OPTIMISM QUOTES II
quotations about optimism
The essence of my optimism is constructive pessimism.
FAUSTO CERCIGNANI
attributed, Quotes We Cherish
Optimists find joy in small things. They enjoy sunsets, a good conversation with a close friend; and they enjoy life in general. They are more concerned with having many small joys rather than having one huge joy.
ROBERT M. SHERFIELD
The Everything Self-Esteem Book
Optimism. It's not just a mind-set, it is behavior.
LARRY ELDER
The Ten Things You Can't Say in America
I am an optimist. Anyone interested in the future has to be otherwise he would simply shoot himself.
ARTHUR C. CLARKE
The View from Serendip
Optimism depends on seeing the self as full of the emotional stuff it takes to rise to challenges and weather life's storms. Optimists believe that they are robust, and this perspective in turn allows them to choose to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. How well and smoothly our emotional regulation works will determine how much of our daily lives we spend in this optimistic, comfortable state. The more time we spend in this state, the more we will look like an optimist. But appearing optimistic merely reflects the aggregate, the sum of those little oscillating moments of optimism and pessimism over time, not some stable, enduring, unshakable trait. And that's good news, because it means that even small shifts in our capacity for self-regulation can lead to large differences in how much of our day we spend in a comfortable, peaceful emotional state.
SUSAN C. VAUGHAN
Half Empty, Half Full
Optimism is the opium of the people.
MILAN KUNDERA
The Joke
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
MICHEL DE SAINT-PIERRE
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul
Faith and optimism are contagious.
THOM S. RAINER
Surprising Insights from the Unchurched
The future seems a little gloomy! Go to bed early, sleep well, eat moderately at breakfast; the future looks brighter. The world's outlook may not have changed, but our capacity for dealing with it has. Happiness, or unhappiness, depends to some extent on external conditions, but also, and in most cases chiefly, on our own physical and mental powers. Some people would be discontented in Paradise, others ... are cheerful in a graveyard.
ARTHUR LYNCH
Moods of Life
Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved.
BERNARD BECKETT
Genesis
Optimism is the content of small men in high places.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Notebooks
Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts.
HELEN KELLER
Optimism
Optimism is wide-open in contrast to pessimism's closed heart.
KATHLEEN A. BREHONY
After the Darkest Hour
In Europe, what Americans see as optimism can simply seem like arrogance.
MARY FONTAINE
attributed, Working With Emotional Intelligence
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD
attributed, Quotable Quotes
Things are always better in the morning.
HARPER LEE
To Kill a Mockingbird
Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness as its aim and object. Starting from this, everyone then believes he has the most legitimate claim to happiness and enjoyment. If, as usually happens, these do not fall to his lot, he believes that he suffers an injustice, in fact that he misses the whole point of his existence.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
The World As Will and Representation
Optimism is joyful searching; pessimism is a prison of fear and a clutching at illusionary safety.
KATHLEEN A. BREHONY
After the Darkest Hour
Although optimism is the result of an illusion, it is a desirable distortion of reality.
SUSAN C. VAUGHAN
Half Empty, Half Full
Optimism inspires, energizes, and brings out our best. It points the mind toward possibilities and helps us think creatively past problems.
PRICE PRITCHETT
Hard Optimism