Elias Canetti Quotes

Pessimists are born, true, but they also can be made.

I don't like to say anything good. I feel like I'll jinx myself.

Complaining not only ruins everybody else's day, it ruins the complainer's day, too. The more we complain, the more unhappy we get.

Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.

A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

Most things I worry about never happen anyway.

A pessimist? That's a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist.

There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them.

Once there was a certain man who was very clever, but it was his character to always see the negative points of his work. If such is one’s way, one will be useless.

I get the sense that the British do not like to look at things on the bright side of life. Maybe it has something to do with the weather.

It is foolish to conjure up woe where none exists.

I think of myself as a doom person. I'm a worrier. But I like the idea of being an optimist. Maybe I'm the kind of optimist who deep down knows it's not going to work.

Sometimes it's not the optimist you need, but another pessimist to walk beside you.

It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?

. . . if there is a way for the world to be transformed for the better, it can only be done by pessimism; optimists will never change the world for the better.

Optimism is a seed sown in the soil of faith; pessimism is a seed hoarded in the vault of doubt.

Nothing of any importance has ever been accomplished by a pessimist.

There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass! Who's been pinching my beer?

I think everyone has the same question on their mind: Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

An optimist expects his dreams to come true; a pessimist expects his nightmares to.

The problem with you is that you always see a glass of milk half empty instead of half filled.

I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things.

What people have to make sure of is that they're not replicating something that already exists. You really have to ask yourself: "Is there a point in me doing this? Has this already been said before? Is this moving things along or is this just adding to the giant pile of junk that's already there?"

The man who believes he can do it is probably right, and so is the man who believes he can't.