Are you finding it tough to stay positive through a difficult time? Whatever you’re going through, we hope these inspirational quotations show you that optimism is a decision of will and hope, not a reaction to the world.
These quotations come from writers, philosophers, politicians, and a wide range of other people who have faced a variety of problems and hardships. What is it that they all share in common? Their notion that optimism aided them in changing their perspectives and achieving their objectives.
125+ Optimism Quotes To Overcome Problems
The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser – in case you thought optimism was dead.___Robert Brault
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.― Oscar Wilde
Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.― Roy T. Bennett
Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.― Roy T. Bennett
Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind.― Roy T. Bennett
Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.― Roy T. Bennett
Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.― Roy T. Bennett
Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.― Roy T. Bennett
Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.― Roy T. Bennett
Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant – the digitalis of failure.___Elbert Hubbard
To find optimism, look for the good things in life. – Catherine Pulsifer
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. – Colin Powell
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.___Noam Chomsky
It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.― Roy T. Bennett
More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.― Roy T. Bennett
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.___Voltaire
What I’ve really learned over time is that optimism is a very, very important part of leadership.___Bob Iger
Optimism – the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.__Ambrose Pierce
If you can’t give children optimism, then what are you doing? – Matt Haig
The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.___Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.___Helen Keller
I think I am going to have to supercharge my optimism to arm myself for the battle ahead.___Rebecca Bloom
If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.___Oscar Wilde
Optimism is the opium of the people.___Milan Kundera
Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.___Nicholas M. Butler
Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.___Twyla Tharpe
Optimism doesn’t wait on facts. It deals with prospects. – Norman Cousins
Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.___Nicholas M. Butler
Optimism makes a life happier and meaningful. – M.K. Soni
The biggest emotion in creation is the bridge to optimism.___Brian May
Sports uplift us. It’s celebratory, gives us optimism and joy.___Travis Kalanick
True hopefulness and optimism is what leads one to dare. It is also what lifts one back up to dare again after a failed attempt.___Bibi Bourelly
My optimism for life carried through my work.___John Dyer
Optimism can be more powerful than a battery of artillery or squadron of tanks. It can be contagious and it’s necessary to being a leader.___Sylvester Stallone
Optimism can be relearnt. – Marian Keyes
Urgent optimism is the desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle, combined with the belief that we have a reasonable hope of success.___Jane McGonigal
It’s not that optimism solves all of life’s problems; it is just that it can sometimes make the difference between coping and collapsing.___Lucy MacDonald, Learn to Be an Optimist
Optimism can be more powerful than a battery of artillery or squadron of tanks. It can be contagious and it’s necessary to being a leader.___Gen. Rick Hillier
I try to think about optimism. I try to look at the beautiful things in life.___Dolores O’Riordan
Optimism inspires, energizes, and brings out our best. It points the mind toward possibilities and helps us think creatively past problems.___Price Pritchett, Hard Optimism
What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will improve, it won’t always be bleak, there’s a way to rise above the present circumstances. Hope is an internal awareness that you do not have to suffer forever, and that somehow, somewhere there is a remedy for despair that you will come upon if you can only maintain this expectancy in your heart.___Wayne W. Dyer
Self-belief, optimism, and hard work, these things don’t guarantee to get any of us to the top, but they at least give us a fighting chance.___Jason Ayres
Optimism, then, is a fact within my own heart. But as I look out upon life, my heart meets no contradiction. The outward world justifies my inward universe of good.___Helen Keller, Optimism: An Essay
Optimism is joyful searching; pessimism is a prison of fear and a clutching at illusionary safety.___Kathleen A. Brehony
While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.___Benjamin Franklin
My optimism has helped me through some hard times. If you try to send out good things, good things come back to you.___Jan Brett
When I look at the future, it’s so bright it burns my eyes! – Oprah Winfrey
I am an optimist… I choose to be. There is a lot of darkness in our world, there is a lot of pain and you can choose to see that or you can choose to see the joy. If you try to respond positively to the world, you will spend your time better.___Tom Hiddleston
It takes no more time to see the good side of life than to see the bad.___Jimmy Buffett
When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.___Theodore Roosevelt
Be an optimist. Thinking positively will surely drive stress, pressure and frustrations away.___Melinda Bauer, Managing Emotions
The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns. The pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.___Khalil Gibran
You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down. – Charlie Chaplin
Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.___Nelson Mandela
Beyond each impenetrable expanse of thundercloud obscurity reigns a boundless canopy of brilliant sapphire blue.___Cara Fox
Optimism vs. Pessimism Quotes
Pessimism never won any battle.___Dwight D. Eisenhauer
I am so far from being a pessimist…on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at life.___Eugene O’Neill
I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will. – Antonio Gramsci
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.___Winston Churchill
When you have vision it affects your attitude. Your attitude is optimistic rather than pessimistic.___Charles R. Swindoll
Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.___Thomas L. Friedman
To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.___Albert Schweitzer
Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.– William James
The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.___William Arthur Ward
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.___William Arthur Ward
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.___Helen Keller
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.___Arthur C. Clarke
Optimists are right. So are pessimists. It’s up to you to choose which you will be. – Harvey Mackay
Be more optimistic. Pessimism is a kind of behavior that you learn . Hoping for the best and believing that everything is going to be fine in the end helps to reduce stress.___David Brown
The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.___Mark Twain
The optimist looks at the horizon and sees an opportunity; the pessimist peers into the distance and fears a problem.____William Arthur Ward
Being a pessimist closes the door to a learning opportunity while being an optimist opens wide the door for a better future, one of personal and professional development.___Jeff Ribman, Fail Better the Next Time
Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. – Margaret Atwood
It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins. Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.___Orison Swett Marden
The optimist turns the impossible into the possible; the pessimist turns the possible into the impossible.___William Arthur Ward
We should celebrate when optimism and hard work triumph over cynicism, lethargy, and fatalism.___Sadiq Kahn
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is colorblind.___Albert Schweitzer
No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.___William Inge
Sometimes pessimism or optimism gets popular, and it’s contagious. – Edward C. Prescott
There’s probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism.___Jim Leach
A pessimist only sees 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 L. Levinson
It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins. Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.___Orison Swett Marden
I think in life, you have a choice. You can either be optimistic or pessimistic, and I go for the optimism.___Jon Anderson
The optimism of a healthy mind is indefatigable. – Margery Allingham
I don’t think you lead by pessimism and cynicism. I think you lead by optimism and enthusiasm and energy.____Patricia Ireland
Optimism is life–Pessimism, slow suicide.___William Crosby Hunter, Brass Tacs
Funny Optimistic Quotes
Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!___Oscar Wilde
Optimism isn’t funny unless you are laughing at the person, whereas extreme pessimism is extremely funny. It’s exaggeration.___Steve Toltz
The basis of optimism is sheer terror. – Oscar Wilde
I find nothing more depressing than optimism.___Paul Fussell
It can be said of optimism that while sometimes mistaken, it is never sadly mistaken.___Robert Breault
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.___George Bernard Shaw
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud. – Henry Rollins
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.___Voltaire
The difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist laughs to forget, but a pessimist forgets to laugh.___Tom Bodett
What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.___Raymond Error
A pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.___Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe)
Comedy is acting out optimism. – Robin Williams
It’s not whether the glass is half empty or half full, but who’s pouring the water.___Mark Cuban
Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.___William Goldman
Optimism. It’s not just a mind-set, it is behavior. – Larry Elder
Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.___Mary Lou Retton
Optimistic Outlook Quotes
If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.___Lucy Larcom
Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking.___Rick Steves
They can because they think they can. – Virgil
I am enjoying my life because things aren’t going the way I planned.___Rohit Pandita
I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.___Walt Disney
It isn’t all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.___Gene Roddenberry
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.___Lucille Ball
Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.___Alphonse Karr
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.___Anne Frank
I have never had to face anything that could overwhelm the native optimism and stubborn perseverance I was blessed with.___Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Teaching is the greatest act of optimism. – Colleen Wilcox
Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.___Christine Caine
I believe I have a sunny disposition, and am not naturally a grouch. It takes a lot of optimism, after all, to be a traveler.___Paul Theroux
Don’t let your failures define you—let them teach you. – Barack Obama
No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.__David Hume
In the hour of adversity, be not without hope; for crystal rain falls from black clouds.___Nizami
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.___Dr. Seuss
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.___Marcus Aurelius
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The way you look at life can determine your success. As they say, look on the bright side. Have an optimistic attitude.___Catherine Pulsifer
Regardless of who wins, an election should be a time for optimism and fresh approaches.___Gary Johnson
You have to look to the future with optimism instead of negative ideas. Take the good and the bad and face it head on.___Goldie Hawn
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. – C.S. Lewis
For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.___Winston Churchill