Italo Calvino Quotes

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.

I think by now I have made it fairly clear that I am not very happy with the word hope. I don't believe in people just hoping.

Ninety per cent of life is a nightmare, do you think I am going to get it rounded up to hundred per cent?

I'm a recovering optimist.

When things are at their blackest, I say to myself, 'Cheer up, things could be worse.' And sure enough, they get worse.

Life inflicts the same setbacks and tragedies on the optimist as on the pessimist, but the optimist weathers them better.

Optimistic people generally feel that good things will last a long time and will have a beneficial effect on everything they do. And they think that bad things are isolated: They won't last too long and won't affect other parts of life.

Progress is more of a challenge for the cynic but also more important and urgent, since for the optimist things aren't that bad and are bound to get better anyway.

I'd like to say things are bound to get better, but I don't really believe it.

I'm not by nature a cynical person. But sometimes your expectations are different from reality.

I don't walk around saying everything is going to be wonderful.

I'm one of life's pessimists. I'm ready for everything to go wrong at any moment.

Whenever you looked forward to anything pleasant you were sure to be more or less disappointed . . . perhaps that is true. But there is a good side to it too. The bad things don't always come up to your expectations either . . . they nearly always turn out ever so much better than you think.

One cannot afford to be a realist.

If I had to lay bets, my bet would be that everything is going to go to hell, but, you know, what else have we got except hope?

If a problem can be solved it will be. If it can not be solved there is no use worrying about it.

Better to be an optimist who gets disappointed than a pessimist who has no hope.

Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects.

It is only by knowing how little life has in store for us that we are able to look on the bright side and avoid disappointment.

Always plan for the worst, child; that way, all your surprises will be pleasant ones.

There is always a part of my mind that is preparing for the worst, and another part of my mind that believes if I prepare enough for it, the worst won’t happen.

Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience". "What's pessimism?" I said. "Religion without God.

If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well this isn't too bad, I don't have a left arm anymore but at least nobody will ever ask me if I'm left-handed or right-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of, "Aaaaaa! My arm! My arm!"

At my core, the glass isn't half-empty - it's not even what I ordered in the first place.

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.