pessimism

i woke up this morning thinking about pessimism and optimism. well actually it has been on my mind since last week =/ i would like to consider myself as an optimist, and that pessimism as always being bad. however im pretty sure that as with everything else, there are always 2 sides to the story and so i decided to google it.

apparently, optimism is over hyped. everyone is toking about how good or bad optimism is. but hardly anyone has anything good to say about pessimism. however after searching a while i came across a few articles toking about how pessimism is good. some things in the article are just irrelevant, like "pessimist are always contented with what they have" *erm isnt that a bit of optimism?*

pessimism has its own benefits too. pessimists are more realistic. they do not sugar coat the situation and thus are able to see the potential flaws. example: a optimist may see a beautiful rose and try to pick it up. the pessimist reminds him that roses have thorns.

The second rather interesting point i saw is that pessimist are usually better judges of character. this is because pessimist are more prone to depression, not the serious type, probably just the mild "i am sad" type. and it has been proven that a depressed person is more likely to be able to identify people who are lying, thus are able to identify pretentious ppl better.

The third point *jeez i feel like im writing a composition -.-* is that pessimist deal better with setbacks. i am not sure how much i agree with on this point as i think it can be argued both ways, but i felt that the argument provided to support this was valid. firstly, pessimist usually do not expect to succeed in wadever they do, so when they experience setbacks or failure, they will be like " oh i expected it " as compared to someone who expects to succeed but fails, in which then his disappointment will be greater.

OK so for those of you who have been convinced that pessimist > optimist but do not know how to get about being 1, here is a eHow on how to do it. the webby is here. Its kinda interesting so take a look even if u do not agree =)

anyway for those of you who know me well knows that i like quotes because they make me sound more intelligent than i really am. So here are some interesting quotes about pessimism that shld get u all thinking a little =)

oh btw if u are a die hard pessimist u may not wan to read on as many quotes are pro optimism..

“Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.” ~Oscar Wilde



"Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha." ~Robert Brault



“A pessimist is one who feels bad when he feels good for fear he'll feel worse when he feels better.” ~unknown



“The man who is a pessimist before forty-eight knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little” ~Mark Twain



“I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will” ~Antonio Gramsci



“In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.” ~Daniel L. Reardon



“It's easy to cry when you realize that everyone you love will reject you or die.” ~Chuck Palahniuk



“Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun--and neither can stop the march of events.” ~Robert A. Heinlein



“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.” ~G. B. Stern



“He is a real pessimist - he could look at a doughnut and only see the hole in it” ~unknown



"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." ~George F. Will, The Leveling Wind




and the best and most practical quote goes to........




"Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back." ~Author Unknown