Literary notes about Optimism (AI summary)
Literary usage of the word "optimism" ranges from earnest declarations of hope to pointed critiques of naïve idealism. At times, it functions as a marker of positive force or a philosophical stance that anticipates inevitable progress ([1], [2], [3]), while in other instances it is wielded with irony or disdain to highlight hypocrisy or unbridled self-complacency ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, authors juxtapose optimism with its antithesis, pessimism, to underscore debates about moral order, reality, and human endeavor ([7], [8], [9]). Thus, the term serves not only as a description of hope but also as a tool for dissecting the complexities of human perception and cultural ideology ([10], [11], [12]).
- M. I. Swift on the optimism of idealists.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - Optimism in turn would be the doctrine that thinks the world's salvation inevitable.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - To be necessarily what it is, to be impossibly aught else, would put the last touch of perfection upon optimism's universe.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - His attack on optimism is one of the gayest books in the world.
— from Candide by Voltaire - I have the greatest contempt for optimism.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - —Away with the disgustingly over-used words optimism and pessimism!
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Optimism and pessimism, 101 . Is this a moral universe?—what does the problem mean?
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - How far I had leaped in either case beyond the smug shallow-pate-gossip of optimism contra pessimism!
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Absolute pessimism and absolute optimism are opposite sentiments attached to a doctrine identically the same.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - What is meant by the optimism of his poetry?
— from English Literature by William J. Long - His strength, his joy of life, his robust faith, and his invincible optimism enter into us, making us different and better men after reading him.
— from English Literature by William J. Long - May not religious optimism be too idyllic?
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James