Quotes Tagged "pessimism"

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Death, my son, is a good thing for all men; it is the night for this worried day that we call life. It is in the sleep of death that finds rest for eternity the sickness, pain, desperation, and the fears that agitate, without end, we unhappy living souls.

If life is a punishment, one should wish for an end; if life is a test, one should wish it to be short.

Our pursuit of happiness is an addiction to us and a cancer to our planet.

Keep a light, hopeful heart. But ­expect the worst.

People who are too optimistic seem annoying. This is an unfortunate misinterpretation of what an optimist really is. An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist. An idealist focuses only on the best aspects of all things (sometimes in detriment to reality); an optimist strives to find an effective solution. A pessimist sees limited or no choices in dark times; an optimist makes choices. When bobbing for apples, an idealist endlessly reaches for the best apple, a pessimist settles for the first one within reach, while an optimist drains the barrel, fishes out all the apples and makes pie. Annoying? Yes. But, oh-so tasty!

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: if you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse.

With no positivity, there is no hope; with no negativity, there is no improvement.

Pessimism is not part of my nature. Rather, it’s part of what happens to me when I reject God’s nature.

It’s not about believing in something. Rather, it’s about what I believe in. And too often what I believe in is that there’s nothing to believe in.

My pessimism and cynicism knows no bounds, nothing truly surprises me these days. But when that little spark of optimism, of hope is alight, it burns really brightly in the darkness.

Faith is a luxury for those who are able to ignore what the rest of us must see every day. Pessimism, distrust, and irony are the holy trinity of my religion, irony in particular.

At what point will I look beyond the rank pessimism of my own attitude and step beyond the jaded opinions of a culture gone sour in order to see that the opportunity for good will always outweigh the schemes of evil?

I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child who...prayed..with...unexpiated tears to 'dear,kind God!

Behind the mask of pessimism there is nothing more than this pathetic fear that spends every waking moment of its day fearing that we might actually succeed.  

أعرف أنك في هذه الآونة تقعين أحيانا فريسة لخوفك من الحياة أكثر من خوفك من الموت. وأعلم أنك في سبيل الخلاص من هذه المعاناة تلجئين في الغالب أكثر فأكثر لخيالك. لكن مايغيب عنك أن خيالك الآن هو بصدد تدميرك. لا يجب أن تصيخي السمع لهذا الصوت المتردد في داخلك بمديح الموت وكأنه الحل الوحيد أمامك. عليك بشجاعة المقاومة بدل الاستسلام للهزيمة. فالموت ليس الحل الأنسب للخوف والمعاناة.

Every palace and every work of art is only dust as yet unrealized, and time is the patient wind that will whither it all away.

Though we tend to remember bad events as well as we remember good ones, the negative coloring of the misfortunes fades with time, particularly the ones that happened to us. We are wired for nostalgia: in human memory, time heals most wounds.

Instead of days like Valentine’s Day, we ought to have days such as the day on which we would commemorate those ancestors of ours from whose deaths we have learned, for example, that something is not safe for us to eat.

I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.