William Butler Yeats Quotes

We suppose mankind more honest than they are.

What, I should only trust good people? Man, good people get bought and sold every day. Might as well trust somebody evil once in a while, it makes no more or less sense.

Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience". "What's pessimism?" I said. "Religion without God.

Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.

They that know no evil will suspect none.

I'm naturally an optimist, but my basis for hope is rooted in my understanding of human nature.

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going before you've still got them.

Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves.

I think the reason I was successful is that I was never cynical.

I prefer a real villain to a false hero.

I have become a little more cynical and, I would like to believe, a little wiser. When I first came to Mumbai, I was very idealistic. Now I can look anyone in the face and tell a lie. But I'm in a good place.

One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.

Optimist – A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.

One cannot afford to be a realist.

Talk faith. The world is better off without, Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt.

Don't confuse my point of view with cynicism. The real cynics are the ones who tell you that everything's gonna be all right.

Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.

I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope. I have always believed in these things. It was with some amazement that I realized I was one of the few people in the world who really believed in these things without going around making a dull middle class philosophy out of it. I was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars.

Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.

Taking things not as they ought to be, but as they are, I fear it must be allowed that Macchiavelli will always have more disciples than Jesus.

A man I knew who lived upon a smile, And well it fed him; he look'd plump and fair, While rankest venom foam'd through every vein.

The good news is hopeful doesn't mean dumb. The bad news is cynical doesn't mean smart.

It's silly not to hope. It's a sin he thought.

To a good man nothing that happens is evil.