“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

“In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.”

“the better you think, the better decisions you make. the better decisions you make, the better actions you take. the better actions you take, the better results you get”

“And today, I want to share with you my vision of what our future can be. I want the Cuban people -- especially the young people -- to understand why I believe that you should look to the future with hope; not the false promise which insists that things are better than they really are, or the blind optimism that says all your problems can go away tomorrow. Hope that is rooted in the future that you can choose and that you can shape, and that you can build for your country.”

“If you continue to visualize things in the past, you are unlikely to make much progress in the present and the future.”

“One of the very few things that I know I believe strongly is that we must learn how to make a better world out of usable pasts rather than dreaming of infinite futures. It’s a very late-Enlightenment view that says that the only way to make a better future is to believe that the future will be better. Smarter people than me used to believe very differently and I think it is time to listen to them once again.”

“I take responsibility only for the future, not the past. The past can't hurt you the way the future can.”

“Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better.”

“Find someone who makes you smile, because it only takes a smile to make a day better”

“It seems to me that no matter what religion you subscribe to, acts of kindness are the stepping-stones to making the world a better place--because we become better people in it.”