
Epilogue, p. 242
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
As quoted in The Artist's Voice : Talks With Seventeen Modern Artists (1962) by Katharine Kuh, p. 119
1960s
Epilogue, p. 242
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
From 1980s onwards, Only Integrity is Going to Count (1983)
Context: I find the audiences very excited. But then they come and say to me, "Your optimism has brushed off on me. I didn't know we had an option. I feel so much better." They say, "Your optimism." And I am not optimistic or pessimistic. I feel that optimism and pessimism are very unbalanced. I am a very hard engineer. I am a mechanic. I am a sailor. I am an air pilot. I don't tell people I can get you across the ocean with my ship unless I know what I'm talking about.
“I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.”
“[…] You see, you are an optimist and live on hope. I am a pessimist and live on experience.”
Page 352-353.
Stepping Westward (1965)
“[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.”
Source: Fer-de-Lance
“To the optimist, pessimists are neurotic; to the pessimist, optimists are deluded.”
Humor in Psychotherapy (2007)
Source: On balancing pessimism and optimism in “Kamila Shamsie: 'We have to find reasons for optimism’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/08/kamila-shamsie-we-have-to-find-reasons-for-optimism-home-fire in The Guardian (2018 Jun 8)
“Optimists and pessimists differ only on the date of the end of the world.”
p, 125
Unkempt Thoughts (1957)
“If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”