c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, our existence must entirely fail of its aim. It is absurd to look upon the enormous amount of pain that abounds everywhere in the world, and originates in needs and necessities inseparable from life itself, as serving no purpose at all and the result of mere chance. Each separate misfortune, as it comes, seems, no doubt, to be something exceptional; but misfortune in general is the rule.I know of no greater absurdity than that propounded by most systems of philosophy in declaring evil to be negative in its character. Evil is just what is positive; it makes its own existence felt.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
Optimism is a belief and I adapt belief as a way of life.
— Fe-en-Dios
We must lay to, if you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's trying on a man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to, and whistle for a wind, that's my view.
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
Doubt never brings anything better
—  Doubt only gets the goodies of doubt! Shake your doubt!
At a certain point, unabashed optimism becomes delusional insanity.
— Matt Abrams, She's Toxic
There is a very real danger present when we suppress our feelings to act on inspiration in exchange for the “safety” of the status quo. We risk sacrificing the opportunity to live a more fulfilling and purpose driven life. We risk sacrificing the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. We risk sacrificing the beautiful blessing of finding a greater sense of meaning in our own lives.In short, we run the very real risk living a life of regret.
— Richie Norton
We each appear only one time in history. Whatever occurs in our life will never occur again. Our life is significant and worthy of living if we are brave, love fearlessly, and remain optimistic regardless of our earthly hardships.
— Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls
The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser―in case you thought optimism was dead.
— Robert Brault
People can make it hard for you, they can discourage and take the heart out of you, but in the end the only person who can kill your dream is you. Don't ever give up.
— Sarah Morgan, Midnight at Tiffany's
The difference was not that one was a pessimist and the other an optimist, it was that one's pessimism had led to an ethos of fear, and the other's pessimism had led to a noisy, fractious disdain for Everything-That-Was. One shrank, the other flailed. One toed the line, the other crossed it out. Much of the time they were at loggerheads, and because Willy found it so easy to shock his mother, he rarely wasted an opportunity to provoke an argument. If only she'd the wit to back off a little, he probably wouldn't have been so insistent about making his points. Her antagonism inspired him, pushed him into ever more extreme positions, and by the time he was ready to leave the house and go off to college, he had indelibly cast himself in his chosen role: as malcontent, as rebel, as outlaw poet prowling the gutters of a ruined world.
— Paul Auster, Timbuktu
Even when I was caught in the web, I didn't give up hope. And as you see, I was right.
— Michael Ende, The Neverending Story
The definition of the future is today
— ABC
Horrle was nodding gravely, humoring him, probably thinking that out of all these two hundred fun-loving people it was just his luck to have run into a doom merchant. McIntyre had committed the sin of pessimism, of course, forgetting, as a Brit, that out here optimism was more than a state of mind; optimism was a philosophy.
— Christopher Hudson, The Killing Fields
From Jeff Greenfield: "I once asked Elie Wiesel "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" "An optimist," he said. "I have to be.
— Elie Wiesel
Never go tapping into the lives of others like you know them and their story! Their story is not yours, tell yours, for that is all you know.
— Auliq-Ice
cheered by the optimism that one sometimes had at the beginning of strenuous exercise, a kind of helium that filled our lungs and carried us along
— Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Life can be tough and harsh at times. That's what makes it great. Every day is a celebration of survival.
— Jonathan Heatt
Nothing wrong with a little optimism, long as it doesn’t set policy....
— James S.A. Corey, Abaddon's Gate
Yes, it will all end one day; but today is worth living.
— Innocent Mwatsikesimbe, The Vision
I love the optimism on the shores of youth, where time hasn't yet eroded faith.
— Amy Neftzger, The War of Words
If God declares that all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the creatures contradict Him.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Based on the English Standard Version
A new planting is like having another child, requiring patience and sacrifice and a resounding optimism for the future
— David Mas Masumoto
In the Soviet Union we have a saying, a pessimist is someone who believes things can't get any worse. An optimist thinks maybe they can.
— Abel Aganbegyan
I always see the crack in the glass before I see the window.
— Richard Wentworth
When you suspect old age is catching up with you, live faster!
— Benny Bellamacina, Philosophical Uplifting Quotes volume 2
There were bad times before, and you are still here... Living, breathing, feeling the wind on your skin. Let everything go and feel it!
— Adam Scythe, Immortals
It is okay to lobby for success. But it best to succeed like a royalty. Success from a position of self-respect and optimism beats success from a position of fear and insecurity anyday, anytime. The journey is also as important as the destination.
— Asuni LadyZeal
Front offices are more interested in players that are far than players that are near.
— Jim Bouton, Ball Four
The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction.
— James S.A. Corey, Drive
I could not find any evidence that her circumstances had harmed Jane Austen's work in the slightest. That, perhaps, was the chief miracle about it. Here was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching. Her mind consumed all impediments.
— Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
When he came in first, he was happy to find all sorts of meaning in the results.
— H.W. Brands
To claim the mantle of purity is always a risky business. It just gives an excuse to be disillusioned once your ordinary humidity is exposed.
— Rick Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan
He showed me the lowest. I had to surmise the highest.
— John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me
Happiness and success require the highest possible optimism, with minimal expectations. Optimize without limits, and expect anything in particular.
— Ammar Moussa (عمار موسى), رحلة إلى ما وراء القمة
One of Lincoln's intimates as a presidential candidate urged him to make no promises and not to part with those kind words which could be interpreted as promises.
— Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion
The day that lay before (was) full of infinite possibilities, though in a million superficial ways it was identical to the day before.
— Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Sometimes what we don't wish for is more powerful than what we do.
— Tis the Season
I'm alive now, but I don't know if I will be tomorrow. The state of being alive is not guaranteed, but should I let that stop me from living?
— Innocent Mwatsikesimbe, Mirror
If Churchill recommends optimism, who are you or I to quibble?
— Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments
Optimism is not fantasy. It hopes for the best reality without departing from it.
— James Randall Robison, God Wants You to Be Happy
If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want.
— John Maynard Keynes
Teain had no difficulty generating the indignation of a satirist. He lack the patience of a reformer.
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
In the immediate aftermath of the great Chicago fire, a business proprietor erected a shack in front of his burned-out business. On a sign, he placed his name and the tagline that everything was gone but wife, children, and energy.
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
What has defined our faith since the beginning is open-ended gladness.
— Matt      Chandler
The Admiral so regrets failure, he cannot THINK of success.
— John Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes : The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt
Now, as we close one chapter, the pen is gradually inking up, preparing itself to write the next.
— Mie Hansson
There would be no rainbows without sunshine and rain.
— Roy  Bennett
There comes a point in your life when you realize your hardest times are your best times, too—you will see the rainbow of your life.
— Roy  Bennett
The sun will set and the sun will rise, and it will shine upon us tomorrow in our grief and our gratitude, and we will continue to live with purpose, memory, passion, and love.
— Brent Schlender, Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
To a great extent in spiritual things we get what we expect of the Lord. Faith alone can bring us to see Jesus.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Based on the English Standard Version
What's optimism? said Cacambo. Alas, said Candide, it is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell.
— Voltaire
At the end of the line, lies a new beginning.
— Simran Kapoor
The old deep sadness of life lay in the bottom of her heart and she knew it was there, but she would not allow herself to sink into it. Out of the dark and sullen bottom of a lake the lotus flowers bloomed upon its surface, and she would pluck the flowers.
— Pearl S. Buck
Make the present moment your friend rather than your enemy. Because many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment.
— Dan Harris, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works
The short-lived crash and burn of an eternal optimist is far more deeply felt than the day-to-day misery of an eternal pessimist.
— Gregor Collins
Facing the backside of the future is the only way to move forward
— Benny Bellamacina, Philosophical Uplifting Quotes and Poems
To Tom, the march of technology was equivalent to the march of civilization.
— Stephen L. Carter, Back Channel
I was young enough to be an optimist.
— Mike Mussina
Cynicism is a disease. Optimism is the cure.
— Aakashvani
God is very good to those who trust in Him, and often surprises them with unlooked for blessings. Little do we know what may happen to us to-morrow. Chance is banished from the faith of Christians, for they see the hand of God in everything.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Based on the English Standard Version
You gotta be optimistic to be single. Stupid! You have to be stupid. That's what optimistic means, you know. It means stupid. An optimist is somebody that goes, 'Hey, maybe something nice will happen!' Why the fuck would anything nice ever happen? What are you, stupid?
— Louis C. K.
Even if you aren't independent or career wise, at least show that you have a passion for life and an optimistic outlook.
— Auliq Ice
You are born to win. But to become that true winner, you must make living a winning life your priority.
— Jones Kofi Apawu
It is not so much about what life hands you, but what you do with what you get.
— Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability
We are bound to meet wrong things for wrong things are bound to meet us but, when things go wrong, don't be wrong, let things be wrong
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Vocabulary for aggravation is large. Vocabulary for transcendence is elusive.
— Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
Eventually, I headed to the bathroom, and I mention this only because I saw in that bathroom the most quintessentially American artifact I have ever encountered: a bright blue rubber mat resting in the bottom of the urinal emblazoned with the following legend:EpplyWorld's Cleanest AirportOmaha, NEGod bless our relentless idiotic optimism.
— Steve Almond, Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
One physician may gravely exaggerate an illness and give up hope altogether. Another may ignorantly declare that there is no illness and that no treatment is necessary, thus deceiving the patient with false consolation. You may call the first one pessimistic and the second one optimistic. Both are equally dangerous.
— Walpola Rahula
Rise from those dumps of depression!Bury those personal regrets deep inside! Focus on self-healing, self-loveOnly trust can keep you alive.Miniscule moments of hope awning aroundFloating like bubbles but burst without a soundDuress of living with mixed thoughtsFlying on the wings of optimism I thrive!
— Balroop Singh
We’re programmed to imagine bad things happening to us, as opposed to good things, even if the good are more likely. It’s kind of a protective pessimism: if we worry about the worst happening, it may miss our door.
— Ruth Dugdall, The Sacrificial Man
Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this.
— Lewis Carroll
optimism, where it is not just the thoughtless talk of someone with only words in his flat head, strikes me as not only absurd, but even a truly wicked way of thinking, a bitter mockery of the unspeakable sufferings of humanity.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1
Like success, failure is many things to many people. With a positive mental attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order and prepare to try again.
— W. Clement Stone
The way to get started is to take the first step with dream-powered optimism.
— Debasish Mridha
Be optimistic like a flower. A flower never loses her optimism, and will bloom with all of her beauty despite tremendous adversity.
— Debasish Mridha
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence.
— Helen Keller
I've dropped my pebble in the ocean, and hopefully; throughout the course of the day; millions of others will drop theirs in too. No single one of us knows which pebble causes the wave to crest, but each of us, quite rightly, believes that it might be ours; an act of faith.
— Michael J. Fox
Who underestimates is buried in the optimism of the deads. (Qui sous-estime s'enterre - Dans l'optimisme des morts.)
— Charles de Leusse
We form our impression not globally, by placing ourselves in the broadest possible context, but locally, by comparing ourselves to people in the same boat as ourselves.
— Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Sometimes it's hard to see the rainbow when there's been endless days of rain.
— Christina Greer, Two-Week Wait: Motherhood Lost and Found
Although much that was precious has been taken from me in this life, I have reason to remain an optimist. After the numerous tight scrapes I've been through, by now I should have lost one leg, three fingers, one buttock, most of my teeth, an ear, my spleen, and my sense of fun. But here I am.
— Dean Koontz, Brother Odd
When I am passing through hell, I have to remind myself of the last time I happened to be on that road. How quickly it was over, without any ingenuity on my part. After all, hell is a one-way street. The only direction forward is the way out.
— R. N. Prasher
Fritz had to stop himself from interrupting when Karl spoke about the difficulty of working. Stories are just as hard as clocks to put together, and they can go wrong just as easily--as we shall soon see with Fritz's own story in a page or two. Still, Fritz was an optimist, and Karl was a pessimist, and that makes all the difference in the world.
— Philip Pullman, Clockwork
You are the author of your lives book. While there may be fixed chapters ahead, you choose how to fill the pages within each one.
— Ricky Mathieson, The Reiki Teachers Guidebook
Whatever my limited knowledge, I tried to make up for it with energy.
— Eric Greitens, The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL
The foot feels the foot when it's touched by the ground, like the heart feels the heart when it's no longer bound.
— Ricky Mathieson, The Reiki Teachers Guidebook
You are the prisoner, the prison and the prison keeper. Only you hold the key to your freedom.
— Ricky Mathieson, The Reiki Teachers Guidebook
I think the failure of The American church to affirm the goodness of civilizational life is our greatest failing today.
— Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It
Why doesn’t anyone go to the moon anymore? What happened to our optimism?
— Janet Turpin Myers, Nightswimming
Don't bring me the stars from the sky,I'm planting sunshine in my backyard.
— Sanhita Baruah
I do not believe that true optimism can come about except through tragedy.
— Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage
At first, one only recognizes particular instances to be worth of critique; critique appears synonymous with rejection, implying deficiency in the object. Over time, one discovers that everything warrants critique. This can produce cynicism: nothing is above reproach, nothing is pure, therefore nothing has value. But followed through to its logical conclusion, this insight inspires a profound optimism: if everything can be critiqued, then no matter how bleak things are, there is always a way to improve them. Those who comprehend this can pass beyond the binary of approval and disapproval to identify the conflicting currents within any subject of inquiry. There are sides to take inside every position, as well as between them.
— CrimethInc., Contradictionary
I envied Lesley her unshakable optimism. She always looked on the bright side of things. If they Had a bright side.
— Kerstin Gier, Ruby Red
Nothing's ever all bad if you think hard enough about it.
— Matthew Crow, In Bloom
The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world.
— G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Why, it would be such fun,' he chuckled, 'to just forget all about the hours when the sun didn't shine, and remember only the nice, pleasant ones.
— Eleanor H. Porter, Just David
Happiness isn't expensive, it just costs your will...
— Mehek Bassi
Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.
— Anne Sullivan Macy
There was something very American about this ability to dwell constantly in the realm of the improvable superlative.
— Geoff Dyer, Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George H.W. Bush
No matter how bad things got, no matter how anxious the staff became, the commander had to “preserve optimism in himself and in his command. Without confidence, enthusiasm and optimism in the command, victory is scarcely obtainable.” Eisenhower realized that “optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction.” He learned that a commander’s optimism “has a most extraordinary effect upon all with whom he comes in contact. With this clear realization, I firmly determined that my mannerisms and speech in public would always reflect the cheerful certainty of victory—that any pessimism and discouragement I might ever feel would be reserved for my pillow.
— Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches
Make sure that today is better than yesterday.
— Tomás Mier
Horas non numero nisi serenas,' 'I count - no - hours but - unclouded ones,
— Eleanor H. Porter, Just David
Don't let the disappointments of today kill tomorrow's blessings, destroy the negative flashes of pessimism, and focus on the mirror of optimism.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
It's called optimism — but I’m losing the hang of it fast.
— Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space
Then I realize that words like "optimism" and "hope" which appear in all those self-help books that claim they'll make us more confident and better to cope with life, are just that: words.
— Paulo Coelho, Adultery
They cannot indulge in any detailed or merely logical defense of life; that would delay the enjoyment of it. These higher optimists, of whom Dickens was one, do not approve of the universe; they do not even admire the universe; they fall in love with it. They embrace life too close to criticize or even to see it. Existence to such men has the wild beauty of a woman, and those love her with most intensity who love her with least cause.
— G.K. Chesterton
Optimism is life with sprinkles on top.
— Susan Lendroth
We do not admire, we hardly excuse, the fanatic who wrecks this world for love of the other but what are we to say of the fanatic who wrecks this world out of hatred for the other? He sacrifices the very existence of humanity's to the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon someone who never lived at all.
— G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
I was too pessimistic for an optimist to live with
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Every nation can harness the energy of its citizens, either towards constructive work to generate optimism and hope, or towards tensions, unrest and war.
— Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Flashes of Thought
I have already made up my mind, don't confuse me with facts.
— Philip A. Fisher
Only God is able. It is faith in Him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Learn how to love a broke man to marry a good man.
— Amen Muffler
I cried to think of how lucky we both were to have found each other, since it was clear that we were the only ones in the world who could understand what we understood in the instantaneous manner in which we understood it.
— Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.
— Albert Schweitzer
If a woman cannot make her mistakes charming, she is only a female.
— Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimist.
— Don Marquis
All of the negativity and unsavory characters in this environment only serve to make the exceptions shine all the more brightly.
— Damien Echols, Life After Death: Eighteen Years on Death Row
I shall not assess arguments and evidence for competing views about when human extinction will occur. We know it will occur, and this fact has a curious effect on my argument. In a strange way it makes my argument an optimistic one. Although things are now not the way they should be—there are people when there should be none—things will someday be the way they should be—there will be no people. In other words, although things are now bad, they will be better, even if they first get worse with the creation of new people. Some may wish to be spared this kind of optimism, but some optimists may take a measure of comfort in this observation.
— David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
To a pessimist, losing bobby pins is as hopeless as losing hair. To an optimist, losing hair gives hope to get the lost bobby pins back.
— Munia Khan
I am not a pessimist; to perceive evil where it exists is, in my opinion, a form of optimism.
— Roberto Rossellini
When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you'd be surprised how much pleasure you get from material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you'd be surprised how much you like spending time with God.
— Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
.theres much more important things..
— Kovo
Sometimes just the affirmation that a situation sucks can turn a mood around and inspire strength and optimism.
— Melissa Hart, Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family
Obstacles without optimism can overturn opportunities for growth, hope and success.
— Kym Gordon Moore, Wings of the Wind: A Cornucopia of Poetry
In preaching conservative doctrine, Goldwater's jeremiads seemed to be preaching the end of the old world, while Reagan's pep talks seemed to trumpet the beginning of a new one.
— Scott Farris, Kennedy and Reagan: Why Their Legacies Endure
Things are not always as bad as they seem. Sometimes, the darkness only makes it easier to see the light.
— Jim Butcher, Skin Game
You know, if you're hopeful, if you're even a little bit happy about something that might happen, it doesn't affect the outcome. You could still give yourself a period of optimism, even if it all falls apart.
— Michael Cunningham, The Snow Queen
If we have any role at all, I think it’s the role of optimism, not blind or stupid optimism, but the kind which is meaningful, one that is rather close to that notion of the world which is not perfect, but which can be improved. In other words, we don’t just sit and hope that things will work out; we have a role to play to make that come about.
— Chinua Achebe
There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
— German Proverb
I began to feel lighthearted. Don't ever do that
—  it tempts some dark and evil force abroad in the universe.
Communists are the last optimists.
— Nadine Gordimer, The Quotable Gordimer; or, The Wit and Wisdom of Nadine Gordimer
The mistakes of doctors are innumerable. They err as a rule out of optimism as to the treatment, and pessimism as to the outcome.
— Marcel Proust, Sodom and Gomorrah
Hope docks in my heart
— Angelica Hopes, Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul
Does your frustration equate a certain form of revenge?Bright light shines upon me despite of hills of frustration.
— Angelica Hopes, Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul
It’s going to be a pretty day to fly.
— Jennifer Echols, Such a Rush
Duck wasn't sure if it was optimism or fantasy, but hope had been such uncharted waters for him recently that he was having difficulty navigating them.
— Elmer Seward, Hearts in the Storm
We are all somewhat mercurial for temperament, and it is much easier to believe that all is well when the sun is shining, and yet, is not the sun always shining just behind the clouds that never last?
— Grace May North, Rilla of the Lighthouse
Passive perception promotes pessimism
—  Persistent perseverance promises prosperity
Let it snow, tomorrow is spring! So far, smile...
— Judress
I like his optimism,' I said. 'I like the way when he and some other rabbis saw a jackal in the ruins of Jerusalem, and the others began to cry, he laughed and said that just as the prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled, so the prophecy of the rebuilding would also be fulfilled. I like that.
— Chaim Potok, Davita's Harp
The moment when you realize no one understands, no one ever did, no one ever will.You were alone, you always will be.But may be, just may be, someone will look up to you someday. And when they do, remember to hide those tearful eyes, to smile and to say - "look, life's so good.
— Sanhita Baruah
New Orleans, the storm, Perry, the river: they all reminded me not to take anything for granted. It all washes away, and we are all washed away with it. So when then ground is steady and the sky is clear, we should breathe deep until our lungs inflate against our ribs and hold in that one breath until we are lightheaded with the privilege of being human. The absolute privilege of being human.
— Jacob Tomsky, Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality
Buying flowers is not just a way to bring home beauty. It's an expression of confidence that better days are coming. It's a defiant finger in the face of those naysayers who would have you believe your fortunes will never improve.
— Pearl Cleage, Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do
All you can do is involve yourself totally in your own life, your own moment, Lonzi said. And when we feel pessimism crouching on our shoulders like a stinking vulture, he said, we banish it, we smother it with optimism. We want, and our want kills doom.
— Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
The problem isn't a shortage of opportunities
—  it's a lack of perspective.
But you knew what would happen. Why would you choose to walk right into a situation where you know the person is going to be hurtful? It kills me to see you do that, and you do it all the time. It's like a form of insanity. - Peter MorrowYou call it insanity, I call it optimism. - Clara Morrow
— Louise Penny, Still Life
Come on! Who wants to fight me?
— John Fante, The Road to Los Angeles
There are no tragedies in life, only violent coup d’etats on the state of irrational optimism
— Dean Cavanagh
We must remember that all stations are as much about life as they are obviously about death. All is redeemed. All is grist for transformation and glory.
— Megan McKenna, The New Stations of the Cross: The Way of the Cross According to Scripture
I am an optimist and when I am too sure of something or someone, well, of course it turns out that I am wrong .. at other situations, I imagine the worst and needless to say, I am again wrong
— Sanhita Baruah
I would love to continue to be someone that is positive but also be someone that is objective,
— Tim Tebow
Optimism is a deadly vice of gigantic proportions lodged into the human psyche by Satan. It is the enemy of reality. We see a bad situation and optimism prevents us from extrapolating that. Instead we think, "Oh, it's bound to get better." So we plunge into the thicket, sure that it will thin, denied the aerial view that would show us the true, unacceptable horror of our lot. Perhaps optimism is good for prison escapees, who have no choice but to plod on. The rest of us are not well served. It poisons our judgment.
— Tom Levine, Paradise Interrupted
Life sure gives us serious lessons, but I refuse to sit down and take notes. I can pretty well do that walking!
— Marie Abanga
Have a selective optimistic sight, transform the bitch glitch "in stitches.
— Angelica Hopes
She'd whisper to me to take my tiny piece of happiness, hold its honey in my mouth until it melts away.
— Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Last Crossing
Sure, I had been accused of murder by my family and was wrapped up in a bizarre investigation, but there were such cute boys involved. Hey, I try to look on the bright side.
— Tamara Summers, Never Bite a Boy on the First Date
I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 different ways to do it wrong.
— Benjamin Franklin
I’d given him bits and pieces of my peculiar life, but colored softer and funnier than they had been. I’d painted my dad as Don Quixote in a semi, on a quest for philosophical truths and the best cup of coffee in the nation.
— Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory
Deep down, where my boys don't know me, I'm an optimist.
— Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her
One thing about flying that he never got used to was that no matter how awful the weather was on the ground, if you flew high enough you could always find the sun.
— Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October
To be extremely happy but extremely intelligent is a task of being optimistic without being cheesy.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
You may find that you have been telling yourself that practicing optimism is a risk, as though, somehow, a positive attitude will invite disaster and so if you practice optimism it may increase your feelings of vulnerability. The trick is to increase your tolerance for vulnerable feelings, rather than avoid them altogether.[…]Optimism does not mean continual happiness, glazed eyes and a fixed grin. When I talk about the desirability of optimism I do not mean that we should delude ourselves about reality. But practicing optimism does mean focusing more on the positive fall-out of an event than on the negative. … I am not advocating the kind of optimism that means you blow all your savings on a horse running at a hundred to one; I am talking about being optimistic enough to sow some seeds in the hope that some of them will germinate and grow into flowers.
— Philippa Perry, How to Stay Sane
The glass is always completely full-half air and half liquid.
— Mark Miller, The Heart of Leadership: Becoming a Leader People Want to Follow
Dear Optimism, nice to see you. I've got an extra room, how about you stay for a while.
— Antonia Perdu
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain.
— Vivian Greene
REAL Leaders are experts at bringing out the best in others... Thinking , feelings and actions. They improve their teams' thinking skills and Mindsets.
— Tony Dovale
Performance depends upon our actions an behaviors, which are activated by emotions, which are created when our MINDSET meets reality... Mindsets Matter Most
— Tony Dovale
With the right Mindset...effective thinking is automatic.
— Tony Dovale
Know what an optimist is, Major? A pessimist without much experience.
— Nicholas Proffitt, The Embassy House
The American political experience can therefore be viewed as optimism in the collective.
— Michael J. Fox, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist
The cycle of optimism and euphoria leading to greed, fear and capitulation, giving way to hope and building back to optimism, drives the expansion and contraction of our financial world in a market cycle of collective human emotion.
— Coreen T. Sol, Practically Investing: Smart Investment Techniques Your Neighbour Doesn't Know
There are two words that I believe could be completely eradicated from our vocabulary – “I can’t.” These two words are so definite that they leave absolutely no room for hope. Instead, I suggest we use the phrase, “How can I?
— Daniel Willey
When we're together," he whispered, "we'll only see each other, not the ugliness around us.
— Ellen Marie Wiseman, The Plum Tree
Americans have a tendency to believe that when there's a problem there must be a solution.
— Henry Kissinger
Behold, we know not anything;I can but trust that good shall fallAt last -- far off -- at last, to all,And every winter change to spring.
— Alfred Tennyson
Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.
— Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
I can help you.” He finalised.“How?” Both Jezka and Faze asked.“I don’t know but it's nice to sound optimistic, wouldn’t you agree.
— Keisha Keenleyside, The Demons Fib
Eritrean people are strong and caring. And despite all that we had been through we were brimming with optimism. Our country was on the verge of huge change.
— Abeba Habtu, Become Courageous Abeba: A Story of Love, Loss, War and Hope
Men crawl in slime and wallow in the mud;The Realist groans: "All life is mud ans slime!"Men lie and steal and shed each other's blood;And Realism sees but blood and crime.Yet Right is just as real as Wrong,The mountain peak is real as the ooze,A curse is no more real than a song;Among realities we need but choose.The cynic sees the failure of To-day,The Prophet cries the triumph of To-morrow,Knowing the spirit in our clogging clayThat masters doubt, disaster, loss and sorrow.Failure is but a passing weariness,There is no final answer but Success.
— Berton Braley
There are two types of optimism, real optimism and fake, cowardly optimism. Real optimism sees the Valley of Dry Bones and says, ‘These bones will rise!’ Fake, cowardly optimism says, ‘I like these bones. Dry bones are so very artistic to look at.
— Fiorella De Maria, Do No Harm
Change brings opportunity.
— Nido R. Qubein
If you're optimistic, think of it as bronze.
— Markus Zusak
We must not wait for favours from Nature
—  our task is to wrest them from her.
(Billy) Graham went through passages of hypochondria and his closest friends had to assure him that he was not about to die.
— Nancy Gibbs; Michael Duffy, The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House
Today is a new day. Even if you were wrong yesterday, you can get it right today.
— Dwight Howard
Hysterical optimism will prevail until the world again admits the existence of tragedy, and it cannot admit the existence of tragedy until it again distinguishes between good and evil. . . Hysterical optimism as a sin against knowledge.
— Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences
Spam is a waste of the receivers’ time, and, a waste of the sender’s optimism.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Confessions of a Misfit
Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don't hang around long enough for his/her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.
— Zig Ziglar, Success For Dummies
A genius is a grown-up that did not grow up.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Confessions of a Misfit
Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of sunbeams. Press the soft blossoms against your cheek, and finger their graces of form, their delicate mutability of shape, their pliancy and freshness. Expose your face to the aerial floods that sweep the heavens, ‘inhale great draughts of space,’ wonder, wonder at the wind’s unwearied activity. Pile note on note the infinite music that flows increasingly to your soul from the tactual sonorities of a thousand branches and tumbling waters. How can the world be shriveled when this most profound, emotional sense, touch, is faithful to its service? I am sure that if a fairy bade me choose between the sense of sight and that of touch, I would not part with the warm, endearing contact of human hands…
— Helen Keller, The Open Door
I am enjoying my life because things aren't going the way I planned.
— Rohit Pandita
The wind was against them now, and Piglet's ears streamed behind him like banners as he fought his way along, and it seemed hours before he got them into the shelter of the Hundred Acre Wood and they stood up straight again, to listen, a little nervously, to the roaring of the gale among the treetops.'Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?''Supposing it didn't,' said Pooh after careful thought.
— Milne, A. A.
Ana never saw the rotten apples littering the ground as she continually reached for the rare golden apple on the tree. Ana had stepped in a lot of rotten apples in her lifetime. She should have learned by now.
— Travis Luedke, The Nightlife: Las Vegas
You're just Little Miss Optimist, aren't you? Do you come with accessories, like a glass half full and lemons to make into lemonade, too?
— Rachel Caine, Kiss of Death
When the sun of consciousness first shone upon me, behold a miracle! The stock of my young life which had perished, steeped in the waters of knowledge grew again, budded again, was sweet again with the blossoms of childhood. Down in the depths of my being, I cried, ‘it is good to be alive!’ I held out two trembling hands to life, and in vain silence would impose dumbness upon me henceforth! The world to which I awoke was still mysterious; but there was hope and love and God in it, and nothing else mattered. Is it not possible that our entrance into heaven may be like this experience of mine?
— Helen Keller, The Open Door
Laugh as if it's funny, embrace as if it's love, and smile anyway.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway
Hope is the Word which God has written on the brow of every man.
— Victor Hugo
No matter how heavy the challenges we face in our life, embrace optimism, perseverance, tenacity and courage. Never lose faith and hope and a generous heart who live and breathes with a timeless love.
— Angelica Hopes, Rhythm of a Heart, Music of a Soul
You're confident he'll have found him, then?""Well, no. I didn't sat that.""If there's one thing I hate," Volyova said, looking coldly at the other Triumvir, "it's mindless optimism.
— Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space
The lecturer points to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's decision to get engaged while in prison as his "positive statement that life will go on," his affirmation of the power of love.
— J. Rufus Fears, Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life
Her son would be incomparably handsome, good and powerful. He would be the expected Messiah; it is fortunate for humanity that all mothers have this pathetic faith, without it mankind would not have the ever-renascent strength to go on living.
— Émile Zola, Le Docteur Pascal
I stretched out on the bed and slept. It was twilight when I awakened and turned on the light. I felt better, no longer tired. I went to the typewriter and sat before it. My thought was to write a sentence, a single perfect sentence. If I could write one good sentence I could write two and if I could write two I could write three, and if I could write three I could write forever. But suppose I failed? Suppose I had lost all of my beautiful talent? Suppose it had burned up in the fire of Biff Newhouse smashing my nose or Helen Brownell dead forever? What would happen to me? Would I go to Abe Marx and become a busboy again? I had seventeen dollars in my wallet. Seventeen dollars and the fear of writing. I sat erect before the typewriter and blew on my fingers. Please God, please Knut Hamsun, don’t desert me now. I started to write and I wrote:“The time has come,” the Walrus said,“To talk of many things:Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—Of cabbages—and kings—”I looked at it and wet my lips. It wasn’t mine, but what the hell, a man had to start someplace.
— John Fante, Dreams from Bunker Hill
Be warned - Hammond does tend to be a bit optimistic about these kind of things. If the army were made up of one-legged mutes, he would praise their balance and their listening skills.
— Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire
It doesn't matter if the glass is half full or half empty. I am gonna drink it through this crazy straw.
— Joey Comeau, A Softer World: Truth and Beauty Bombs
Most people are optimists, although they may claim they are not. People who call themselves realists are often the biggest optimists of all.
— Stephen King, UR
He found that the business of optimism was no mean task.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
I’m not interested in blind optimism, but I’m very interested in optimism that is hard-won, that takes on darkness and then says, ‘This is not enough.’ But it takes time, more time than we can sometimes imagine, to get there. And sometimes we don’t.
— Colum McCann
Optimists are usually inexperienced.
— Wayne Gerard Trotman, Veterans of the Psychic Wars
Look back, and smile on perils past!
— Walter Scott, The Complete Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott
Every day we make the whole world new... Or else grow old.
— John  Valentine, Puppies
..there are two possible endings to every story.
— Christie Watson, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
Dantes had entered the Chateau d’If with the round, open, smiling face of a young and happy man, with whom the earlypaths of life have been smooth. and who anticipates a future corresponding with his past. This was now all changed. The oval face was lengthened, his smiling mouth had assumed the firm and markedlines which betoken resolution; his eyebrows were arched beneath a brow furrowed with thought; his eyes were full of melancholy, and from their depths occasionally sparkled gloomy fires of misanthropy and hatred; his complexion, so long kept from the sun, had now that pale color which produces, when the features are encircled with black hair, the aristocratic beauty of the man of the north; the profound learning he had acquired had besides diffused over his features a refined intellectual expression; and he had also acquired, being naturally of a goodly stature, that vigor which a frame possesses which has so long concentrated all its force within itself.
— Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" "I can't remember. Which?" "Do you know what those words mean?" "Not really." "An optimist is positive and hopeful. A pessimist is negative and cynical." "I'm an optimist." "Well, that's good, because there’s no irrefutable evidence. There’s nothing that could convince someone who doesn’t want to be convinced. But there is an abundance of clues that would give the wanting believer something to hold on to.
— Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Gospel worldview equips the artist with a unique combination of optimism and realism about life.
— Timothy J. Keller
One of the cafés had that brilliant idea of putting up a slogan: 'the best protection against infection is a good bottle of wine', which confirmed an already prevalent opinion that alcohol is a safeguard against infectious disease. Every night, towards 2 a.m., quite a number of drunk men, ejected from the cafés , staggered down the streets, vociferating optimism.
— Albert Camus, The Plague
By reflecting a little on this subject I am almost convinced that those numberless small Circuses we see on the moon are the works of the Lunarians and may be called their Towns.
— William Herschel
Critical pessimists, such as media critics Mark Crispin Miller, Noam Chomsky, and Robert McChesney, focus primarily on the obstacles to achieving a more democratic society. In the process, they often exaggerate the power of big media in order to frighten readers into taking action. I don't disagree with their concern about media concentration, but the way they frame the debate is self-defeating insofar as it disempowers consumers even as it seeks to mobilize them. Far too much media reform rhetoric rests on melodramatic discourse about victimization and vulnerability, seduction and manipulation, "propaganda machines" and "weapons of mass deception". Again and again, this version of the media reform movement has ignored the complexity of the public's relationship to popular culture and sided with those opposed to a more diverse and participatory culture. The politics of critical utopianism is founded on a notion of empowerment; the politics of critical pessimism on a politics of victimization. One focuses on what we are doing with media, and the other on what media is doing to us. As with previous revolutions, the media reform movement is gaining momentum at a time when people are starting to feel more empowered, not when they are at their weakest.
— Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
Civilizations rise and fall on confidence. America had figured out a way to borrow money to manufacture it.
— Ron Suskind, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President
Just another case of sometimes. Sometimes fates plans are different from your own. Sometimes the beautiful things are right in your reach but you settle for things that are good enough to make you happy. Sometimes people that should be trying harder than ever, give up on you. Sometimes feelings are so strong that you decide its time to give up. Sometimes giving up is the worst thing you can do. Sometimes people think it'll all work out. Sometimes people think it'll get better in time. Sometimes people do what they can do today, tomorrow. Sometimes the most beautiful emotions are the ones that are most neglected. Sometimes people mistaken love for lust. Sometimes people miscommunicate. Sometimes people say things that they don't really mean. Sometimes people say things that they mean and just say them wrong. Sometimes people think they've moved on. Sometimes people think that they will never move on. Sometimes people share they're lives with people that they don't really love. Sometimes people let the people they really love pass through they're lives. Sometimes people chose to stay alive. Sometimes people chose to live.
— Everance Caiser
Instead of cursing the darkness, try to fix the lamp.
— محمد عبد الرحمن العريفي, Enjoy Your Life