James Branch Cabell Quotes

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

I think I probably hoped for it a little bit, but I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist... or maybe even a pessimist.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

You're a cynic," Urgit accused. Silk shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. I'm a realist.

The pessimist sees only the tunnel; the optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel; the realist sees the tunnel and the light - and the next tunnel.

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.

I don't want to be a pessimist. I'm a realist. One man's realist is another man's pessimist.

A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.

I have friends who are very pessimistic. They say you can't possibly be an optimist nowadays. But I think, taking the longer view, you can still be as optimistic as you want.

I've always just had sort of a dark take on life, I suppose, and hopefully, the music transcends that in a way.

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

I'm very realistic in my outlook on everything in life. When I look ahead in my mind to see what's going to happen next, I see the good and I see the bad.

People say I'm such a pessimist, but I always was. It never stopped me from doing what I had to do. I would say I'm a realist.

I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.

I just want to be clear, I am a very dark and bitter person, but I think on some level, everything really does come when it's meant to come.

'I know this is going to end bad, but I'm going to pretend it's going to end good.' My life's philosophy.

A lot of people have asked me whether I am a cynic or take a cynical view of politics and are often surprised when I say that I consider myself an optimist, but an optimist dressed in the robes of a realist.

I guess I don't have a grandiose view of the world in general, and I never believe it when someone else has a grandiose moment.

I consider myself a realist.

I'm very much a realist.

Some of my cronies call me a pessimist and a decadent, but there is always a background of faith behind resignation.

Keep a light, hopeful heart. But ­expect the worst.