#pessimism

However, the struggle with that sentinel is, as a rule, not so hard as it may seem from a long way off, mainly in consequence of the antagonism between the ills of the body and the ills of the mind. If we are in great bodily pain, or the pain lasts a long time, we become indifferent to other troubles; all we think about is to get well. In the same way great mental suffering makes us insensible to bodily pain; we despise it; nay, if it should outweigh the other, it distracts our thoughts, and we welcome it as a pause in mental suffering. It is this feeling that makes suicide easy; for the bodily pain that accompanies it loses all significance in the eyes of one who is tortured by an excess of mental suffering. This is especially evident in the case of those who are driven to suicide by some purely morbid and exaggerated ill-humor. No special effort to overcome their feelings is necessary, nor do such people require to be worked up in order to take the step; but as soon as the keeper into whose charge they are given leaves them for a couple of minutes, they quickly bring their life to an end. When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it awakes us; thereby banishing all the hideous shapes that were born of the night. And life is a dream: when the moment of greatest horror compels us to break it off, the same thing happens. ↗

— Arthur Schopenhauer Studies in Pessimism

#pessimism #schopenhauer #studies-in-pessimism #suicide #dreams

And as we should all know by now, anytime you predict failure you have an excellent chance of being right. ↗

— Jeff Lindsay

#dexter #dexter-morgan #failure #morgan #pessimism

I don't think you lead by pessimism and cynicism. I think you lead by optimism and enthusiasm and energy. ↗

— Patricia Ireland

#energy #enthusiasm #i #i think #lead

Pessimism only describes an attitude, and not facts, and hence is entirely subjective. ↗

— Francis Parker Yockey

#describes #entirely #facts #hence #only

If pessimism is despair, optimism is cowardice and stupidity. Is there any need to choose between them? ↗

— Francis Parker Yockey

#between #choose #cowardice #despair #need

Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time. ↗

— Norman Cousins

#facts #optimism #pessimism #prospects #time

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect. ↗

— John Kenneth Galbraith

#agree #intellect #mark #pessimism #superior

Did not one spend the first half of one's days in dreams of happiness and the second half in regrets and terrors? ↗

— Émile Zola

#pessimism #regrets #zola #dreams

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter. ↗

— George R. Gissing

#life #pessimism #humor

How does knowing 'things could be worse' than what I already deem is awful make me feel any better? You mean I could sink even lower? Oh joy! ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#pessimism #richelle #richelle-goodrich #sarcasm #sarcasm-humor