Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.
Robertson DaviesRead
Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pessimism offers a narrow perspective on life, overlooking humanity's progress over time.
Robertson Davies suggests that while it may seem easy to adopt a pessimistic view of life due to the myriad of problems we face, a broader perspective reveals humanity's remarkable achievements over the centuries. By contemplating our past advancements, one can foster a sense of optimism about the future, underlying the importance of a long-term outlook in assessing life's complexities.
Themes
PessimismOptimismPerspectiveProgressLifeFuture
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on current events, one might quote Davies to encourage a more optimistic view of humanity's potential.
More from Robertson Davies
All quotes βThis is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries.
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Everything matters. The Universe is approximately fifteen billion years old, and I swear that in all that time, nothing has ever happened that has not mattered, has not contributed in some way to the totality.
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The egotist is all surface; underneath is a pulpy mess and a lot of self-doubt. But the egoist may be yielding and even deferential in things he doesn't consider important; in anything that touches his core he is remorseless.
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The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.
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The best among our writers are doing their accustomed work of mirroring what is deep in the spirit of our time; if chaos appears in those mirrors, we must have faith that in the future, as always in the past, that chaos will slowly reveal itself as a new aspect of order.
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