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May you find inspiration in these thoughts and quotes on Optimism from my large Daily Inspiration library of inspiring quotes and inspirational words.
If I am happy in spite of my deprivations,
if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith,
so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life.
If, in short, I am an optimist,
my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.
- Helen Keller
...
Helen Keller (1880-1968) overcame being both deaf and blind
to become a famous author, lecturer, and activist
for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and ending war.
Pessimism never won any battle.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines
Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail.
- Helen Keller
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- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Gardening is all about optimism.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Whatever happens, always look to tomorrow -
with courage and optimism.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
- Helen Keller
Gardening is all about optimism.
I put a seed in the ground.
I consistently tend it,
confident I will see the results, in time,
of the nurture I have provided.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
If you believe that a task will be difficult, it will be -
and you will have suffered with worry beforehand.
Approach life with joy and optimism.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life.
If it be true that optimism compels the world forward,
and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to
propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
- Helen Keller
Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it,
while every pessimist would keep the worlds at a standstill.
The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation
is the same as in the life of the individual.
Pessimism kills the instinct that
urges men to struggle against poverty,
ignorance and crime, and dries up
all the fountains of joy in the world.
- Helen Keller
I am an optimist.
It does not seem too much use being anything else.
- Winston Churchill
An optimist is one who makes the best
of what he gets the worst of.
- Anonymous
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
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
- Winston Churchill
I have become my own version of an optimist.
If I can't make it through one door,
I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door.
Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
- Rabindranath Tagore
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen
Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection,
not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.
- Martin Luther
The beauty does not live out there;
the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore
The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous
You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- The Buddha
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson
Trust in the Light.
Darkness is not a force -
it is merely the absence of light.
Observe that when a light is brought to a dark place,
the darkness disappears.
Sadness is similar -
when joy is brought to suffering,
the sadness disappears.
Open yourself to the Light!
Hold back nothing,
Trust in the Light.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin
I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran
Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu
Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer
The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.
- Anne Bradstreet
One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu
Sometimes we need the fog to remind ourselves
that all of life is not black and white.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Native American traditional
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu
The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell
I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore
What you leave behind is not what
is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.
- Pericles
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot
We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church
to a nest protecting our mediocrity.
- Pope Francis
Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary
Do not allow obligation or immediacy to
bind you to physical things or specific actions.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide
Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
My concern is not whether God is on our side;
my greatest concern is to be on God's side,
for God is always right.
- Abraham Lincoln
A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb
Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu
Imagine all the people living life in peace.
You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
and the world will be as one.
- John Lennon
I am not a slave to my thoughts or emotions.
- Richard Carlson
The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau
We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present.
- Marianne Williamson
The full measure of a man is
not to be found in the man himself,
but in the colors and textures that
come alive in others because of him.
- Albert Schweitzer
It's not the size of the dog in the fight,
it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- Mark Twain
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish he didn't trust me so much.
- Mother Teresa
It is not fitting, when one is in God's service,
to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.
- St. Francis of Assisi
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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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