Max Lerner Quotes

I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.

Max Lerner

• Possibility
• Optimist
• Pessimist

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Quotes to Explore

• I really am a cockeyed optimist.

  

  Vicki Lawrence
  • Really
  • Optimist
  • Am

• I am an optimist about the UK. We have been involved in trade with our European partners, which we will always be doing whatever this relationship is. We are a member of the EU. That gives us benefits. But we have to figure out where that is going. In the world, we are a global trader already.

  

  Iain Duncan Smith
  • Relationship
  • Optimist
  • European

• You have to be an optimist, right? You have to be critical, then you have to be an optimist. Or else you're really stupid.

  

  Ted Danson
  • You
  • Stupid
  • Optimist

• An optimist is someone who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery.

  

  Walter Winchell
  • Lion
  • Optimist
  • Scenery

• To a profound pessimist about life, being in danger is not depressing.

  

  F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Life
  • Profound
  • Danger

• As a scholar I am interested in the philosophy of language, semiotics, call it what you want, and one of the main features of the human language is the possibility of lying.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • Language
  • Philosophy
  • Lying

• The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

  

  Mark Twain
  • Man
  • Knows
  • Optimist

• Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.

  

  Idries Shah
  • Information
  • Optimist
  • Pessimist

• There's no difference between a pessimist who says, "Oh it's hopeless, so don't bother doing anything." and an optimist who says, "Don't bother doing anything, it's going to turn out fine anyways. Either way, nothing happens."

  

  Yvon Chouinard
  • Difference
  • Optimist
  • Pessimist

• Our whole childhood remains to be reimagined. In reimagining it, we have the possibility of recovering it in the very life of our reveries as a solitary child.

  

  Gaston Bachelard
  • Life
  • Childhood
  • Possibility

• To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something.

  

  Walker Percy
  • Search
  • Possibility
  • Aware

• If your love didn't always contain the possibility of loss, it would be very different from human love as we know it.

  

  Andrew Solomon
  • Different
  • Humans
  • Loss

• A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.

  

  Oscar Wilde
  • Opportunity
  • Noise
  • Pessimist

• In the face of so much pain, I remain an incurable optimist. I am fueled by the passion of the women I have been privileged to meet and work with, buoyed by their hope for peace, justice, and democracy.

  

  Bella Abzug
  • Work
  • Women
  • Hope

• Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!

  

  Oscar Wilde
  • Difference
  • Optimist
  • Pessimist

• Never abandon the possibility of attack. Attack even from a position of inferiority, to disrupt the enemy's plans. This often results in improving one's own position.

  

  Adolf Galland
  • Enemy
  • Possibility
  • Plans

• This is why we shouldn't be afraid. There are two possibilities: One is that there's more to life than the physical life, that our souls "will find an even higher place to dwell" when this life is over. If that's true, there's no reason to fear failure or death. The other possibility is that this life is all there is. And if that's true, then we have to really live it - we have to take it for everything it has and "die enormous" instead of "living dormant," as I said way back on "Can I Live." Either way, fear is a waste of time.

  

  Jay-Z
  • Life
  • Time
  • Live

• A lot of inspiration comes from the sounds that we are attracted to when we come across them in our experiments and may lead us into a certain direction because of inherent possibilities we hear in them.

  

  Tim Gane
  • Inspiration
  • Certain
  • Possibility

• A general is a specialist insofar as he has master his craft. Beyond that and outside the arbitrary pro and con, he keeps a third possibility intact and in reserve: his own substance. He knows more than what he embodies and teaches, has other skills along with the ones for which he is paid. He keeps all that to himself; it is his property. It is set aside for his leisure, his soliloquies, his nights. At a propitious moment, he will put it into action, tear off his mask. So far, he has been racing well; within sight is the finish line, his final reserves start pouring in. Fate challenges him; he responds. The dream, even in an erotic encounter, comes true. But causally, even here; every goal is a transition for him. The bow should snap rather than aiming the arrow at a finite target.

  

  Ernst Junger
  • Dream
  • Challenges
  • Possibility

• For almost a quarter of a century, Teen Ink has been encouraging young people to write - and then has published those pieces. These heartfelt essays and poems explore the issues faced by teenagers today. I applaud their efforts because they not only help young people deal with their own lives but also encourage the budding authors of the next generation.

  

  Anita Silvey
  • Generation
  • Authors
  • Encourage

• I prefer to keep my secrets to myself, to the grave... and beyond!

  

  Sue Townsend
  • Myself
  • Keep
  • Secrets

• I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.

  

  Max Lerner
  • Possibility
  • Optimist
  • Pessimist