PESSIMISM QUOTES II
quotations about pessimism
Pessimism negates the existing world. Yet its negating is ambiguous. It can simply will decay and nothingness, but it can also renounce what exists and thus open a path for a new formation of the world.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER
Nietzsche
Some murmur, when their sky is clear
And wholly bright to view,
If one small speck of dark appear
In their great heaven of blue:
And some with thankful love are filled,
If but one streak of light,
One ray of God's good mercy gild
The darkness of their light.
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH
"Some Murmur"
Thou hast seen many sorrows, travel-stained pilgrim of the world,
But that which hath vexed thee most, hath been the looking for evil;
And thou calamities have crossed thee, and misery been heaped on thy head,
Yet ills that never happened, have chiefly made thee wretched.
The sting of pain and the edge of pleasure are blunted by long expectation,
For the gall and the balm alike are diluted by the waters of patience;
And often thou sippest sweetness, ere the cup is dashed from thy lip,
And drainest the gall of fear, while evil is passing by thy dwelling.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
We are accused of pessimism, as though pessimism were but one among a number of possible attitudes, as if man were capable of choosing between two alternatives.
ARTHUR ADAMOV
"Une fin et un commencement", L'Heure Nouvelle
When ... the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then are you grown old, indeed!
SAMUEL ULLMAN
From the Summit of Years, Four Score
There is some spiritual sloth in his activities, for pessimism is the easier way.
ALICE MEYNELL
"Pessimism in Fiction", The Second Person Singular and Other Essays
When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it's time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you're doing and write down what you're thinking. Once you've taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity. Evaluate these statements to see if they're factual. You can bet the statements aren't true any time you see words like never, always, worst, ever, etc.
TRAVIS BRADBERRY
"3 Powerful Ways To Stay Positive", Huffington Post, April 16, 2016
The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.
MARK TWAIN
letter to J. H. Twichell, March 14, 1905
Pessimism is the logical attitude to adopt about the human condition. Yet there is no need to consider this conclusion depressing. On the contrary, I consider it to be a realistic one that gives due weight to the catalogue of evidence available to us, providing an antidote to optimism.
STUART SIM
A Philosophy of Pessimism
I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
Gramsci's Prison Letters
If you expect the worst from a person, you can't ever be disappointed. Only the disappointed resort to violence. The pessimist, which is another way of saying the Augustinian, takes a sort of gloomy pleasure in observing the depths to which human behaviour can sink. The more sin he sees, the more his belief in Original Sin is confirmed. Everyone likes to have his deepest convictions confirmed; that is one of the most abiding of human satisfactions.
ANTHONY BURGESS
The Wanting Seed
If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.
BRUCE LEE
Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
If pessimism robs us of laughter it has done worse by 'beguiling us of our tears', not that for its sake they are, but that they are not, shed.
ALICE MEYNELL
"Pessimism in Fiction", The Second Person Singular and Other Essays
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
HELEN KELLER
Optimism
You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking at your feet.
ANONYMOUS
Optimism is life--Pessimism, slow suicide.
WILLIAM CROSBIE HUNTER
Brass Tacks
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
It is in those acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness--calling their denial knowledge.
GEORGE ELIOT
Middlemarch
I am so often accused of gloominess and melancholy. And I think I'm probably the most cheerful man around. I don't consider myself a pessimist at all. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin.
LEONARD COHEN
"The Joking Troubadour of Gloom", The Daily Telegraph, April 26, 1993
To the timid heart, to the child of unbelief and dread,
That leaneth on his own weak staff, and trusteth the sight of his eyes,
The evil he feared shall come, for the soil is ready for the seed.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy