When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.

- Alexander Graham Bell

I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a dyed-in-the-wool possibilist! By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything's connected and change is the only constant.

- Frances Moore Lappé

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

- Benjamin Franklin

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.

- Irv Kupcinet

An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?

- Michel De Saint-Pierre

Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation.

- Alan Cohen

All will be well, all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.

- Julian of Norwich

It's hard to argue against cynics -- they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side.

- Molly Ivins

Determine the thing that can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

- Abraham Lincoln

The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

- Helen Keller

Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll.
The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!

- Oscar Wilde

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

- Winston Churchill

I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.

- Jonas Salk

Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness.

- Mark Twain

A positive mind finds a way it can be done; a negative mind looks for all the ways it can't be done.

- Napoleon Hill



Emerson then incarnated the moral optimism, the progress, and the energy of the American spirit.

- Howard Mumford Jones



Science cannot be stopped. Man will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences - and we cannot predict what they will be. Science will go on -- whether we are pessimistic, or are optimistic, as I am. I know that great, interesting, and valuable discoveries can be made and will be made... But I know also that still more interesting discoveries will be made that I have not the imagination to describe -- and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm.

- LInus Pauling



The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

- William Arthur Ward



Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.

- Barack Obama



Politics has always been the art of the possible. Today it's too often the art of the probable -- tinkering around the edges without any greater vision, without a sense of optimism and imagination.

- John Kerry



For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

- Winston Churchill



We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

- Barack Obama



Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

- Vince Lombardi



Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

- Arundhati Roy



Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

- Vaclav Havel



I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.

- Antonio Gramsci



The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before.

- Vita Sackville-West