David Rakoff Quotes

I'm always being realistic.

I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago.

I'm not a Pollyanna; I'm a pragmatist.

Don't pessimism and caution naturally go hand in hand?

I'm a realist.

It might interest you to know that the 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary identifies the optimist in complimentary terms, but says nothing about the pessimist. The word 'pessimist' was not in our vocabulary at that time. It's a modern 'invention' which I believe we should 'dis-invent.'

Sometimes pessimism or optimism gets popular, and it's contagious.

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

We should always be practical, realistic and optimistic.

Half full, half empty, what the hell difference does it make? If there's something in the damn glass, drink it.

Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.

I am not an idiot, and I'm not a Pollyanna sort of kumbaya type.

I understand the concept of optimism. But I think with me what you get is a lack of cynicism.

Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.

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'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.

One has to have the courage of one's pessimism.

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.

If I advocate cautious optimism it is not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do not want to encourage blind faith.

If pessimism is despair, optimism is cowardice and stupidity. Is there any need to choose between them?

Readers regularly ask what can go wrong but almost never what could positively surprise.

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'm a hopeful cynic.

You have to be an optimist, right? You have to be critical, then you have to be an optimist. Or else you're really stupid.

Whereas in the past optimism had been regarded as rather shallow - because 'oh well, it's just your temperament, you happen to be just a cheerful sort of person' - what I wanted to do was to establish that in fact it is the pessimists who are allowing all kinds of errors to creep into their work.