168 Optimism And Pessimism Quotes

Following is our list of optimism and pessimism quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about optimist and pessimist.

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Famous Optimism And Pessimism Quotes

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better. — Jean De La Fontaine

Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time. — Norman Cousins

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant. — Rex Stout

I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist. — William Golding

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. — Harry S. Truman

The pessimist borrows trouble; the optimists lend encouragement. — William Arthur Ward

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. — Winston Churchill

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true. — J. Robert Oppenheimer

The pessimist waits for better times, and expects to keep on waiting; the optimist goes to work with the best that is at hand now, and proceeds to create better times. — Christian D. Larson

Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them. — Ted Koppel

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. — Winston Churchill

Pessimism is self-fulfilling. — Naval Ravikant

Optimism is the opium of the people. — Milan Kundera

Real optimism sees the negatives but accentuates the positive. — William Arthur Ward

The optimist pleasantly ponders how high his kite will fly; the pessimist woefully wonders how soon his kite will fall. — William Arthur Ward

Short Optimism And Pessimism Quotes

  • Unfortunately, pessimism is self-fulfilling. — Naval Ravikant
  • I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will. — Antonio Gramsci
  • An optimist looks at a seed and sees a tree; a pessimist looks at a tree and sees a forest fire. — Matshona Dhliwayo
  • When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. — Carl Rogers
  • Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives! — Shimon Peres
  • It made sense to be pessimistic in the past, but it makes sense to be an optimist today. — Naval Ravikant
  • Optimism is the true moral courage — Ernest Shackleton
  • Optimism is cowardice. — Oswald Spengler
  • Optimism is denial, so face the facts and move on — Douglas MacArthur
  • Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past. — Lewis Mumford

Optimism And Pessimism Image Quotes

Optimism and pessimism quote Distance yourself from negativity or it will deplete your well of optimism.
Distance yourself from negativity or it will deplete your well of optimism.

Pessimistic And Optimistic Quotes

A pessimist sees only 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 Louis Levinson

Save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist. — Morgan Housel

Don't ever become a pessimist... 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

Optimism and pessimism quote Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.
Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.

Dear optimist, pessimist, and realist--while you guys were busy arguing about the glass of wine, I drank it! Sincerely, the opportunist! — Lori Greiner

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

There's no difference between a pessimist who says, "Oh it's hopeless, so don't bother doing anything." and an optimist who says, "Don't bother doing anything, it's going to turn out fine anyways. Either way, nothing happens." — Yvon Chouinard

The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists. — Benjamin Graham

Optimistic young adults stay healthier throughout middle age and, ultimately, live longer than pessimists. — Angela Duckworth

Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole! — Mclandburgh Wilson

Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole! — Oscar Wilde

Optimist And Pessimist Quotes

If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic. — Hazel Henderson

Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists. — Thomas L. Friedman

Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists. — Thomas Friedman

Pessimists are second rate people. They do not believe in life. ... All they want to do is drag you down and appease their own feelings of mediocrity and fear. — Uell Stanley Andersen

The market is a pendulum that forever swings between unsustainable optimism (which makes stocks too expensive) and unjustified pessimism (which makes them too cheap). The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists. — Benjamin Graham

The arms race is based on an optimistic view of technology and a pessimistic view of man. It assumes there is no limit to the ingenuity of science and no limit to the deviltry of human beings. — I. F. Stone

I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right. — Albert Einstein

To the optimist all doors have handles and hinges; to the pessimist, all doors have locks and latches. — William Arthur Ward

The pessimist complains about the wind;The optimist expects it to change;And the realist adjusts the sails. — William Arthur Ward

Men will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences. Science will go on whether we are pessimistic or optimistic, as I am. More interesting discoveries than we can imagine will be made, and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm. — Linus Pauling

Optimists And Pessimists Quotes

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist laughs to forget, but a pessimist forgets to laugh. — Tom Bodett

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. — Oscar Wilde

The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience. — Orson F. Whitney

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it. — Aldous Huxley

A conservative government survives essentially by dampening expectations and subduing hopes. Conservatism is basically pessimistic, reformism is basically optimistic. — Gough Whitlam

An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows. An idealist, however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition sees something else: the possibility of changing the picture, of making the lights prevail over the shadows. — Felix Adler

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. — Harry S Truman

We live in the best of all possible worlds — Gottfried Leibniz

In optimism there is magic. In pessimism there is nothing. — Esther Hicks

The pessimist sees only the tunnel; the optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel; the realist sees the tunnel and the light - and the next tunnel. — Sydney J. Harris

Pessimist And Optimist Quotes

A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it. — George Bernard Shaw

When hearing a door creak, the optimist thinks it's opening and the pessimist thinks it's closing. — Matthieu Ricard

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars. — Helen Keller

Vision involves optimism and hope. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. The pessimist tends to hold back people of vision from pushing ahead. — J. Oswald Sanders

A pessimist looks at his glass and says it is half empty; an optimist looks at it and says it is half full. — Josiah Stamp

At the beginning of the Syrian conflict, I was optimistic. But now, I'm pessimistic, because it's so complicated. It's much worse than before. The whole world is fighting inside of Syria. It will take years and years to resolve. — Osama Alomar

Coaches are basically schizophrenic. We are pessimistic to the press and among fellow coaches, but to our team, we are the eternal optimists. — Jim Valvano

Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? A pessimist says ‘Oh dear, things can’t possibly get any worse.’ And an optimist says, ‘Don’t be so sad. Things can always get worse. — Steven Galloway

I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history. — A. E. Housman

Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament- it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing the risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game untroubled by the certainty of the outcome. — Robert A. Heinlein

Pessimism Quotes

He who thinks the worst usually is right — Greek Proverbs

If you’re a pessimist, you get your feedback from other people. It’s a social act. You’re convincing other people of your pessimism. — Naval Ravikant

Pessimism never won any battle. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Some people see the glass half full. Others see it half empty. I see a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be. — George Carlin

Different day, same s***. Ain't nothing good in the hood. I'd run away from this bitch and never come back if I could. — 50 Cent

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself. — Golda Meir

Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell. — John Templeton

Pessimism is an easy trap to fall into, but it implies that humans are not creative. — Naval Ravikant

I am an optimist by nature and I reserve the right to be wrong. — Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

Optimism, pessimism, f**k that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work. — Elon Musk

Being A Pessimist Quotes

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right — Mark Twain

There are probably multiple reasons for that. It’s easier to be a pessimist than an optimist. It’s hard to guess how life is going to improve; it’s easier to extrapolate how it’s going to get worse. — Naval Ravikant

Darwin was not afraid to look deeply into the void. His bold view can be seen as either noble and pessimistic or noble and admirable. For people of science, he is a hero. Denying man a privileged place in creation, .. he reaffirms with his own intellectual courage the dignity of man. — Primo Levi

People who are optimistic see a failure as due to something that can be changed so that they can succeed next time around, while pessimists take the blame for the failure, ascribing it to some characteristic they are helpless to change. — Daniel Goleman

That was one of the virtues of being a pessimist: nothing was ever as bad as you thought it would be. — James Jones

That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . . — Arthur Schopenhauer

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. — George Will

I can't be a pessimist, because I am alive. — James A. Baldwin

I happen to be a pessimist, and maybe that's a good thing because I don't stop to smell the roses - which is not a good personal thing. I don't stop and enjoy those moments. Always on to the next and never in the moment. — Nicki Minaj

To a profound pessimist about life, being in danger is not depressing. — F. Scott Fitzgerald

Optimism Quotes

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. — Helen Keller

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world. — Jack Layton

Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you. — Mary Lou Retton

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness — Saint Augustine

Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A 'you can do it' when things are tough. — Richard M. DeVos

We turn not older with years but newer every day. — Emily Dickinson

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. — Marcus Aurelius

A society can be Pareto optimal and still perfectly disgusting. - Amartya Sen

A society can be Pareto optimal and still perfectly disgusting. — Amartya Sen

Optimism is an essential ingredient of innovation. How else can the individual welcome change over security, adventure over staying in safe places? — Robert Noyce

He who is of a calm and happy nature, will hardly feel the pressure of age — Plato

Don't Be A Pessimist Quotes

I think I'm a realist. Which people who don't like me consider to be pessimism. It isn't pessimism at all. If I was a pessimist I wouldn't get up, I wouldn't shave, I wouldn't watch Batman at 7:30 a.m. Pessimists just don't do that sort of thing. — Steven Morrissey

I try not to be too optimistic or pessimistic. If you're a pessimist then that's depressing all the time; if you're an optimist and things don't work out then that's depressing, too. — Nicholas Hoult

I am pessimistic about a picture's power to be the emissary of just one thing. What I hope is that the picture says, "Here I am, this is what I am like," and the person seeing the picture says in return, 'You know a lot but you don't know half of what I know.' — Emmet Gowin

It's easy to be pessimistic. Nobody needs to be taught how. You don't need to buy a book on it. You don't need to go to classes to learn how to be pessimistic. But you do read books on how to think positively, and people who write them become very rich because it takes effort. — Rush Limbaugh

To be honest I'm not going to sell dreams like everybody else does and say, "Sure, it can be changed." I don't want to seem like a pessimist, but nothing's getting better. — Q-Tip

I don't want to be a pessimist. I'm a realist. One man's realist is another man's pessimist. — Bill Maher

It's hard not to be kind of pessimistic about human beings generally, because we do tend to mess things up. If you just look at the history of extinctions, we've killed off an awful lot of animals - and I don't think we're doing a very good job of looking after the planet. — Bill Bryson

I don't feel that I view things with a pessimistic eye. I should try to say which way events will go rather than which way events should go. We have to be realistic. — Henry Kaufman

Being An Optimist Quotes

I am an optimist because I want to change things for the better and I know that blood has to be spilled and disharmony and cruelty are necessary to do that. — Henry Rollins

To be an entrepreneur, you need to be optimistic about the fact that you’re creating something that other people are going to find value in. — Naval Ravikant

I think of myself as a doom person. I'm a worrier. But I like the idea of being an optimist. Maybe I'm the kind of optimist who deep down knows it's not going to work. — Owen Wilson

One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. — Randy Pausch

An expectation was there, mixed in with so many other emotions - excitement, resignation, hesitation, confusion, fear - that would well up then wither on the vine. You're optimistic one moment, only to be racked the next by the certainty that it will all fall to pieces. And in the end it does. — Haruki Murakami

Being an England supporter is like being the over-optimistic parents of the fat kid on sports day. — John Bishop

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. — Winston Churchill

I became an optimist when I discovered that I wasn't going to win any more games by being anything else. — Earl Weaver

Behind every dark cloud there is an every-shining sun. Just wait. In time, the cloud will pass. — Marianne Williamson

In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning. — Carl Sandburg

Being Optimistic Quotes

be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be. — Henry David Thoreau

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better. — Dalai Lama

Be passionate, be optimistic, be grateful. - Conor McGregor

Be passionate, be optimistic, be grateful. — Conor McGregor

There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for. - J. R. R. Tolkien

There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for. — J. R. R. Tolkien

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. — Deepak Chopra

Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. — Nelson Mandela

If something's not impossible, there must be a way of doing it. — Nicholas Winton

Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so. — David Brooks

Life is beautiful. You have to be thankful that we are living. Wherever you look is beauty. I know about the bad things, but I look for the good things. — Alice Herz-Sommer

One thing I am convinced more and more is true, and that is this: The only way to be truly happy is to make others happy. When you realize that and take advantage of the fact, everything is made perfect. — William Carlos Williams

People Writing About Optimism And Pessimism

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Read quotes by William Arthur Ward

William Arthur Ward
quotes on life

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Read quotes by Naval Ravikant

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quotes on money, happiness and life

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Read quotes by Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill
quotes on leadership, success and history

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Read quotes by Jean De La Fontaine

Jean De La Fontaine

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Read quotes by Norman Cousins

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quotes on life, pain and death

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Read quotes by Rex Stout

Rex Stout
quotes on death, life and love

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More Optimism And Pessimism Quotes

Investment risk comes primarily from too high prices, and too high prices often come from excessive optimism and inadequate skepticism and risk aversion. — Howard S. Marks

Bull-markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. — John Templeton

The pendulum of investment psychology is constantly fluctuating between optimism and pessimism, between greed and fear, between credulousness and skepticism, between risk tolerance and risk aversion. — Howard Marks

I don't think you lead by pessimism and cynicism. I think you lead by optimism and enthusiasm and energy. — Patricia Ireland

Antonio Gramsci said that social reformers should have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. This means that one must have the intellectual ability to see how bad things are and the emotional ability to look forward with hope. It's a hard combination to sustain, but if you can do it, you can change the world. — Andrew Solomon

An optimist is someone who figures that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's the bluebird of happiness. — Robert Breault

The realist sees reality as concrete. The optimist sees reality as clay. — Robert Breault

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. — Robert Breault

Always look on the bright side of life. — Graham Chapman

If pessimism is despair, optimism is cowardice and stupidity. Is there any need to choose between them? — Francis Parker Yockey

If you believe that you are bad and unacceptable, you are unable to look back at your past with pleasure or your future with hope. Only bad things happened to you in the past, and only bad things will happen to you in the future. — Dorothy Rowe

Pessimism has never done anything but tear down and destroy what optimism has built up. — Orison Swett Marden

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. — Theodore Roosevelt

Though I am alive now, I do not believe an old man's pessimism is nessessarily truer than a young man's optimism simply because it comes after. There are things a young man knows that are true and are not yet in the old man's power to recollect. Spring has its sappy wisdom. — Richard Rodriguez

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. — Arthur Cecil Pigou

Hope transforms pessimism into optimism. Hope is invincible. — Daisaku Ikeda

There is an optimism which nobly anticipates the eventual triumph of great moral laws, and there is an optimism which cheerfully tolerates unworthiness. — Agnes Repplier

No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. — Samuel Johnson

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly. — John F. Kennedy

Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome. — Rosabeth Moss Kanter

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile which blossoms on the lips of Bodhisattvas and all those who obtain the way. — Nhat Hanh

It is important to possess a short-term pessimism and a long-term optimism. — Adrienne Rich

Men are always optimists when they look inwards, and pessimists when they look round them. — Ouida

An optimist is merely an ex-pessimist with his pockets full of money, his digestion in good condition, and his wife in the country. — Helen Rowland

The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy. — Helen Keller

After 5,000 years of recorded human history, you wonder, what part of 2,000,000 sunrises doesn't a pessimist understand? — Robert Breault

A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays And confident tomorrows. — William Wordsworth

Creeds matter very little... The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label. — James Branch Cabell

Optimism and pessimism are mere matters of optics, of how you look at things, and that can change from day to day, or with a new prescription for your glasses - or with a new set of ideological filters. — George Weigel

It's still possible to be a cockeyed optimist these days - you just have to be a little more cockeyed. — Robert Breault

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