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

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

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

- Peter Ustinov

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

There are two Newman's laws. The first one is "It is useless to put on your brakes when you're upside down." The second is "Just when things look darkest, they go black."

- Paul Newman

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

- Jonas Salk

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

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 most prolific period of pessimism comes at twenty-one, or thereabouts, when the first attempt is made to translate dreams into reality.

- Heywood Broun

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

- William Arthur Ward

Pessimist: one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

- Oscar Wilde

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

- Vince Lombardi

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

- Antonio Gramsci



No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

- Helen Keller



Not to be born is best, but having seen the light, the next best is to go whence one came as soon as may be.

- Sophocles