“We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists. So, too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with his genius, and many optimistic writers have been read and admired out of all measure to their talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life.”

“A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist.”

“Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness.”

“To the optimist, pessimists are neurotic; to the pessimist, optimists are deluded.”

“The difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic mind is of such controlling importance in regard to every intellectual function, and especially for the conduct of life, that it is out of the question to admit that both are normal, and the great majority of mankind are naturally optimistic.”

“Optimists and pessimists die the same way. They just live differently. I prefer to live as an optimist.”

“A pessimist is simply an optimist in full possession of the facts.”

“A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.”

“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.”

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