Pessimism Quotes

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down

I wish to weep
but sorrow is
stupid.
I wish to believe
but belief is a
graveyard.

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

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

If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.

If you expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed.

Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will.
Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.

What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too.

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.

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

Someone who smiles too much with you can sometime frown too much with you at your back.

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.

You know how both life and porno movies end. The only difference is life starts with the orgasm.

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?

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.

No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse. (Apr 2007 Gen Conf)

The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.

Sorrow spares no one, and scars respect no person.

Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

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!

I will be the first to admit that I am a pessimist by nature. It is, after all, the wisest way to be. We pessimists have everything to gain, whereas optimists have a fifty-fifty chance of being disappointed.

This is awful. I don't know what's going to happen to me or to anyone else in the world.

I can't seem to be a pessimist long enough to overlook the possibility of things being overwhelmingly good.

It had gotten to the point where it seemed like nothing matters, because I’m not a real person and neither is anyone else.

I like pessimists. They’re always the ones who bring life jackets for the boat.

Sometimes fiction is more easily understood than true events. Reality is often pathetic.

One can only tolerate the absolute idiocy of Man for so long before bringing out the bat.

Seeing the glass as half empty is more positive than seeing it as half full. Through such a lens the only choice is to pour more. That is righteous pessimism.

If you reach for the stars, you just might land on a decently sized hill.

Abby must have been the one who found the safe house, because Townsend didn't like it.
"The building across the street is under construction," he snarled as soon as we'd carried our bags inside.
"The elevator has key card access, and I've hacked into the surveillance cameras from every system on the block," Abby argued. "We have a three-hundred-sixty-degree visual."
"Excellent." Townsend dropped his bag. "Now the circle can see us from every angle."
"Don't mind Agent Townsend, girls," Abby told us. "He's a glass-half-empty kind of spy."
"Also known as the good kind," he countered.
Abby huffed.

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.

School prepares you for the real world... which also bites.

What New England is, is a state of mind, a place where dry humor and perpetual disappointment blend to produce an ironic pessimism that folks from away find most perplexing

POZZO:
I am blind.
(Silence.)
ESTRAGON:
Perhaps he can see into the future.

Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.

Know yourselves- be infertile and let the earth be silent after ye.

There are moments when everything goes well; don't be frightened, it won't last.

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide.
"That is because I know what life is," said Martin.

Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.

The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back.

I write about adversity, I praise adversity, not to be pessimistic, but rather to strengthen myself. The more familiar that you are with it, the less likely you are to have a breakdown when it occurs. You become more reflective of its purpose, you understand God's reason for it, and are then able to make the best of everything that you are handed. The darkness is only frightening after constant sunshine.

I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.

Life isn't all fricasseed frogs and eel pie.

The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.