The optimistic nature finds joy in the very feeling for life; the pessimistic nature finds a feeling for life only in joy.

Should we not be moved rather than chilled by the knowledge that he might have attained his greatness only through his frailties?

I am going to hold a pistol to the head of the Modern Man. But I shall not use it to kill him–only to bring him to life.

Men are always optimists when they look inwards, and pessimists when they look around them.

Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience".
"What's pessimism?" I said.
"Religion without God.

So desperate was Kugel for things to turn out for the best, proclaimed Professor Jove, that he couldn't stop worrying about the worst. Hope, said Professor Jove, was Solomon Kugel's greatest failing.