Optimism Quotes

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

At a certain point, unabashed optimism becomes delusional insanity.

~ Matt Abrams

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

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

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

Even when I was caught in the web, I didn't give up hope. And as you see, I was right.

~ Michael Ende

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

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

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

Yes, it will all end one day; but today is worth living.

~ Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

I love the optimism on the shores of youth, where time hasn't yet eroded faith.

~ Amy Neftzger

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

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

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

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

The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction.

~ James S.a. Corey

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

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

He showed me the lowest. I had to surmise the highest.

~ John Howard Griffin

Happiness and success require the highest possible optimism, with minimal expectations. Optimize without limits, and expect anything in particular.

~ Ammar Moussa (عمار موسى)

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

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

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

If Churchill recommends optimism, who are you or I to quibble?

~ Anthony Weston

Optimism is not fantasy. It hopes for the best reality without departing from it.

~ James Randall Robison

Teain had no difficulty generating the indignation of a satirist. He lack the patience of a reformer.

~ H.w. Brands

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

The Admiral so regrets failure, he cannot THINK of success.

~ John Taliaferro