- “Optimism can be more powerful than a battery of artillery or squadron of tanks. It can be contagious and it’s necessary to being a leader.” — General Rick Hillier
- “Optimism inspires, energizes, and brings out our best. It points the mind toward possibilities and helps us think creatively past problems.” — Price Pritchett, Hard Optimism
- “The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality, and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.— Christine Caine
- “While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.” — Benjamin Franklin
- “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank
- “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.” — Noam Chomsky
- “True hopefulness and optimism is what leads one to dare. It is also what lifts one back up to dare again after a failed attempt.” — Bibi Bourelly
- “Optimism. It’s not just a mind-set, it is behavior.’ ─ Larry Elder
- “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” — Helen Keller
For more discussion on optimism, please see Bringing Back Optimism.