In the few years since I’ve started to travel this world, I’ve found myself changing. The cramped cynical worldview of a man who’d only seen life through the narrow prism of the restaurant kitchen had altered. I’d been so many places, I’d met so many people from wildly divergent backgrounds, countries, and cultures. Everywhere I’d been, I’d been, as in Beruit, treated so well. I’d been the recipient of so many random acts of kindness from strangers and I’d begun to think that no matter where I went or who I sat down with, that food and a few drinks seemed always to bring people together. That this planet was filled with basically good and decent people doing the best they could, if frequently under difficult circumstances. That the human animal was perhaps a better and nicer species than I had once thought. I’d begun to believe that the dinner table was the great leveler, where people from opposite sides of the world could always sit down and talk and eat and drink and if not solve all the worlds problems, at least find, for a time, common ground. Now, I’m not so sure. Maybe the world’s not like that at all. Maybe in the real world—the one without cameras and happy food and travel shows—everybody, the good and the bad together, are all crushed under some terrible wheel. I hope, I really hope, that I’m wrong about that. —Anthony Bourdain More about this quote Tags: commonality optimism pessimism kindness hope Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. —Leonard Louis Levinson More about this quote Tags: optimism pessimism philosophy perspective Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic. —Hazel Henderson More about this quote Tags: reality pessimism future perception change uncertainty transformation Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time. —Charles Schulz More about this quote Tags: pessimism philosophy dread Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Things are always darkest just before they go pitch black. —Kelly Robinson More about this quote Tags: pessimism darkness irony Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists. —Jean Rostand More about this quote Tags: pessimism suspicion sincerity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It's great when you finally realize that being miserable doesn't protect you from bad stuff happening. —Alain de Botton More about this quote Tags: pessimism sadness miserable Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Behind every cloud is another cloud. —Judy Garland More about this quote Tags: pessimism clouds Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The enthusiastic, to those who are not, are always something of a trial. —Alban Goodier More about this quote Tags: pessimism enthusiasm Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse. —Bruce Cockburn More about this quote Tags: pessimism normal Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist. —Mark Twain More about this quote Tags: pessimism youth Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
An optimist stays up to see the New Year in. A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves. —Bill Vaughan More about this quote Tags: optimism pessimism Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I can't seem to be a pessimist long enough to overlook the possibility of things being overwhelmingly good. —John Corey Whaley in Where Things Come Back More about this quote Tags: pessimism good possibility Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Ninety percent of everything is crap. —Theodore Sturgeon More about this quote Tags: pessimism crap everything Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email