A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.

Pessimism n.
A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile.

We’re descended from pessimists

Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.

I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.

- Vous êtes plus pessimiste qu'autrefois ?
- Pessimisme et optimisme, encore deux mots que je récuse. Il s'agit d'avoir les yeux ouverts. Le médecin qui analyse le sang et les selles d'un malade, mesure sa fièvre et prend sa tension, n'est ni optimiste ni pessimiste : il fait de son mieux à partir de ce qui est. Mais, si l'on peut employer ce misérable mot, je me sens pessimiste quand je constate combien la masse humaine a peu changé depuis des millénaires. Les plus grands réformateurs se sont généralement heurtés à cette quasi-impossibilité de changer l'homme, et leur leçon s'est généralement perdue après eux. (p.240)

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

Pessimistic prophecies are self-fulfilling.

Pessimism is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child's play.

In good times, pessimism is a luxury; but in bad times, pessimism is a self-fulfilling and fatal prophecy.

pessimism works because it’s self-fulfilling: if you’re a slacker with low expectations, they’ll probably be met.

I began feeling the way I imagine an actor or athlete must feel when, after years of commitment to a particular dream...he realizes that he's gone just about as far as talent or fortune will take him. The dream will not happen, and he now faces the choice of accepting this fact like a grownup and moving on to more sensible pursuits, or refusing the truth and ending up bitter, quarrelsome, and slightly pathetic.

"Pessimism is a sign of decay, optimism is a sign of superficiality; "tragic optimism" is the mood of the strong man who seeks intensity and extent of experience, even at the cost of woe, and is delighted to find that strife is the law of life."

The the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hope are optimistic.