#pessimist

I’m supposed to figure out if the glass is half full or half empty,” I told her. Without a moment’s hesitation, in a split second, my grandmother shrugged and said: “It depends on if you’re drinking or pouring. ↗

— Bill Cosby

#grandma #life #optimist #perspective #pessimist

People who are too optimistic seem annoying. This is an unfortunate misinterpretation of what an optimist really is. An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist. An idealist focuses only on the best aspects of all things (sometimes in detriment to reality); an optimist strives to find an effective solution. A pessimist sees limited or no choices in dark times; an optimist makes choices. When bobbing for apples, an idealist endlessly reaches for the best apple, a pessimist settles for the first one within reach, while an optimist drains the barrel, fishes out all the apples and makes pie. Annoying? Yes. But, oh-so tasty! ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#apple #apples #bobbing #choices #energetic

Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past. ↗

— Lewis Mumford

#future #optimists #past #pessimists #traditionalists

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true. ↗

— J. Robert Oppenheimer

#fears #optimist #pessimist #possible #possible worlds

When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. ↗

— Carl Rogers

#i #i am #look #optimistic #people

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic. ↗

— Naguib Mahfouz

#pessimistic #unseemly

I vehemently deny that I was born a cynic and a pessimist. ↗

— Paul Getty

#cynic #deny #i #i was born #pessimist

People don't like to follow pessimists. ↗

— Bob Iger

#like #people #pessimists

Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist. ↗

— Robert G. Allen

#buying #many #optimist #out #pessimist

In falling markets, there is nothing that has not happened before. The bear or pessimist sees only the past, which imprisons the wretched financial soul in eternal circles of boom and bust and boom again. ↗

— James Buchan

#bear #before #boom #bust #circles