Quotes About Pessimism

Cynicism is humour in ill health.

Cynicism is that blackguard defect of vision which compels us to see the world as it is, instead of as it should be.

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes - openly bad and secretly bad.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

It matters very little whether a man is discontented in the name of pessimism or progress, if his discontent does in fact paralyse his power of appreciating what he has got.

If I've learned anything in my seventy years it's that nothing's as good or as bad as it appears.

I am a profound pessimist both about life and about human relations and about politics and ecology. Humans are inadequate and stupid creatures who sooner or later make a mess, and those who are trying to do good do a lot more damage than those who are muddling along.

As a bull market turns into a bear market, the new pros turn into optimists, hoping and praying the bear market will become a bull and save them. But as the market remains bearish, the optimists become pessimists, quit the profession, and return to their day jobs. This is when the real professional investors re-enter the market.

In my late teens and early twenties, I thought having children was possibly the most irresponsible thing you could do because I thought that the world was a dreadful place; I thought the sooner we all got off the planet, the better.

The second half of the twentieth century is a complete flop.

And I am an optimistic person. I guess if you want to try to find something to be pessimistic about, you can find it, no matter how hard you look, you know?

I back away from negativity - there's too much in this world, and I don't want to be around it.

In my next life I want to be a pessimist. Then other people could spend all their time cheering me up.

I may know that the world is an ugly place, I still don't want to see it.

You are not trying to find the answer to a question, you are simply trying to confirm something you desperately want to believe; That everyone is evil. " Chantal

To be honest I'm not going to sell dreams like everybody else does and say, "Sure, it can be changed." I don't want to seem like a pessimist, but nothing's getting better.

They ex­pect­ed to lose. And there­fore, they lost. [..] Peo­ple who start think­ing deep dark thoughts in the mid­dle of a war start ex­pect­ing to lose.

Poetry is the great stimulation of life. Poetry leads past possession of self to transfiguration beyond gender. Poetry is redemption from pessimism.

We have been taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic.

You always look on the dark side of life. I believe in capturing the moment...Joy is so fleeting. You never know when it might be snatched away.

Bueno, la vida tiene un lado feo y oscuro, pero también otro soleado y puro.

The good part about being a pessimist is, when something bad happens, you're never really devastated by it. And when something good happens, it's such a bonus.

I'm sorry, I'm absolutely convinced that there is at the moment no realistic prospect for very much hope in human affairs.