“Optimism: That effervescent, blindingly- bright, perky, chipper, twittering quality you want to squash out of annoying people.”
“Look back, and smile on perils past!”
“I ve never been more hopeful about our future. I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I m not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.”
“The reason why we believe that change is possible is not because we are idealists but because we believe we have made it, so other people can make it as well.”
“Real optimism is aware of problems but recognizes the solutions, knows about difficulties, but believes they can be overcome, sees the negatives but accentuates the positives, is exposed to the worst but exceeds the best, has reason to complain but chooses to smile.”
“Let me tell you something: when you dance, you are the greatest dancer who has ever lived. And when you sing, you will have the courage to raise your voice to the heavens, knowing that you may never get an answer.”