Quotes About Pessimism

How complex this world is, he thought; how easily may things appear to be one thing and then prove to be another. And how easy it was to see the worst

Weakened minds see everything through a black veil; the soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of your future appears stormy and unpromising.

The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.

On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?" —Thomas Babington Macaulay, Review of Southey's Colloquies on Society

First, and perhaps most importantly, despair and pessimism are in our very natures. We're wired to seek out bad news over good, and to always fear the worst. So bad news seizes our attention, while good news is often ignored.

We always look on the dark side, are suckers for the crisis of the day, and quickly separate into groups.

Mark Zuckerberg is an optimist, whereas Elon Musk and Bill Gates are very much the opposite, as was the late Stephen Hawking.

over the past fifty of your years, you've improved your health, longevity, literacy, quality of life, prosperity, and everything else. Dramatically. Yet almost all of you believe the opposite is true. Why? Because your news and social media is almost all negative. All alarming. All divisive. You've become more pessimistic, more tribal, than ever before. Your politicians ever more corrupt, manipulative, and self-serving.

Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half- way to meet it.

In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage — so long are you young. When the wires are all down and our heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old.

Life stinks, but that doesn't mean you don't enjoy it.

A regret understood by no one: the regret to be a pessimist. It's not easy to be on the wrong foot with life.

If you hold on to the negative, there is no room for the positive to come into your life.

Every ounce of my cynicism is supported by historical precedent.

Last year we said, 'Things can't go on like this', and they didn't, they got worse.

Look, the point is there's no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. So you're left with a choice. Either hope for the best or just expect the worst.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

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

In fact I thought life was pretty much a losing proposition, and I didn't mind saying so.

Life is a dead-end street.

Cynically speaking, one could say that it is true to life to be cynical about it.

A pessimist, confronted with two bad choices, chooses both.

It's hard living with eternal optimists. No matter how many times life craps on them, they wipe it off their faces and smile. I seem to be the only one who has accepted the truth: there is nothing around that corner but more crap.

When my ego starts in with its judgments about what is wrong, what is not good enough, let me notice this pessimistic thinking and instead, see my blessings.