This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red light... The truly wise person is colorblind.
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
Wisdom |
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is so.
Winston Churchill, fully Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Do you know what a pessimist is? A man who thinks everybody as nasty as himself and hates them for it.
Man |
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
William A. Ward, fully William Arthur Ward
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
Change |
Gladys Browyn Stern, born Gladys Bertha Stern
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.
Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller
We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists. So, too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with his genius, and many optimistic writers have been read and admired out of all measure to their talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life.
Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller
Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the worlds at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.
Ignorance | Instinct | Joy | Life | Life | Men | Pessimism | Progress | Struggle |
Robert Oppenheimer, fully Julius Robert Oppenheimer
The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.
Leader |
L. P. Jacks, fully Lawrence Pearsall Jacks
The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.