Karl A. Menninger Quotes

While I wholeheartedly believe in choosing to approach every challenge with a great attitude, I don't mean that we should abandon authenticity and live in fantasyland.

It is the opposite of ignorance—it is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it is hard.

I believe in facing reality. But only because I don't like turning my back on it.

Never turn your back on reality. It surrounds you.

What we need most, is not so much to realize the ideal as to idealize the real.

I have a happy temperament: a bit like 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.'

People have to be realistic, or the dream just drags on.

I can be fairly optimistic, but I'm probably more a realist, I think. I mean, optimism's an interesting quality, isn't it, because I'm always slightly dubious as to what's behind it?

The trouble with traditional American conservatism is that it lacks a naturally cheerful, optimistic disposition. Not only does it lack one, it regards signs of one as evidence of unsoundness, irresponsibility.

I try to walk on the sunny side of the street.

You don't need to like reality, only be strong enough to face it

I've always tried to be cheerful, because I think people who whine are boring, and I never could tolerate bores.

When you srgue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time.

First, what does truth require? It requires us to face the facts as they are, not to involve ourselves in self-deception; to refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might have been, and not as we wish they were.

I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day.

Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.

I'm a happy-go-lucky guy.

A lot of Americans like happy endings, but life does not necessarily have a happy ending.

One reason that a lot of people see me as cheerful and optimistic is that my expectations are really rather low.

I avoided reality for most of my life. But once you deal with it, it's kind of cool.

We ought to look the world frankly in the face.

I make a real effort to try and live in the real world and not just the dream world.

Look for the good in every person and every situation. You'll almost always find it.

It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I still believe in Hope - mostly because there's no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.