Rebecca Solnit Quotes

The paucity of near-future U.S. scifi is about the country becoming pessimistic, not being able to see the future clearly. There's a trend in U.S. scifi towards militarism and far-future stuff.

It's a heartening fact about the human race that utopian fiction precedes dystopian fiction in the evolution of literature.

Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism taken out.

I would say most comedians have a very cynical worldview of the way the world can work. It's almost like if you didn't, you couldn't be a comedian.

As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note.

They say in the Middle East a pessimist is simply an optimist with experience.

Science fiction always has had strains of pessimism and optimism weaving through its historical development, sometimes one dominating and then the other, usually depending on the state of the world.

We live in a time of extremes. People think that, on a scale of 1-10, if they're not at a 10 for happy, they're not happy.

I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society.

Pop music often tells you everything is OK, while rock music tells you that it's not OK, but you can change it.

The cynic, a parasite of civilization, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail.

I've always enjoyed stories that take place in the future but my one disappointment was that the future books described never came. We're not on other planets, there are no flying cars, and the only robots we have in our homes just sweep the floor. So I wanted to write about a future that I thought could really happen. People ask me when I tell them the title of the book, 'Are we all dead?' The good news is, no. We're still here. And I even think the future in my book is strangely hopeful, although I'm sure there will be people who strongly disagree.

My mom's response after seeing a sign that read 'Love God, People and Life': 'Well a lot of people don't like people.'

I disagree that we need to contemplate eliminating ourselves in order to move forward. Sure, I think a good dystopian story can serve to steer us on the right path toward a better world. But we also need stories that offer solutions to our problems that are realistic, and workable today.

"Ah, Miss, hope is an excellent thing for such as has the spirits to bear it!" said Mrs Wickam, shaking her head. "My own spirits is not equal to it, but I don't owe it any grudge. I envys them that is so blest!"

The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - sometimes pervasive, sometimes specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces.

I'm certainly dismayed by what I'm seeing now. There's a lot of ugliness of a kind I've never seen in my lifetime, or heard in my lifetime. But, look, I'm a romantic. I'm hopeful.

Don't let the doom criers and the cynics persuade you that the best is past.

My mind's cries tell me that everything on earth is tragic. My heart's smiles tell me that everything on earth is magic.

Good satire hopefully provides thought-provoking conversation.

I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in endings.

Optimism is a tonic. Pessimism is poison. Admittedly, every businessman must be realistic. He must gather facts, analyze them candidly and strive to draw logical conclusions, whether favorable or unfavorable. He must not engage in self-delusion. He must not view everything through rose-colored glasses. Granting this, the incontestable truth is that America has been built up by optimists, not by pessimists, but by men possessing courage, confidence in the nation's destiny, by men willing to adventure to shoulder risks terrifying to the timid.

If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

Innocence and optimism have one basic failing: they have no fundamental depth.

Please don't look at the part of the glass that is only half full.