|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/7/2009
Posts: 33,909
Neurons: 100,905
Location: Inside Farlex computers
|
 There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910)
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 6/25/2014
Posts: 401
Neurons: 2,787
Location: Veinau, Baden-Wuerttemberg Region, Germany
|
"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 )
|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 8/22/2014
Posts: 109
Neurons: 42,315
Location: Socorro, New Mexico, United States
|
What do The Psalms of Islam have to do with the quote?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/18/2012
Posts: 179
Neurons: 17,968
Location: Aurora, Colorado, United States
|
Mark Twain loved to think about the ironies of humanity.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 4/8/2014
Posts: 872
Neurons: 87,227
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
|
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!
|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 1/17/2012
Posts: 100
Neurons: 37,558
Location: Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
|
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?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/26/2013
Posts: 3,547
Neurons: 368,946
Location: Minsk, Minskaya Voblasts', Belarus
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 2/21/2014
Posts: 463
Neurons: 226,313
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 5/21/2009
Posts: 13,057
Neurons: 63,022
|
You wouldn't say hurrah to the old optimist if he had his hand up your blouse.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/21/2012
Posts: 4,668
Neurons: 22,062
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 2/4/2014
Posts: 8,882
Neurons: 7,753,285
Location: Bogotá, Bogota D.C., Colombia
|
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
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Joined: 8/20/2014
Posts: 11
Neurons: 14,685
Location: São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/23/2014
Posts: 1,706
Neurons: 5,972,038
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Joined: 8/28/2014
Posts: 38
Neurons: 174,194
Location: Višnjan, Istarska, Croatia
|
I'd rather meet an old optimist than an old pessimist.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 12/20/2013
Posts: 819
Neurons: 350,106
Location: San Diego, California, United States
|
Daemon wrote:There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Nice quote...
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/23/2014
Posts: 1,706
Neurons: 5,972,038
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Joined: 8/19/2014
Posts: 14
Neurons: 3,571
Location: Barueri, Sao Paulo, Brazil
|
Nowadays almost 50% of our young are pessimist, a dark future is reserved for the human society
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Joined: 2/11/2014
Posts: 17
Neurons: 18,444
Location: Spokane, Washington, United States
|
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?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/26/2014
Posts: 1,405
Neurons: 37,072
Location: Apache Junction, Arizona, United States
|
"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.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/23/2014
Posts: 1,706
Neurons: 5,972,038
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 8/27/2014
Posts: 492
Neurons: 4,068,781
Location: Portland, Maine, United States
|
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.
|
|
Rank: Member
Joined: 1/25/2014
Posts: 49
Neurons: 25,619
Location: Naperville, Illinois, United States
|
i do not get it... 
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 2/9/2014
Posts: 491
Neurons: 192,145
Location: Apóstoles, Misiones, Argentina
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 10/3/2012
Posts: 2,251
Neurons: 249,482
|
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.
|
|
|
Guest |