Philosophical Optimism Quotes

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

Now, as there is an infinity of possible universes in the Ideas of God, and as only one of them can exist, there must be a sufficient reason for God's choice, which determines him toward one rather than another. And this reason can be found only in the fitness, or the degrees of perfection, that these worlds contain, since each possible thing has the right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection it involves.

The highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the tribes and the nations, have been optimists.

So far there has been no philosopher in whose hands philosophy has not grown into an apology for knowledge; on this point, at least, every one is an optimist, that the greatest usefulness must be ascribed to knowledge. They are all tyrannized over by logic, and this is optimism in its essence.

There is a constant trend in human affairs toward the perfectibility of mankind. This was plainly stated at the time of tile French Revolution and has been reasserted ever since that time, and with increasing plausibility.

I would say that, between us, I tend to be a little bit more philosophically optimistic. Jonah, I think he sees things as more finite.

My philosophy is fundamentally sad, but I’m not a sad man, and I don’t believe I sadden anyone else. In other words, the fact that I don’t put my philosophy into practice saves me from its evil spell, or, rather, my faith in the human race is stronger then my intellectual analysis of it; there lies the fountain of youth in which my heart is continually bathing.

We live in the best of all possible worlds

The doctrine of the utter vanity of life is a doctrine of despair, and life is hope.

The aphorism "Whatever is, is right," would be as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence that nothing that ever was, was wrong.

Philosophy - hopeless. Yet it gives me hope.

Aristotle is the last Greek philosopher who faces the world cheerfully; after him, all have, in one form or another, a philosophy of retreat.

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

Nowadays, to say that we are clever animals is not to say something philosophical and pessimistic but something political and hopeful - namely, if we can work together, we can make ourselves into whatever we are clever and courageous enough to imagine ourselves becoming. This is to set aside Kant's question "What is man?" and to substitute the question "What sort of world can we prepare for our great grandchildren?

The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.

In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind.

The guy's life drunk, I think, makes Candide look like a sourpuss. Does he even know that death exists?