If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn’t have it, to fear and suspect the worst.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
Pessimism never won any battle.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
He that falls by himself never cries.
—Turkish Proverb
We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
The squeaking wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced.
—Unknown
When a person finds themselves predisposed to complaining about how little they are regarded by others, let them reflect how little they have contributed to the happiness of others.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
—William Lonsdale Watkinson
The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
—Unknown
I think a compliment ought to always precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Our present time is indeed a criticizing and critical time, hovering between the wish, and the inability to believe. Our complaints are like arrows shot up into the air at no target: and with no purpose they only fall back upon our own heads and destroy ourselves.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
One chops the wood, the other does the grunting.
—Yiddish Proverb
Noise proves nothing, Often a hen who has laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Optimism doesn’t wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The most prolific period of pessimism comes at twenty-one or thereabouts, when the first attempt is made to translate dreams into reality.
—Heywood Hale Broun (1918–2001) American Journalist, Commentator, Actor
No good deed goes unpunished.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist, Diplomat, Elected Rep
Pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure.
—Bill Clinton (b.1946) American Head of State, Lawyer, Public Speaker
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.
—Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) Polish-born American Film Producer, Businessperson
I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Through unity of action we can be a veritable colossus in support of peace. No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves. Every one of us must be guided by this truth.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
The pessimist sees only the tunnel; the optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel; the realist sees the tunnel and the light – and the next tunnel.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic