Kudlow's Money Politics blog http://kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/september-optimism.html, September 4, 2007.
“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.”
Epilogue, p. 242
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
“I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.”
“For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.”
Lord Mayor’s Banquet, Guildhall, London (9 November 1954) The Unwritten Alliance, page 195, Columbia University, NY (1966),page 195,
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Lawrence Summers in: Glenn Pascall (August 16, 1987) "Raiding Can Be Seen As Wake-Up Call For Corporate America", The Seattle Times, p. B4.
1980s
“[…] You see, you are an optimist and live on hope. I am a pessimist and live on experience.”
Page 352-353.
Stepping Westward (1965)
“Given this optimistic nature, I feel this way even now when I am past sixty.”
Source: Adventures of a Mathematician - Third Edition (1991), Chapter 10, Back At Los Alamos, p. 208
Context: I was still very hopeful that much work lay ahead of me. Perhaps because much of what I had worked on or thought about had not yet been put into writing, I felt I still had things in reserve. Given this optimistic nature, I feel this way even now when I am past sixty.
“I am a tremendous optimist for someone who has grown up amid the twilight of American competence.”
Vanity Fair, "Why the Hacks Hate Michael Hastings" http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/06/why-the-hacks-hate-michael-hastings, 23 July 2010.
Source: How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004), Ch. 1 : It All Started with a Boy, p. 16
Context: I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter. With the laugh comes the tears and in developing motion pictures or television shows, you must combine all the facts of life — drama, pathos and humor.
