Norton Juster Quotes

The optimist says, ‘this is the best of all possible worlds.’ The pessimist considers that statement for a while and then says, ‘Yes, you are right.’

A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth.

I think the phrase that resonates from 'Just One Year' is something I sort of live by: 'The truth and its opposite are flip sides of the same coin.'

I guess I found it useful to realise that everything is true at once, you know? You can pull back and say, 'Everything will be fine,' but you can also be in a situation and say, 'Not everything is going to be fine.'

The reverse side also has a reverse side.

So always look for the silver lining And try to find the sunny side of life.

Optimist – A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.

Find good in what the world says is evil.

I try to look at things in a positive way. If someone says something negative to me, I'll just turn it around into a positive.

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

Everything is sacred and nothing is sacred.

It never hurts your eyesight to look on the bright side of things.

I believe in rainbows and all of that. But there are darker colors … and it's the shade that defines the light.

Optimists, by contrast, look for specific, limited, short-term explanations for bad events, and as a result, in the face of a setback, they’re more likely to pick themselves up and try again.

Irony is the word I forget the meaning of immediately after I look it up, but I kind of feel like I live in a constant state of it.

There is no idea that does not carry in itself a possible refutation, no word that does not imply its opposite.

irony is a way of having one's cake while appearing to eat it.

I see the glass half full...but of poison.

On one hand, I'm an optimistic pessimist. On the other, I'm a pessimistic optimist. But while there's life, there's still hope, and I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if I didn't think there was still hope.

But he had hardly felt the absurdity of those things, on the one hand, and the necessity of those others, on the other, (for it is rare that the feeling of absurdity is not followed by the feeling of necessity), when he felt the absurdity of those things of which he had just felt the necessity (for it is rare that the feeling of necessity is not followed by the feeling of absurdity.)

Look for the blessing in all situations.

Nothing is as bad as it seems. Nothing. There is a benefit and a blessing hidden in the folds of every experience and every outcome. That includes every and any 'bad' thing that may be happening to you right now. Change your perspective. Know that nothing happens ever that is not for your highest good. All that needs to change for you to see this...is your definition of 'Highest Good.'

If you want to look for obstacles, what's wrong is always available. But so is what's right!

Is there such thing as a cheerful pessimist? That's what I am.

All we have gained then by our unbelief Is a life of doubt diversified by faith, For one of faith diversified by doubt: We called the chess-board white-we call it black.