"As idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem, it has a weird habit of paying off."
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Optimism quotes
Optimism
626 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Optimism quotes (page 3 of 32)
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""We’ll never survive!” “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.""
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"Optimism is a faith that leads to success."
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"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail."
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"Optimism requires confidence, and confidence is built on trust. And trust, as we know, flows in both directions."
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"An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows. An idealist, however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition sees something else: the possibility of changing the picture, of making the lights prevail over the shadows."
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"The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas. Its hard absolute optimism is repulsive to my mind by the menace of fanaticism and intolerance it contains. No doubt one should smile at these things; but, imperfect Esthete, I am no better Philosopher. All claim to special righteousness awakens in me that scorn and anger from which a philosophical mind should be free."
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"In optimism there is magic. In pessimism there is nothing."
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"Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst."
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"One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."
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"there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst."
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"No matter what you are experiencing in life right now, trust that all is unfolding in your best interests."
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"Optimist: day dreamer more elegantly spelled."
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"He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety."
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"Patience is the key to content."
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"When action is needed, optimism, even of the mildly delusional variety, may be a good thing."
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"If I advocate cautious optimism it is not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do not want to encourage blind faith."
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"Truth is, I'll never know all there is to know about you just as you will never know all there is to know about me. Humans are by nature too complicated to be understood fully. So, we can choose either to approach our fellow human beings with suspicion or to approach them with an open mind, a dash of optimism and a great deal of candour."
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"One of the major biases in risky decision making is optimism. Optimism is a source of high-risk thinking."
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"While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us."
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