the contrasts between the two. While Buddha's philosophy points, in its dead-letter meaning, only to the dark side of things on this illusive plane; its esotericism, the hidden soul of it, draws the veil aside and reveals to the Arhat all the glories of LIFE ETERNAL in all the Homogeneousness of Consciousness and Being.  Another absurdity, no doubt, in the eyes of materialistic science and even modern Idealism, yet a fact to the Sage and esoteric Pantheist.
H.P. Blavatsky  “The Origin of Evil”

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.
- Oscar Wilde

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.  - Mark Twain
      
A pessimist is one who feels bad when he feels good for fear he'll feel worse when he feels better.  - Anonymous

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.  - William James

A pessimist is never disappointed.
- Jack Cleary

An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be.  - Anonymous

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose. - Kahlil Gibran

The man who is a pessimist before forty-eight knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little. -  Mark Twain

I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.
- Antonio Gramsci
      
In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. - Daniel L. Reardon

A pessimist only sees the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all--he's walking on them.
- Leonard L. Levinson

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight. . . The truly wise person is colorblind.  - Albert Schweitzer

Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun--and neither can stop the march of events.
- Robert A. Heinlein
      
Pessimism never won any battle.
- Dwight David Eisenhower

Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive.  - Mark Twain

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.  - G. B. Stern
 
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
-  Harry S Truman

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
- Bill Vaughn 

To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
-  Albert Schweitzer

Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.  - Norman Cousins
 
When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.  - Carl Rogers

It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful.
- Anton La Vey
 
A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Do you know what a pessimist is? A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.
- George Bernard Shaw

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
- Winston Churchill
The pessimist complains about the wind; The optimist expects it to change; The realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
 
I am glad I am an optimist. The pessimist is half-licked before he starts. The optimist has won half the battle, the most important half that applies to himself, when he begins his approach to a subject with the proper mental attitude. The optimist may not understand, or if he understands he may not agree with, prevailing ideas; but he believes, yes, knows, that in the long run and in due course there will prevail whatever is right and best.
- Thomas A. Buckner

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
- Reginald B. Mansell
 
No one really knows enough to be a pessimist.  - Norman Cousins 

An optimist sees a light where there is none. A pessimist comes and turns it off.  -   Jorge Granados

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.  -  Leonard Cohen

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.
- Thich Nhat Hanh                                     

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