Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

I am not a big fan of positive thinking. The term suggests that there is something negative that you have to counteract by being positive. That is an artificial duality.

I'm an optimist in my heart - I'm a hopeless pollyanna just like my mother - but a pessimist in my head. I think that's the dialectic we all need to be in.

A spoonful of hope and a cup of despair

Most people think that I am too optimistic, but my optimism is based on the thought that negative thinking is a luxury that we can't afford.

I kind of like being depressed.

I am my own worst enemy. My friends and family will say, 'You've got everything going for you right now', and I say, 'Oh yes, but!' Which is not a good way to be.

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty

The Church of TED is very optimistic. Bulgarians are some of the most pessimistic in the world. There are the Happy, the Unhappy and the Bulgarians.

I think I'm optimistic, yeah, especially in real life, but I think it's funny to be pessimistic.

I tend to be pessimistic. I want to believe in hope.

Whatever you think rightly concerning will go well. Whatever you think wrongly concerning, will go ill.

If you wait until circumstances justify your thinking pleasant thoughts, you are likely to wait forever.

Positive thinkers think and talk continually about solutions, and negative thinkers continually talk and think about problems. Keep your mind solution-focuse d rather than problem- focused.

The difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic mind is of such controlling importance in regard to every intellectual function, and especially for the conduct of life, that it is out of the question to admit that both are normal, and the great majority of mankind are naturally optimistic.

In other words, it was a struggle with himself. And the product of that struggle: anger, bitterness, resentment, envy or transformation, aspiration, hope, decency..the product of that struggle is the quality of your life and the nature of your soul.

People think it’s easy to be cynical and pessimistic, but it’s incredibly hard work. It’s much easier to be hopeful.

The moment you start thinking it's hopeless, then it is. [But], if you think it's gonna get better, it really does. Life is a test.

I'm not as optimistic as Gene Roddenberry was. I fall somewhere in the middle. But as a romantic, I like to think things are going to get bigger rather than worse.

If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want.

Optimism may sometimes be delusional, but pessimism is always delusional.

You fail in your thoughts, or you prevail in your thoughts only.

Inside every sane person there's a madman struggling to get out," said the shopkeeper. "That's what I've always thought. No one goes mad quicker than a totally sane person.

In optimism there is magic. In pessimism there is nothing.

Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.

I think that the vice president is a person reflecting a half-glass-full mentality.