All Quotes

"Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one the stars."

"Optimists and pessimists die the same way. They just live differently. I prefer to live as an optimist."

"Despite the cautions just raised, there is abundant reason to believe that optimism – big, little, and in between – is useful to a person because positive expectations can be self-fulfilling."

"I believed all along, one day everyone would go mad just to see me sane."

"Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous."

"The state of modernity is not the same as the state of the world but the rational optimists ignore that. For the rational optimists, any data … that doesn’t fit the narrative are either ignored or glossed over."

"Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better."

"Optimism, where it is not merely the thoughtless talk of those who harbour nothing but words under their shallow foreheads, seems to me to be not merely an absurd, but also a really wicked, way of thinking, a bitter mockery of the unspeakable sufferings of mankind."

"Partly cloudy means mostly sunny"

"Life doesn't end just because someone leaves."

"Optimism is good for overcoming obstacles that are part of daily life, but over-optimism can blind us to adversities that need addressing."

"Optimist" is a word which here refers to a person...who thinks pleasant thoughts about nearly everything. For instance, if an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me if I am right-handed or left-handed", but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!"

"This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant."

"See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always non-acceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness."

"Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is - which is the only sane way to live - there is no "good" or "bad" in your life anymore. There is only a higher good - which includes the "bad." Seen from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good-bad, like-dislike, love-hate."

"Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry, or hard-done-by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane."

"The Arising New Consciousness. Most ancient religions and spiritual traditions share the common insight – that our “normal” state of mind is marred by a fundamental defect. However, out of this insight into the nature of the human condition – we may call it the bad news – arises a second insight: the good news of the possibility of a radical transformation of human consciousness. In Hindu teachings (and sometimes in Buddhism also), this transformation is called enlightenment. In the teachings of Jesus, it is salvation, and in Buddhism, it is the end of suffering. Liberation and awakening are other terms used to describe this transformation."

"The absence of orthodoxy in African religion means that many versions of the substantiating myths can be collected. The "truth" lies in the common motifs of the many versions."

"The greatest achievement of humanity is not its works of art, science, or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness. In the distant past, this recognition already came to a few individuals. A man called Gautama Siddhartha, who lived 2,600 years ago in India, was perhaps the first who saw it with absolute clarity. Later the title Buddha was conferred upon him. Buddha means “the awakened one.” At abut the same time, another of humanity’s early awakened teachers emerged in China. His name was Lao Tzu. He left a record of his teaching in the form of one of the most profound spiritual books ever written, the Tao Te Ching. To recognize one’s own insanity, is of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence."

"Until now, human intelligence, which is no more than a minute aspect of universal intelligence, has been distorted and misused by the ego. I call that “intelligence in the service of madness.” Splitting the atom requires great intelligence. Using that intelligence for building and stockpiling atom bombs is insane or at best extremely unintelligent. Stupidity is relatively harmless, but intelligent stupidity is highly dangerous. This intelligent stupidity, for which one could find countless obvious examples, is threatening our survival as a species."

"As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!"

"Had optimism run that far ahead of common sense?"

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror."

"My deepest impulses are optimistic; an attitude that seems to me as spiritually necessary and proper as it is intellectually suspect."

"Now the basic impulse behind existentialism is optimistic, very much like the impulse behind all science... Romanticism began as a tremendous surge of optimism about the stature of man. Its aim — like that of science — was to raise man above the muddled feelings and impulses of his everyday humanity"

"Maslow's psychology, firmly based upon Freud and Watson, simply points out that the optimistic side of the picture has been overlooked; the deterministic laws of our 'lower nature' hold sway in their won field; but there are other laws. Man's freedom is a reality — a reality that makes a difference to his physical, as well as his mental health. When Frankl's prisoners ceased to believe in the possibility of freedom, they grew sick and died. On the other hand, when they saw that Dachau had no chimney, standing out all night in the rain seemed no great hardship; they laughed and joked. The conclusion needs to be stated in letters ten feet high. In order to realise his possibilities, man must believe in an open future; he must have a vision of something worth doing. And this will not be possible until all the determinism and pessimism that we have inherited from the 19th century — and which has infected every department of our culture, from poetry to atomic physics — has been dismissed as fallacious and illogical. Twentieth century science, philosophy, politics, literature — even music — has been constructed upon a weltanschauung that leaves half of human nature out of account."

"If you think you are beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win, but think you can't, It's almost a cinch you won't. If you think you'll lose, you're lost, For out in the world we find begins with a fellow's will; It's all in the state of mind. If you think you're outclassed, you are; You've got to think high to rise. You've got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger or faster man; But soon or late the man who wins Is the one who thinks he can."

"Westerners who are thoroughly familiar with market economy and with the particular tensions and insecurities it brings, would do well to remember that subsistence economy also brings its own tensions: food during the next year is totally dependent on one's own labors and on the fruits of one's fields, more or less ameliorated by dependence on kinsmen. Droughts and floods, locusts and birds are personal enemies. Religious myth and ritual, like insecurity, center around food production. Africans who have entered a market economy are adjusting to new types of insecurities: unemployment, boring jobs, loss of self-determination"

"Today African artists want to be recognized as artists, not just African artists. Their subject matter is drawn from the world in which they live--which is the present-day world, not nineteenth century Africa. They do not sculpt like traditional Africans any more than Pollack or Warhol painted like Whistler."

"Different market places specialize in different goods and in different activities. One market is a good place to buy X and sell Y. The next one is a good place to buy Y and sell X. Another may be well known for its beer-drink, and another for its wise counselors and judges. Such specialization when combined with the fact that markets do not meet every day--leads to two vital points about the marketing system of Africa, particularly West Africa and the Congo Basin. First of all, every community is at the center of a group of markets which meets every fourth, fifth, or seventh day, depending on the area. There is, therefore, an association of market places with time as well as with special products."

"[to Aladdin as Prince Ali] Just go, I mean, jump off the balcony!"

"[to Aladdin] I'm a fast learner."

"I am not a prize to be won!"

"[chased by Razoul and his guards] All this for a loaf of bread?"

"[looks out at the window to see the Sultan's palace] Someday, Abu, things are gonna change. We'll be rich, live in a palace, and never have any problems at all."

"[followed by Jasmine when she's going home with Aladdin and Abu] Almost there"

"Abu, this is no time to panic! [gasps and sees a cliff] Start panicking!"

"[to Genie, regretfully] Genie, I can't keep this up on my own. I...I can't wish you free."

"[facing Jafar] Are you afraid to fight me yourself, you cowardly snake?!"

"[to Abu, when feigning insanity] Oh, wise Sultan! How may I serve you?"

"It's all my fault, Rajah. I didn't even know his name."

"[on Jafar who's laughing his head off hysterically] Oh, boy. He's cracked. He's goin' nuts! Jafar! [pounds on Jafar's turban] Jafar! GET A GRIP!!! [Jafar grabs him toughly around the throat which causes his head's blood circulation] Good grip."

"[going as a flamingo, turns around and finds a real flamingo smiling in his face] Ya got a problem... [hits the flamingo with his right stilt, and the flamingo falls into the water] Pinky?! Jerk. [laughs maniacally, removes his flamingo disguise, sneaks into the palace, and gets the lamp] Boy, Jafar's gonna be happy to see you! [mimics Jafar] Excellent work, Iago! [in his normal voice] Aw, go on! [as Jafar] No, really. I mean, dead seriously. On a scale of 1 to 10, you are an 11. [in his normal voice] Oh, Jafar, you're too kind. [flies away with the lamp] I'm embarrassed. I'm blushing."

"[to the Sultan while shoves many crackers into his mouth as his serious payback] Puppet ruler want a cracker?!"

"[after coming out of his lamp] Oy! [feels a pain in his neck] 10,000 years will give you such a crick in the neck!"

"[stomps his foot in front of them] Excuse me? Are you lookin' at me? Did you rub my lamp? Did you wake me up? Did you bring me here? And all of a sudden, you're walkin' out on me?! I don't think so! NOT right now! YOU'RE GETTIN' YOUR WISHES, SO SIT DOWN!!"

"[after transforming Aladdin into a prince] He's got the outfit. He's got the elephant. But we're not through yet! Hang on to your turban, kid! We're gonna make you a star!"

"[as a cheerleader begrudgingly waving a small white flag] Jafar, Jafar, he's our man, if he can't do it, [screaming bloody murder] GREAT!!!!"

"Allow me, ten thousand years in the Cave of Wonders ought to chill him out! [flicks the lamp to the desert]"

"[to the audience when he pushes up a "The End" scene to a blank white one] Made you look."