Vance Havner Quotes

Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair.

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

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.

Optimism....is neither weak nor naive. It can be tough and pure and earned just as clearly as any brooding existential despair.

Optimism is a matter optics, of seeing what you want to see and not seeing what you don't want to see. Hope, on the other hand, is a Christian virtue. It is the unblinking acknowledgment of all that militates against hope, and the unrelenting refusal to despair. We have not the right to despair, and, finally, we have not the reason to despair

An optimist in Canada is someone who think things could be worse

Pessimists fear becoming the dupes of Hope. Optimists enjoy Hope's company, and consider being duped no great matter.

Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will.

The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.

there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.

I have an optimistic view of everything. You have to, otherwise you'd go nuts.

I can be fairly optimistic, but I'm probably more a realist, I think. I mean, optimism's an interesting quality, isn't it, because I'm always slightly dubious as to what's behind it?

The trouble with traditional American conservatism is that it lacks a naturally cheerful, optimistic disposition. Not only does it lack one, it regards signs of one as evidence of unsoundness, irresponsibility.

I am optimistic about the future. Brethren, for our part, we must remain steadfast in hope, work with all our strength, and trust in God.

I am guilty of the great crime of optimism.

I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.

For optimists, human life never needs justification, no matter how much hurt piles up, because they can always tell themselves that things will get better. For pessimists, there is no amount of happiness—should such a thing as happiness even obtain for human beings except as a misconception—that can compensate us for life’s hurt.

O, merry is the Optimist, With the troops of courage leaguing. But a dour trend In any friend Is somehow less fatiguing.

One may as well be optimistic. The road to catastrophe will be rougher if it's paved with dread.

Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.

Better to be an optimist who gets disappointed than a pessimist who has no hope.

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.

I wish I could think of a positive point to leave you with. Will you take two negative points?

I might not be able to use the word "hope," but I could certainly use the word "optimism." I'm very optimistic. I don't feel that it helps to be pessimistic. At some point in my life I made a conscious decision that I would try to be optimistic - not blind to anything at all - but to always hear the way that had the best chance for happiness.