#pessimism

Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. ↗

— Stephen Colbert

#optimism #pessimism #disappointment

Se sou pessimista é porque o mundo é péssimo, só isso. ↗

— José Saramago

#pessimism

In my heart's most secret place, I pity them as angels do. ↗

— Sara Teasdale

#philosophy #pessimism

My glass is not only half-empty, I'm convinced someone spit in it. ↗

— Judy Nichols

#hard-boiled-detective #pessimism #pessimism

It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless hopes dampened through immersive dousings in the darkness which religions have explored. This is a particular priority for secular Americans, perhaps the most anxious and disappointed people on earth, for their nation infuses them with the most extreme hopes about what they may be able to achieve in their working lives and relationships. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#americans #anxiety #atheism #disappointment #drive

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral. ↗

— Robert Orben

#pessimism

When you've been struck by lightning as many times as I have, you start to expect the worst pretty much all the time. ↗

— Jennifer Bosworth

#lightning #pessimism #pessimism

But it's like no matter how much energy you pour into getting to the station on time, or getting on the right train, there's still no guarantee that anybody's gonna be there for you to pick you up when you get there. ↗

— Nancy Oliver

#friends #pessimism #rely #pessimism

Stain my eyes as I may, on all sides all is black. ↗

— Helen Hunt Jackson

#pessimism #sad #sadness #pessimism

In my opinion it is not the writer's job to solve such problems as God, pessimism, etc; his job is merely to record who, under what conditions, said or thought what about God or pessimism. The artist is not meant to be a judge of his characters and what they say; his only job is to be an impartial witness. I heard two Russians in a muddled conversation about pessimism, a conversation that solved nothing; all I am bound to do is reproduce that conversation exactly as I heard it. Drawing conclusions is up to the jury, that is, the readers. My only job is to be talented, that is, to know how to distinguish important testimony from unimportant, to place my characters in the proper light and speak their language. ↗

— Anton Chekhov

#writing-craft #pessimism