Optimism Quotes

If I am happy in spite of my deprivations,
if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith,
so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life.
If, in short, I am an optimist,
my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.
- Helen Keller
...
Helen Keller (1880-1968) overcame being both deaf and blind
to become a famous author, lecturer, and activist
for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and ending war.

Pessimism never won any battle.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
- Helen Keller

Gardening is all about optimism.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines

Gardening is all about optimism.
I put a seed in the ground.
I consistently tend it,
confident I will see the results, in time,
of the nurture I have provided.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Whatever happens, always look to tomorrow -
with courage and optimism.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If you believe that a task will be difficult, it will be -
and you will have suffered with worry beforehand.
Approach life with joy and optimism.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life.
If it be true that optimism compels the world forward,
and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to
propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
- Helen Keller

Optimism is the harmony between man's spirit
and of God pronouncing His works good.
- Helen Keller

Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail.
- Helen Keller

If you are over 30, get out your high-school yearbook
and look for ideas you can apply today -
perhaps an innocent optimism about life -
perhaps a hobby you loved.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it,
while every pessimist would keep the worlds at a standstill.
The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation
is the same as in the life of the individual.
Pessimism kills the instinct that
urges men to struggle against poverty,
ignorance and crime, and dries up
all the fountains of joy in the world.
- Helen Keller

Footprints in the sand...
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Pay attention.
Don't let resentments or pessimism answer for you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am an optimist.
It does not seem too much use being anything else.
- Winston Churchill

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere,
while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight.
The truly wise person is colorblind.
- Albert Schweitzer

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
- Winston Churchill

An optimist is one who makes the best
of what he gets the worst of.
- Anonymous

I have become my own version of an optimist.
If I can't make it through one door,
I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door.
Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
- Rabindranath Tagore

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

Life is not supposed to be fair.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present.
- Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson

Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran

Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu

One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb

You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

A ship in harbor is safe -
but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd

Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
- Erich Segal

The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie

The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- The Buddha

Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.
- Anne Bradstreet

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen

Am I not destroying my enemies
when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln

One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu

When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
- Dale Carnegie

Let parents bequeath to their children
not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
- Plato

The beauty does not live out there;
the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

I am not a slave to my thoughts or emotions.
- Richard Carlson

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott

Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The ache for home lives in all of us,
the safe place where we can
go as we are and not be questioned.
- Maya Angelou

I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer

The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha

Sometimes we need the fog to remind ourselves
that all of life is not black and white.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Beating an opponent is not a goal,
but a by-product of success.
- John Wooden

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie