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 There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910)
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"This is the station of him who is ashamed of himself before Thee, angry with himself, and satisfied with Thee. He meets Thee with
- a humble soul
- a neck bent down
- a back heavy with offenses."
~ The Psalms of Islam ( Wisdom of Imam Al'I Ibnul-Husayn Zaynul-AA'Bideen AS-Sajjad )
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What do The Psalms of Islam have to do with the quote?
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Mark Twain loved to think about the ironies of humanity.
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Daemon wrote:There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910) The young pessimist turns into an old curmudgeon! The young optimist becomes an old optimist. This is generally good for the person and for society, unless you happen to be an old curmudgeon--then the optimist's optimism annoys the heck out of the pessimist! Too bad for the pessimist. But hurray for the optimist!
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A young person of depth and gravitas comprehends the meaninglessness and emptiness of most bodily pleasures and our general activities, the shortness of life, the unfair lottery of nature; he sees once young, beautiful and powerful people now old, ugly, saggy, drooling and in diapers - is there a cure to his sadness?
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Could it possibly be one person - in one piece of flesh? Anyway, in both cases, it's a waste of valuable resources: youth and experience, respectively.
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What a depressing quote. So an old man has nothing left to be optimistic about? His life is pretty much over and all the good things lie in the past? How sad.
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You wouldn't say hurrah to the old optimist if he had his hand up your blouse.
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Mark Twain was right.
In the 1960's, many optimists -- including me -- thought that certain changes in society would usher in a golden age of harmony in the United States.
Many idealistic optimists at that time gave their time and money to further various causes. A few even gave their lives.
In 2014, many of those optimists are sorely disappointed by what has happened.
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From his notebook (1935) p.385
Mark Twain occasionally associated the opposite terms optimism and pessimism with various stages of his life. When he was forty-eight he wrote: "The man who is a pessimistic before he is forty-eight knows too much; the man who is an optimistic after he is forty-eight knows too little". Later added : " At fifty a man can be an ass without being an optimistic, but not an optimistic without being an ass". Yet in the last decade of his life he realized that he had been inaccurate in classifying himself exclusively as a pessimist.
Mark Twain's Religion
By William E. Phipps
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Daemon wrote:There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Mark Twin may be amiss here. A young pessimist is a thinker, and quite realistic to be a pessimist. And how can one not be encouraged by an old optimist, still hoping and trying? Instead of being sad, we should be happy.
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I'd rather meet an old optimist than an old pessimist.
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Daemon wrote:There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Nice quote...
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Daemon wrote:There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910) This is right as a rule of thumb. There is exception though.
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Nowadays almost 50% of our young are pessimist, a dark future is reserved for the human society
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Not one of his better quotes. He's got a ton that are great but what's the deal, did he just have someone follow him around and write down anything he said with any type of quirky or ironic tone of voice?
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"There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist." Yes, yes, and YES again!!!!
If history should teach us anything, as we reach the winter of our lives; it is that most all of those wonderful ideas that we had during our youth shall never be realized within our lifetime, but not for the sake of us trying.... At 75+ I am proud to state, that I have been fired from numerous jobs because I attempted to point out there shortcoming's and stupidities.
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Fredric-frank Myers wrote:"There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist." Yes, yes, and YES again!!!!
If history should teach us anything, as we reach the winter of our lives; it is that most all of those wonderful ideas that we had during our youth shall never be realized within our lifetime, but not for the sake of us trying.... At 75+ I am proud to state, that I have been fired from numerous jobs because I attempted to point out there shortcoming's and stupidities. Good for you Fredric. I was never fired. Guess I am not trying hard enough in this life. My excuse will be something from Bible: everything is meaningless.
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Daily goal: be your best self & enjoy the day. After all, it's impossible to be fired when you are the company. Someone will always have it better or worse than you. Being in that middle sweet spot is always a good day.
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i do not get it... 
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Daemon wrote:There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Why should the sight of an old optimist be sadder than that of a young pessimist? The sadder sight of the young pessimist has a 50/50 chance to become the sadder sight of an old optimist, with age. If he becomes an old optimist he will be the sadder sight, by exception. If he stays a pessimist in old age he will have been uncontested, and without exception, the saddest.
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