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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
61ed608 We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. optimism inspirational perception pessimism Oscar Wilde
ac6ba4e You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down wonder optimism inspirational pessimism Charlie Chaplin
139c1f3 I wish to weep but sorrow is stupid. I wish to believe but belief is a graveyard. perseverance sorrow life weeping pessimism Charles Bukowski
67aeaf4 I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will. science optimism intelligence pessimism will Antonio Gramsci
f6ff96a I'm not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare who says that it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping. humor pessimism P. G. Wodehouse
a07adb8 The world's bumper sticker reads: Life sucks, and then you die. Perhaps Christian bumper stickers should read: Life sucks, but then you find hope and you can't wait to die. christianity positive-thinking pessimism Ted Dekker
6df908f If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood? death life pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer
f739db3 This is awful. I don't know what's going to happen to me or to anyone else in the world. gazebo pessimism Raymond Carver
2cf244a Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercises, even over the appearance of external objects. Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision. thoughts darkness optimism subconscious perspective perception pessimism human-nature Charles Dickens
07d121d POZZO: I am blind. (Silence.) ESTRAGON: Perhaps he can see into the future. future funny humor pessimism Samuel Beckett
a95c595 "What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin." satire pessimism Voltaire
256ba07 "Fuck you! I hope you die!" "Everybody Dies," I said. "So fuck you." truth pessimism Lawrence Block
3aefbd2 You predicted quick victory. Now it's going to get hopelessly complicated. Jesus, don't you know any better than that by now? optimism pessimism thomas-raith Jim Butcher
cc01aba Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act. self-fulfilling-prophecy inaction pessimism Howard Zinn
d4ad157 Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ. jealousy pessimism William Shakespeare
70e12cb I'm beginning to think the only choice anyone has in life is between either a bad choice or a worse one. pessimism Sherrilyn Kenyon
852c559 If you think someone is seriously on the prod for your ass, it keeps you awake. pessimism Richard Bachman Stephen King
94a0341 Such is the imperfect nature of man! such spots are there on the disc of the clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd's can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb. pessimism Charlotte Brontë
91682f9 I hope to-morrow will be a fine day, Lane. It never is, sir. Lane, you're a perfect pessimist. I do my best to give satisfaction, sir. pessimism Oscar Wilde
cfb215c Once is never. Twice is always. wisdom twice quip once pessimism James S.A. Corey
f52cc96 That is the way we decided to talk, free and easy, two young men discussing a boxing match. That was the only way to talk. You couldn't let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn't admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen. If you opened the door even a centimeter, you would smell the rot outside and hear the screams. You did not open the door. You kept your mind on the tasks of the day, the hunt for food and water and something to burn, and you saved the rest for the end of the war. story history inspirational ww2 russian world-war-ii pessimism jews russia jewish David Benioff
c17cb2c I am going to hold a pistol to the head of the Modern Man. But I shall not use it to kill him-only to bring him to life. life pessimism G.K. Chesterton
3835366 I still think sincere pessimism the unpardonable sin. optimism pessimism G.K. Chesterton
6bbc9ff Without the hope of posterity, for our race if not for ourselves, without the assurance that we being dead yet live, all pleasures of the mind and senses sometimes seem to me no more than pathetic and crumbling defences shored up against our ruin. the-future pessimism posterity P.D. James
aa1c096 "You always think everything is so easy," Royce replied, wiping his eyes. "I'm just a glass-half-full kinda guy. How's your glass looking these days?" "I have no idea. I'm still trying to get over the sheer size of it." theft-of-swords pessimism Michael J. Sullivan
20b8f10 However, the struggle with that sentinel is, as a rule, not so hard as it may seem from a long way off, mainly in consequence of the antagonism between the ills of the body and the ills of the mind. If we are in great bodily pain, or the pain lasts a long time, we become indifferent to other troubles; all we think about is to get well. In the same way great mental suffering makes us insensible to bodily pain; we despise it; nay, if it should outweigh the other, it distracts our thoughts, and we welcome it as a pause in mental suffering. It is this feeling that makes suicide easy; for the bodily pain that accompanies it loses all significance in the eyes of one who is tortured by an excess of mental suffering. This is especially evident in the case of those who are driven to suicide by some purely morbid and exaggerated ill-humor. No special effort to overcome their feelings is necessary, nor do such people require to be worked up in order to take the step; but as soon as the keeper into whose charge they are given leaves them for a couple of minutes, they quickly bring their life to an end. When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it awakes us; thereby banishing all the hideous shapes that were born of the night. And life is a dream: when the moment of greatest horror compels us to break it off, the same thing happens. suicide studies-in-pessimism schopenhauer pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer
16d61a6 It is surely unreasonable to credit that only one small star in the immensity of the universe is capable of developing and supporting intelligent life. But we shall not get to them and they will not come to us. intelligent-life pessimism P.D. James
43b4e5f There came an awful day when I picked up the phone and knew at once, as one does with some old friends even before they speak, that it was Edward. He sounded as if he were calling from the bottom of a well. I still thank my stars that I didn't say what I nearly said, because the good professor's phone pals were used to cheering or teasing him out of bouts of pessimism and insecurity when he would sometimes say ridiculous things like: 'I hope you don't mind being disturbed by some mere wog and upstart.' The remedy for this was not to indulge it but to reply with bracing and satirical stuff which would soon get the gurgling laugh back into his throat. But I'm glad I didn't say, 'What, Edward, splashing about again in the waters of self-pity?' because this time he was calling to tell me that he had contracted a rare strain of leukemia. Not at all untypically, he used the occasion to remind me that it was very important always to make and keep regular appointments with one's physician. friends friendship leukemia self-pity edward-said pessimism insecurity Christopher Hitchens
d88654b These days, there are angry ghosts all around us, dead from wars, sickness, starvation--and nobody cares. So you say you're under a curse? Well, so what? So's the whole damned world. pessimism ghosts Hayao Miyazaki
fc5d78c It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless hopes dampened through immersive dousings in the darkness which religions have explored. This is a particular priority for secular Americans, perhaps the most anxious and disappointed people on earth, for their nation infuses them with the most extreme hopes about what they may be able to achieve in their working lives and relationships. optimism hope anxiety drive americans atheism pessimism disappointment Alain de Botton
ed77377 Hatred becomes, within a given time, the hatred of society, then the hatred of the human race, then the hatred of creation. hatred pessimism Victor Hugo
fa837b5 The mind is an intricate mechanism that can be run on the fuels of both victory and defeatism. optimism emotions thinking pessimism Pat Conroy
c7e7953 Some things are hard to imagine. Can you conceive of excessive contentment, for example? Or an over pleasant evening? Too much happiness? happiness pessimism Alan Moore
368e934 Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down. pessimism John Kenneth Galbraith
f3a3c01 Human beings shouldn't have to enter such doors, shouldn't have to stay behind them. No moon ever entered there, no stars, no anything at all. They were worse than the grave, for in the grave is an absence of consciousness. And God, she reflected, ordered the grave for all of us; but God didn't order such burrows in a third-class New York City Hotel. noir pessimism new-york Cornell Woolrich
00d8b46 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! religion philosophic-reflection theology pessimism Fyodor Dostoyevsky
fc6862d The world is full of dead optimists. pessimism Libba Bray
4284d02 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. rebellion optimism son pessimism Paul Auster
b4c65f6 Once I started trying to give positive reviews, though, I began to understand how much happiness I took from the joyous ones in my life---and how much effort it must take for them to be consistently good=tempered and positive. It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. We nonjoyous types suck energy and cheer from the joyous ones; we rely on them to buoy us with their good spirit and to cushion our agitation and anxiety. At the same time, because of a dark element in human nature, we're sometimes provoked to try to shake the enthusiastic, cheery folk out of their fog of illusion---to make them see that the play was stupid, the money was wasted, the meeting was pointless. Instead of shielding their joy, we blast it. joy optimism pessimism Gretchen Rubin
4945931 If there is any hell more unprincipled than our rulers, and we, the ruled, I feel curious to see it. government pessimism Henry David Thoreau
94404d1 "The author says people are guilty of "wrecking the present because the future was bound to be a wreck." pessimism sin T.H. White
3af5786 Happiness made Marv anxious because he knew it didn't last. But happiness destroyed was worth wrapping your arms around because it always hugged you back. pessimism Dennis Lehane
5d27054 Those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither one nor the other. skepticism pessimism G.K. Chesterton
06bd501 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. writing optimism clockwork working pessimism difficulties Philip Pullman
f1b6af4 Sombres, dites-vous? Mais posez-vous la question docteur : pourquoi tous les grands philosophes sont-ils sombres? Demandez-vous qui sont les gens satisfaits, rassures et eternellement joyeux! Laissez-moi vous donner la reponse : -- la populace et les enfants! somber nietzsche french pessimism Irvin D. Yalom
5d880c9 "Magical?" "Non." "Magnificent?" "Don't be absurd." "Less bleak than anything else we have seen?" "Now truly you are speaking French," the ambassador said approvingly." pessimism Neal Stephenson
8684d54 No one dies halfway through the last act. - Heinrich Ibsen sovereignty-of-god grace-of-god pessimism Harold Bloom
ee5f42e Almost anything at all can be transmuted into a labyrinth. frustrations obstacles pessimism Harold Bloom
587585c The world is perhaps ultimately to be defined as a place of suffering. Man is a suffering animal, subject to ceaseless anxiety and pain and fear. suffering the-human-condition the-black-prince iris-murdoch worldview nihilism the-world pessimism Iris Murdoch
417fd23 Todos nos crescemos vendo os mesmos programas de TV. E como se tivessemos os mesmos implantes artificiais de memoria. Nao nos recordamos de quase nada da nossa verdadeira infancia, mas nos lembramos de tudo o que aconteceu com as mesmas familias dos seriados de comedia. Temos os mesmos objetivos basicos. Todos nos temos os mesmos medos. pessimism Chuck Palahniuk
95e0aa9 "I spoke one time at the Library of Congress, in 1972, or so. A man stood up in the middle of the audience, when I was about halfway through, and he said, "What right have you, as leader of America's young people, to make those people so cynical and pessimistic?" I had no good answer, so I left the stage. Talk about profiles in courage!" youth leadership pessimism Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
6ecb9f8 Statistically it was not greatly different than it had been for previous generations, but anecdotally it had become so prominent that every problem was noticed and remarked. The cognitive error called ease of representation thrust them into a space where every problem they witnessed convinced them they were in an unprecedented colapse. They were getting depressed. science science-fiction society pessimism Kim Stanley Robinson
38af6e7 When a kingdom rests on it, I always expect difficulty. Then, if there is none, no blame. But if there is, one is prepared. optimism pessimism planning pragmatism strategy Geraldine Brooks
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