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Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.

Obama learned from Ronald Reagan that it helps to strike an optimistic tone. But genuine optimism deriving from American exceptionalism, it turns out, does not come naturally to him.

Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.

What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.

When a country is strong... it accepts any dose of pessimism from its writers.

When thinking about the future, it is fashionable to be pessimistic. Yet the evidence unequivocally belies such pessimism. Over the past centuries, humanity's lot has improved dramatically - in the developed world, where it is rather obvious, but also in the developing world, where life expectancy has more than doubled in the past 100 years.

These days I wonder more and more why people are pessimistic when American history actually supports optimism.

For sure, the 'Obamania' that's fast taking hold reflects an incredible thirst for change in global politics and, dare I say, a wave of optimism that things can be different.

There's probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.