The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. ~Robert Brault
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. ~Gil Stern
A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Note-Book, 1927
The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. ~George F. Will, The Leveling Wind
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. ~Leonard Louis Levinson
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan
An optimist is the human personification of spring. ~Susan J. Bissonette
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. ~Harry Truman
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. ~Irv Kupcinet
Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Being an optimist after you've got everything you want doesn't count. ~Kin Hubbard
Optimists are nostalgic about the future. ~Chicago Tribune
Optimism is the foundation of courage. ~Nicholas Murray Butler
An optimist is someone who figures that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's the bluebird of happiness. ~Robert Brault
Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it. ~Douglas Jerrold, "Meeting Troubles Half-Way," 1859
In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. ~Daniel L. Reardon
It doesn't hurt to be optimistic. You can always cry later. ~Lucimar Santos de Lima
It's still possible to be a cockeyed optimist these days - you just have to be a little more cockeyed. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. ~James Branch Cabell, The Silver Stallion, 1926
Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant - the digitalis of failure. ~Elbert Hubbard
An optimist is merely an ex-pessimist with his pockets full of money, his digestion in good condition, and his wife in the country. ~Helen Rowland
Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. ~Oscar Wilde
A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is a man who hopes they are. ~Chauncey Mitchell Depew
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist. ~Mark Twain
The realist sees reality as concrete. The optimist sees reality as clay. ~Robert Brault
If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me whether I am right-handed or left-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!" ~Lemony Snicket
The basis of optimism is sheer terror. ~Oscar Wilde
How many pessimists end up by desiring the things they fear, in order to prove that they are right? ~Robert Mallett, Apostilles, 1972
an optimist is a guy
that has never had
much experience.
~Don Marquis, archy and mehitabel, 1927
The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum. ~Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life, 1923
Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back. ~Author Unknown
After 5000 years of recorded human history, you wonder, What part of 2,000,000 sunrises doesn't a pessimist understand? ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
