Emily Giffin Quotes

I think people in Europe are generally pessimistic about the future. They have low expectations; they're not working hard to change things. When you're a slacker with a pessimistic view of the future, you're likely to meet those expectations.

I'm a pessimist by nature. I don't think things are ever going to work out, I'm not particularly ambitious.

To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself.

Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.

Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don't have to try. ---in Good Housekeeping

The low-hanging fruit is cynicism and pessimism, and it's there if you want it. You can reach out and you can grab it, you don't even have to make any effort.

I count absolutely no chickens before they're hatched. In fact, I assume they're all dead in their shells, inside their eggs.

Negative expectations are a quick route to dead-end thinking.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

Pessimism is my default setting.

I'm a bad pessimist. I don't think about how successful any record I've ever done is going to do before it came out.

I assume that the worst will happen. So I'm never optimistic.

It's tough to say this, but sometimes it's better if you are losing because then you don't expect anything.

I'm a hard-luck kind of guy. Usually, things that I hope for don't go my way, so I'm very used to that. In fact, I expect it.

Everyone wrote me off, including me.

So many people accept the negative. They are constantly blinded by that negative thing.

I'm one of life's pessimists. I'm ready for everything to go wrong at any moment.

The main trouble with despair is that it is self-fulfilling. People who fear the worst tend to invite it. Heads that are down can't scan the horizon for new openings. Bursts of energy do not spring from a spirit of defeat. Ultimately, helplessness leads to hopelessness.

Believe you are defeated, believe it long enough, and it is likely to become a fact.

I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life.

Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want.

Your life will follow your expectations. What you expect is what you will get. If you dwell on positive thoughts, you will move in that direction; if you continually think negative thoughts, you will live a negative life.

Doubt is most often the source of our powerlessness. To doubt is to be faithless, to be without hope or belief. When we doubt, our self-talk sounds like this: 'I don't think I can. I don't think I will.'... To doubt is to have faith in the worst possible outcome. It is to believe in the perverseness of the universe, that even if I do well, something I don't know about will get in the way, sabotage me, or get me in the end.

The more you gripe about your problems, the more problems you have to gripe about!