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Anime/Manga
"If someone ever tells me it's a mistake to have hope, well, then, I'll just tell them they're wrong. And I'll keep telling them 'til they believe! No matter how many times it takes."
— Madoka Kaname, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
"As much in this world that you can objectively reason through, you can't reason through everything. People who don't feel every once in a while... they're the worst cry-babies in the end. Being afraid is natural. It's part of being alive. Without it, you're already dead. Take it from a life-long coward."
— Eikichi Onizuka to Urumi Kanzaki, Great Teacher Onizuka
Comic Books
"The advice to ‘kill your darlings’ has been attributed to various authors across the galaxies...and Mister Heist hated them all.
Why teach young writers to edit out whatever it is they feel most passionate about? Better to kill everything in their writing they DON’T love as much.
Until only the darlings remain."
Why teach young writers to edit out whatever it is they feel most passionate about? Better to kill everything in their writing they DON’T love as much.
Until only the darlings remain."
— Saga
"This world is full of men and women who have the courage to listen to their hearts...and who believe in doing what's right! I'm not just talking about heroes, Dad. I mean everyday people...like you...and me! The Devils can never win...as long as we have hope! That's why you can't give up! You mustn't surrender to despair...or you'll run the risk of becoming a monster yourself!"
Cole: You know what gives me the strength? The loss. We're alike that way, I imagine. Admit it: nobody's who a stranger to that particular pain could ever be as driven as us.
Daredevil: Never - (throws his staff at her face, purposefully missing it by mere millimeters) - don't you ever say that to me ever again. That is a repellent statement. It's a vomitous insult to every cop - every fireman - every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss! But if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause... then get your pathetic, cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!
Daredevil: Never - (throws his staff at her face, purposefully missing it by mere millimeters) - don't you ever say that to me ever again. That is a repellent statement. It's a vomitous insult to every cop - every fireman - every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss! But if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause... then get your pathetic, cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!
"Know what I think? I think you want everyone dead because looking at life makes you realize what you're missing. Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism."
— The Hoaxer, Flex Mentallo
"I spoke to Commissioner Gordon before I came in here. He's fine. Despite all your sick, vicious little games, he's as sane as he ever was! So maybe ordinary people don't always crack. Maybe there isn't any need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimy things when trouble hits. Maybe it was just you, all the time!"
Comic Strips
"Dear life, you've been very difficult lately. But I'm gonna be happy anyways. Because I can be difficult, too."
— Pig, Pearls Before Swine, 7/31/2020
Film - Live-Action
Drummond: Don't you understand the meaning of what happened here today?
Hornbeck: What happened here today has no meaning.
Drummond: You have no meaning! Your whole life has no meaning. You're like a ghost pointing an empty sleeve and smirking at everything people feel and need and struggle for. I pity you.
Hornbeck: You pity me?
Drummond: Isn't there something? What touches you? What warms you? Every man has a dream. What do you dream about? What do you need? You don't need anything, do you? People? Love? An idea, maybe just to hold to? You poor slob. You have nothing, you believe in nothing. You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You will be what you have always been; alone.
Hornbeck: You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?
Hornbeck: What happened here today has no meaning.
Drummond: You have no meaning! Your whole life has no meaning. You're like a ghost pointing an empty sleeve and smirking at everything people feel and need and struggle for. I pity you.
Hornbeck: You pity me?
Drummond: Isn't there something? What touches you? What warms you? Every man has a dream. What do you dream about? What do you need? You don't need anything, do you? People? Love? An idea, maybe just to hold to? You poor slob. You have nothing, you believe in nothing. You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You will be what you have always been; alone.
Hornbeck: You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?
"I've committed to nothing...and that's just suicide...by tiny, tiny increments."
— Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
"OK, no, listen: I've had it with that! God, who do you think you are, Rorschach? You live off people while insulting them, and nobody complains because they think you're a goddamned lunatic!"
—Dan, Watchmen
"I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, but I don't like hurting people's feelings."
— Del Griffith, Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Henri Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.
Bruce Wayne: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.
Bruce Wayne: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.
"What were you trying to prove? That deep down, everyone is as ugly as you? You're alone!"
— Batman, to the Joker, The Dark Knight
"Some people look out on the sea
And see a brand new day
Their spirit lifts them high above the blue
Yet, some others wear an anchor
And they sink in seconds flat"
And see a brand new day
Their spirit lifts them high above the blue
Yet, some others wear an anchor
And they sink in seconds flat"
— Can You Imagine That? From Mary Poppins Returns
"Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."
— Tony Stark, Avengers: Endgame.
"They win by making you think you're alone. Remember? There's more of us!"
—Zorii, The Rise of Skywalker
Rick Blaine: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for.
Victor Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: Well, what of it? It'll be out of its misery.
Victor: You know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who's trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart.
Victor Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: Well, what of it? It'll be out of its misery.
Victor: You know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who's trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart.
Live-Action TV
"To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen."
— Conan O'Brien, in his last episode of The Tonight Show
The Doctor: You coming?
Amy Pond: No.
The Doctor: You wanted to come fourteen years ago.
Amy Pond: I grew up.
The Doctor: Don't worry. I'll soon fix that.
Amy Pond: No.
The Doctor: You wanted to come fourteen years ago.
Amy Pond: I grew up.
The Doctor: Don't worry. I'll soon fix that.
Dr. Molly Clock: Perry, no one's "pure evil." I mean, yeah, some people have a hard outer shell, but inside everybody has a creamy center.
Dr. Perry Cox: There are plenty of people here on this particular planet who are hard on the outside and hard on the inside!
Clock: So they have more of a nougat-y center?
Cox: ...Lady, people aren't chocolates. Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. But I don't find them half as annoying as I find naive bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine.
Clock: (rubs his tummy) I'm touching your creamy center! *leaves*
Cox: Oh, I am so very angry that I'm going to find someone to kill just to prove her wrong.
Dr. Perry Cox: There are plenty of people here on this particular planet who are hard on the outside and hard on the inside!
Clock: So they have more of a nougat-y center?
Cox: ...Lady, people aren't chocolates. Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. But I don't find them half as annoying as I find naive bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine.
Clock: (rubs his tummy) I'm touching your creamy center! *leaves*
Cox: Oh, I am so very angry that I'm going to find someone to kill just to prove her wrong.
— Scrubs, "My Common Enemy"
Mulder: Enough with the harmonic convergence crap, okay? You’re not saying anything to me.
Melissa Scully: Why don’t you just drop your cynicism and your paranoia and your defeat? You know, just because it’s positive and good doesn’t make it silly or trite!
Melissa Scully: Why don’t you just drop your cynicism and your paranoia and your defeat? You know, just because it’s positive and good doesn’t make it silly or trite!
— The X-Files, "One Breath"
Literature
Koudelka: You?! I know you! You trust beyond reason!
Cordelia: Yes, it's how I get results beyond hope, as you may recall.
Cordelia: Yes, it's how I get results beyond hope, as you may recall.
"Now, there's this about cynicism, Sergeant. It's the universe's most supine moral position. Real comfortable. If nothing can be done, then you're not some kind of shit for not doing it, and you can lie there and stink to yourself in perfect peace."
— Cordelia's son, Miles, Vorkosigan Saga
A weakened mind always sees everything through a black veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is dark, which is why you see such a cloudy sky.
Do not be a clockwork orange.
Freedom has a lovely voice.
Here is good and there is badness,
Look on both and take your choice.
Sweet of juice and hue and aroma,
Let’s not be changed to fruit machines.
Choice is free but seldom easy.
That’s what human freedom means.
Freedom has a lovely voice.
Here is good and there is badness,
Look on both and take your choice.
Sweet of juice and hue and aroma,
Let’s not be changed to fruit machines.
Choice is free but seldom easy.
That’s what human freedom means.
"You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting."
The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.
...sometimes we ask ourselves why happiness took so long to arrive, why it didn't come sooner, but appears suddenly, as now, when we've given up hope of it ever arriving, it's likely then that we won't know what to do, and rather than it being a question of choosing between laughter and tears, we will be filled by a secret anxiety to which we might not know how to respond at all.
— José Saramago, The Double
"That's the problem with you sad city types. You think a place has to be boring and dull as ditch water before you accept it as real."
— Blabbermouth, Haroun and the Sea Of Stories
"Then why?" said Sabbath, genuinely puzzled. "You're not stupid about these matters. You're not starry-eyed, or basically impractical. You can see what reality is. Why don't you accept it?"
The Doctor was sitting back in his chair, his clasped hands resting against his chest. "Because I prefer not to."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Because I don't, won't accept. I don't approve. Injustice is the rule, but I want justice. Suffering is the rule, but I want to end it. Despair accords with reality, but I insist on hope. I don't accept it because it is unacceptable. I say no."
The Doctor was sitting back in his chair, his clasped hands resting against his chest. "Because I prefer not to."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Because I don't, won't accept. I don't approve. Injustice is the rule, but I want justice. Suffering is the rule, but I want to end it. Despair accords with reality, but I insist on hope. I don't accept it because it is unacceptable. I say no."
— Lloyd Rose, Camera Obscura
"I'm not playing at all....When you treat everyone you meet as either an enemy or a pawn, you give others no choice but to hate or fear you.... No one's strong forever. No matter how good a user you are, when you treat others like tools, you're setting yourself up for an endgame that inevitably leaves you outnumbered and alone, with no one but resentful pawns for backup. That doesn't sound like victory to me...This doesn't have to be a fight or a war or a game or any of those terrible dragon metaphors for life. Because we're not thoughtless pawns with artificially limited moves. We're dragons."
— Julius, Nice Dragons Finish Last
Music
"So when you feel your heart sink into your chest
Don't forget everything is okay in the end
We are not okay but this is not the end yet"
Don't forget everything is okay in the end
We are not okay but this is not the end yet"
— "Strange Comfort", by The Color Morale
"I know that being dated and over it
Is way overrated.
And that the colors of this world
Only seem faded in direct relation to the darkness with which your mind's eye is shaded,
And you made it that way.
And you can choose to change your vision's prismic range today."
Is way overrated.
And that the colors of this world
Only seem faded in direct relation to the darkness with which your mind's eye is shaded,
And you made it that way.
And you can choose to change your vision's prismic range today."
— Rachel Kann, "I Know This"
"Some of you young folks been saying to me, 'Hey, Pops! What you mean, 'What a Wonderful World'? How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? They ain't so wonderful either!' Well, how about listenin' to old Pops for a minute?
Seems to me, it ain't the world that's so bad, but what we're doing to it. And all I'm saying is, "See what a wonderful world it would be, if only we'd give it a chance." Love, baby, love: That's the secret. Yeeaahhh! If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And, man, this world would be a gasser! That's why old Pops keeps saying,"
Seems to me, it ain't the world that's so bad, but what we're doing to it. And all I'm saying is, "See what a wonderful world it would be, if only we'd give it a chance." Love, baby, love: That's the secret. Yeeaahhh! If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And, man, this world would be a gasser! That's why old Pops keeps saying,"
"I see trees of green..."
— Louis Armstrong, spoken-word preface to his obscure second recording of "What a Wonderful World"
Tabletop Games
"I wanna dedicate this area to some personal friends of mine - the Sons and Daughters of Ether. Oh, sure, some of you probably dismiss them because they seem silly: while most of us stay wrapped in some Gothic pity-party, the Etherites fly around in impossible ships, strap themselves into Victorian wonder machines, smoke silly pipes and generally make a mockery of all that is sullen and serious.
That's why I like them so much.
There's nothing quite as subversive as the refusal of cynicism. When everyone around you is dressed in black and dripping hostility, what could be more subversive than to dress in bright, bold colours and run headlong with almost suicidally-optimistic abandon? The Ether Folks have this wonderfully skewed vision - one part future, two parts past and one part totally demented - that I have no choice but to admire. Anyone who can make a toaster grow wings, fly, and play Beethoven's Fifth is a man or woman worth respecting."
That's why I like them so much.
There's nothing quite as subversive as the refusal of cynicism. When everyone around you is dressed in black and dripping hostility, what could be more subversive than to dress in bright, bold colours and run headlong with almost suicidally-optimistic abandon? The Ether Folks have this wonderfully skewed vision - one part future, two parts past and one part totally demented - that I have no choice but to admire. Anyone who can make a toaster grow wings, fly, and play Beethoven's Fifth is a man or woman worth respecting."
— Mage: The Ascension — The Technomancer's Toolbox
Theater
"But all I know is nothing happens if you just give in
It can't be any worse than how it's been
And it just so happens that we just might win
So whatever happens, let's begin!"
It can't be any worse than how it's been
And it just so happens that we just might win
So whatever happens, let's begin!"
— Watch What Happens From Newsies
Davey: Tell me how quitting does Crutchie any good?"
Jack: Dszahdh...
Davey: Exactly!
Jack: Dszahdh...
Davey: Exactly!
— Watch What Happens (Reprise) From Newsies
Adam: That bloody frog was right all along.
Jerry: About what?
Adam: About my music, about art. Life is already so dark, if you've got the talent to make it brighter, give people joy and hope, why would you withhold that? Oh my God...It's gotta be a celebration. This whole ballet, it...Goddammit, I hate it when French people are right!
Jerry: About what?
Adam: About my music, about art. Life is already so dark, if you've got the talent to make it brighter, give people joy and hope, why would you withhold that? Oh my God...It's gotta be a celebration. This whole ballet, it...Goddammit, I hate it when French people are right!
Video Games
Lloyd: I want a world where everyone can have a normal life. I'm tired of people having to become sacrifices. I'm tired of discrimination. I'm tired of people becoming victims. I'm tired of it all.
Tiga: You are an idealist. The worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant flourish only by victimizing the others. So long as that structure remains the same, anything you say is mere sophistry.
Lloyd: Then we need to change that structure! This world was made by that Yggdrasill guy, right?! If a human or elf built this, then we should be able to change it as well!
Tiga: You are an idealist. The worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant flourish only by victimizing the others. So long as that structure remains the same, anything you say is mere sophistry.
Lloyd: Then we need to change that structure! This world was made by that Yggdrasill guy, right?! If a human or elf built this, then we should be able to change it as well!
Courage that is untempered by kindness risks eating itself forever...
...Wisdom that is untempered by kindness is no wisdom at all.
...Wisdom that is untempered by kindness is no wisdom at all.
— Tunic
Pit: Why are you all doom and gloom all the time, Pittoo?
Dark Pit: I think a better question is why are you so annoyingly cheerful?
Pit: I'm not annoying. I'm positive!
Palutena: (singing) You gotta stay upbeat, upbeat, upbeat...
Pit: (singing) Or you'll be dead meat, dead meat, dead meat...
Dark Pit: Like I said. Annoying.
Dark Pit: I think a better question is why are you so annoyingly cheerful?
Pit: I'm not annoying. I'm positive!
Palutena: (singing) You gotta stay upbeat, upbeat, upbeat...
Pit: (singing) Or you'll be dead meat, dead meat, dead meat...
Dark Pit: Like I said. Annoying.
Bigby: "It is better to be feared than loved." Know who said that?
Colin: Yeah, some sad asshole. Eating alone.
Colin: Yeah, some sad asshole. Eating alone.
Leliana: "Butler’s betrayal put our agents in danger. I condemn one man to save dozens. I may not like what I do, but it must be done. I cannot afford the luxury of ideals at a time like this!"
Herald: "Now is precisely the time for ideals!"
Herald: "Now is precisely the time for ideals!"
— Dragon Age: Inquisition, if you take steps to soften Leliana.
"All of this happened because of fanatics and arguments about the next world. It's time we start believing in this one."
"The heavy heart is all too eager to embrace wounding lies. Truth may hurt, but what hurts is not always true."
Glitterbeard: Stories. Tall tales and big names, lad - don't let them fool you. Elminster the archmage. Drizzt the drow exile. Heroes have power, aye - but not half so much as we do. A little coin into the right purse. A soft word in the right ear. It's not glory that spins these planes, lad - it's gold. See? Now-
(The mimic starts to shake, before Minsc's arm punches out and starts ripping it open to free himself.)
Glitterbeard: Moradin's cracked clay...!
Web Animation
"'Humans are monsters and everything is awful' has been done to death and is demonstrably untrue. We have enough angry sixth-grade poetry, guys, we can stop writing 'people are all terrible' stories now."
— Red, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Trope Talk: Post Apocalypses
"This ties into the general idea that optimism is naïve, something you're supposed to grow out of, and pessimism is real, the state you grow up into; and that's a load of hooey. Yeah, I said it! What are you going to do, be sad at me about it?"
— Red, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Trope Talk: Grimdark
Asdrubael Vect: NO! NOOOOO! LIFE has no MEANING! Not really. Regardless of how long we extend our lifespans, regardless of our emotions, thoughts and memories, regardless of everything that defines life to us, amalgams of matter who can reflect on it, the universe itself shall dissipate, and as it does, so shall WE. In a million cycles, in a billion cycles, in a duodecillion cycles, in the dying throes of the galaxy, what will you find?!
The Star Child: What? You haven't planned that far ahead yet? (chuckle)
Asdrubael Vect: Grrggh... (inhale) Mockery... FATHERLY MOCKERY... You Dare?! My fury is... is... RESTRAINED? :DDDD Urien! Not even existential dread will work!
Urien Rakarth: (slight crying) No respect for the art of cynicism.
The Star Child: What? You haven't planned that far ahead yet? (chuckle)
Asdrubael Vect: Grrggh... (inhale) Mockery... FATHERLY MOCKERY... You Dare?! My fury is... is... RESTRAINED? :DDDD Urien! Not even existential dread will work!
Urien Rakarth: (slight crying) No respect for the art of cynicism.
— If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, Episode 29: Bad Jokes, Dad Jokes
"I don't care what you say! We will stop them, and I will stop you! BET ON THAT!"
"I know your type. The nihilist know-it-all. But through all this wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey rubbish, there's one thing you never quite understood. I'm the Doctor. And I don't wanna go."
Web Comics
Sal: See? Just like before, you're programmed to go psycho at any provocation.
Joyce: No. Now I've grown up. Now I'm comfortable with everything about myself, down to the darkest cave. I'm not afraid of my emotions anymore.
Sal: You're nothing but a naive, pathetic little girl.
Joyce: You're the little girl, Sal.
Sal: How dare—
Joyce: I don't know how to explain... it's like there was this voice. Inside me... it told me you're better than me. Once upon a time, you might have been. But you never changed -- I have.
Joyce: No. Now I've grown up. Now I'm comfortable with everything about myself, down to the darkest cave. I'm not afraid of my emotions anymore.
Sal: You're nothing but a naive, pathetic little girl.
Joyce: You're the little girl, Sal.
Sal: How dare—
Joyce: I don't know how to explain... it's like there was this voice. Inside me... it told me you're better than me. Once upon a time, you might have been. But you never changed -- I have.
Web Original
"We all know the world is full of chance and anarchy,
So, yes, it's true to life for characters to die randomly,
But news flash: the genre's called fantasy!
It's meant to be unrealistic, you myopic manatee!"
So, yes, it's true to life for characters to die randomly,
But news flash: the genre's called fantasy!
It's meant to be unrealistic, you myopic manatee!"
— J.R.R. Tolkien to George R. R. Martin, Epic Rap Battles of History, "J.R.R. Tolkien vs George R.R. Martin"
"I have previously stated my attraction to the idea of keeping one’s politics childish... no matter how many jaded adults remind you that nobody ever said life was fair. Because, you see, that’s a lie. They did. They did tell us that life was fair. Repeatedly. They still do. Every day. On TV, in films, in books, in newspapers — they tell us that life is fair over and over again, in happy ending after happy ending, in fictional moral victory upon fictional moral victory, in reassuring news story after reassuring news story, in editorial after thinkpiece after review. It’s only when we express anger at injustice that we are dishonestly told that justice is an unreasonable expectation."
"Defeatism is fool-proof. You can't control a positive outcome, but you can ensure a negative one simply by giving up and surrendering. Thus the ego is protected...Just as the skeptics and debunkers were seen as passe and old-fashioned by the Nu Atheists, so to will the atheists be seen by the inevitable rise of the Nihilist, the terminus of the culture of defeat."
"The Saward era, if only in hindsight, is almost overtly an attempt to figure out what Doctor Who should be like in the wake of the Falklands and Thatcher. It gets it dreadfully wrong much of the time, however. In part this is because it concedes the point and tries to be Doctor Who in a Thatcherite world. Whereas here Bidmead just won’t have it. He starts in a world of militaristic institutions holding back the tide of chaos, then has the Doctor just kick the premise to the curb and change the world into one in which good old-fashioned 'tear down the structures of society and leave smart, good people behind to rebuild it' is the order of the universe once again.
It's a small thing... But it’s significant — a spiritual escape act. Instead of bending towards Thatcherite hell the universe now takes a last minute swerve into rebirth."
It's a small thing... But it’s significant — a spiritual escape act. Instead of bending towards Thatcherite hell the universe now takes a last minute swerve into rebirth."
"Optimism is believing that going out in the world and doing things is worthwhile. It’s the cynics who stay home and do nothing. This is why the most cynical hipsters among us are also the most unemployed. This is why I’ve grown to find cynicism so frustrating — cynicism doesn’t cause inaction. The desire for inaction causes cynicism. And so you fight to defend your cynicism tooth and nail."
— Jason Pargin aka "David Wong"
"If someone gave one of these people a cake, their first response would probably be to call the bomb squad."
— Rational Wiki on Libertarians
"Crapsack worlds and anti heroes have their place. Sometimes, they are very necessary. But an endless diet of dreary cyberpunk and dark fantasy won't do us any more favors than an endless feast of glurge. I'd argue that the cynical nature of these really hurt our ability to hope and work for better. It gets us to accept the hopelessness and jaded outlook of things as 'That's the way it is. I can't change it,' and stops us from fighting when we NEED to fight."
"Blind cynicism will make friends look like enemies".
— ''A poster on Tumblr.
."Movements need hope. They need optimism. If all that fuels you is your anger and frustration and pessimism, it is going to hollow out your soul. And if things ever do get better, you might not know what to do with yourself in that world".
— ''A poster on Tumblr.
."Um, no.
It just means that among your bag of intellectual tools for writing and logic all you own are hammers and feel that you deserve as much acclaim for your efforts as someone who has taken the time to learn the full breadth of what all aspects of writing can achieve.
'There's a reason why Andrew "Dice" Clay [sic] had a short but booming career; he was a tone-deaf asshole.
And there's a reason why his career ended; he was a tone-deaf asshole.
There's a reason why Robin Williams had a long and prestigious career in multiple media's and left a vacuum in the fields he worked in; he wasn't a tone-deaf asshole. He could write, he could act, he had a great sense of the human condition that spanned generations and could put it all together in one place."
It just means that among your bag of intellectual tools for writing and logic all you own are hammers and feel that you deserve as much acclaim for your efforts as someone who has taken the time to learn the full breadth of what all aspects of writing can achieve.
'There's a reason why Andrew "Dice" Clay [sic] had a short but booming career; he was a tone-deaf asshole.
And there's a reason why his career ended; he was a tone-deaf asshole.
There's a reason why Robin Williams had a long and prestigious career in multiple media's and left a vacuum in the fields he worked in; he wasn't a tone-deaf asshole. He could write, he could act, he had a great sense of the human condition that spanned generations and could put it all together in one place."
Pollo: Perhaps. But why have you not left yet, then? The scout ship stands ready. You can enter and leave all of us here, and no one will think less of you for it.
MarzGurl: Because my friends are in trouble, and they need my help. When people need my help, I’m going to be there for them.
Pollo: Of course you are. Because despite our unique circumstances, the things that we encounter are not oddities. They are not interruptions. We all have our own storylines - each of us the protagonist in our own tale. If it was not Mechakara that we encountered, your life would eventually be ‘interrupted’, as you say, by something else. A loved one in need elsewhere, an obstacle appearing along the way, or an enemy in a different form would disrupt your existence. You will always encounter people who won’t like you, who use you, who don’t appreciate what you’re trying to do with yourself, and sometimes they will defeat you. But most of the time, you overcome them. This is just another chapter of our lives - a weird dangerous, and unhappy one, but turn the page. The story does not end with us, but together, we’ll make it to a happy ending.
MarzGurl: You know, I never took you to be an optimist.
Pollo: On the contrary - I’m a realist. It’s just reality is not usually as bad as it is so often perceived to be.
MarzGurl: Because my friends are in trouble, and they need my help. When people need my help, I’m going to be there for them.
Pollo: Of course you are. Because despite our unique circumstances, the things that we encounter are not oddities. They are not interruptions. We all have our own storylines - each of us the protagonist in our own tale. If it was not Mechakara that we encountered, your life would eventually be ‘interrupted’, as you say, by something else. A loved one in need elsewhere, an obstacle appearing along the way, or an enemy in a different form would disrupt your existence. You will always encounter people who won’t like you, who use you, who don’t appreciate what you’re trying to do with yourself, and sometimes they will defeat you. But most of the time, you overcome them. This is just another chapter of our lives - a weird dangerous, and unhappy one, but turn the page. The story does not end with us, but together, we’ll make it to a happy ending.
MarzGurl: You know, I never took you to be an optimist.
Pollo: On the contrary - I’m a realist. It’s just reality is not usually as bad as it is so often perceived to be.
"I think I hate this comic more than any other I've ever reviewed, because it is the complete antithesis of everything I believe in. Holy Terror says that you should be unkind, it says you shouldn't trust people, it says compassion will be repaid with violence, and that violence can only be answered with more violence, and that violence is strength. That hurting others is not only enjoyable and desirable, but that it should be employed first when dealing with threats. It says that if you have power, you should lord that power over others and do harm to them. It says that revenge is a worthy cause. It treats women as either victims or enemies, and don't assume Natalie Stack is immune to this criticism, trust me, the book ain't over yet. It tells us we should fear the other, the foreigner, the dark-skinned, the religion that's not your own. And you know what the damndest thing of all is? I am honest to God afraid of terrorism. Terrorism is real. There are people out there who want to kill me either because I'm from a different country or just because they're some angry misanthrope with a gun. That applies to both foreign and domestic terrorists. Terrorism is about making someone so afraid that they'll do what you tell them to. And the grand message of Frank Miller's Holy Terror is: Be afraid. Be terrified. And let's give in to that fear. And embrace every dark, sick and inhuman part of our souls as a result, and do everything to them that they will do to us. Frank... you must be so proud."
"There’s nothing wrong with hope. There’s nothing wrong with optimism. Depressing people is easy. People are naturally pessimistic (we’d scarcely have survived this long if we always expected everything to be fine) and we’re uniquely receptive to anyone who’ll tell us that everything is fucked. One of the hardest things in art is to create something beautiful and uplifting."
— Unshaved Mouse, review of Disney's The Fox and the Hound
"Depression is a disease, make no mistake. Von Trier can romanticize it all he wants, but it's a stasis. A dead end. Succumbing to it is to surrender to death. And he can go on and on about how hollow our culture is and how shallow life is, but what of it? I'm alive, and I can experience the new, and share it. Here, now, I'm alive, and what happier thing can be said?"
— Kyle Kallgren, Brows Held High
"But [Tempest] is a great contrast against Twilight: Someone who suffered a blow and assumes that's the way the world works, which is something we all tend to assume. It's tempting to define the world only by the bad because we think that will prepare ourselves, when really I think it closes ourselves off to possibilities and options, which is why Tempest is in the wrong here. Put simply, I don't trust people who assume they know the way the world works because usually they only understand half of it."
"We all want to be the smirking protagonist who can’t be bothered to get passionate or incensed about anything. Responding to all problems with a 'hmph' as they strut away casually. I’m looking at you, all anime ever. We admire this type of character, ignoring the fact that they’re displaying all the signs of having serious depression. They’re not so much rebels as they are miserable jerks.
This narrative is only encouraged by the idea that happy people are either ignorant, deluded, or just plain faking it. Cynics love to paint happiness as a two-dimensional facade, something disingenuous that should be avoided. And those who are genuinely happy are simply conforming to societal pressure. This is pretty hypocritical, as cynics themselves are often unwittingly conforming to the cool character type."
This narrative is only encouraged by the idea that happy people are either ignorant, deluded, or just plain faking it. Cynics love to paint happiness as a two-dimensional facade, something disingenuous that should be avoided. And those who are genuinely happy are simply conforming to societal pressure. This is pretty hypocritical, as cynics themselves are often unwittingly conforming to the cool character type."
"Idiocy usually comes from lack of data or experience. She still doesn't have enough. She hadn't addressed that core issue, so she's still an idiot. (...) She keeps losing and losing and losing. She did not handle *any* of her original goals. A persona was not an answer."
— An analysis of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, explaining why Kaguya's attempt to retreat into her "Ice" persona was immature
of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, explaining why Kaguya's attempt to retreat into her "Ice" persona was immature"Jaded sarcasm isn't brave in 2020. It's the path of least resistance for edgy chan-lords. It does not imply a deep and abiding morality."
— Innuendo Studios, "CO-VIDs: the 90's neoliberal fantasia as experienced by daria morgendorffer, millennial"
""This is why I adore old school superhero cartoons made for kids, and why I think children’s animation, as long as it has the “that everyone can enjoy” caveat, is the best way to experience the superhero genre. These shows are just so sincere about liking what they are, they don’t need to justify it by adding snark, meta mockery of the genre or sexual titillation to make the audience feel more grown up and smarter than everybody else."
— Blogger ilikekidsshows, about Miraculous Ladybug
, about Miraculous Ladybug"What's wrong with a lullaby? What's wrong with happy endings? Are they really all unrealistic or does it depend on the amount of hope in your heart? Your philosophy on life?"
— Reviewer Frog on Epic Pooh
Jason: Come on, you guys. All this negativity is just gonna make things WORSE.
James: No. Standing on an ice sheet for half our lives is gonna make things worse! Right?
Everyone: YEAH!
Jason: No, no, no, no, no. Everybody listen up! OKAY? Our happiness or our misery depends not on our circumstances, but on our disposition. WE. CHOOSE. OUR. ADDITUDE!
— Studio C, "The Hard Life Of A Male Penguin"
"I could write ninety percent of an essay on how any of these games are 'the darkest' in their series, but then you get to the end and… what? 'Isn't it crazy how messed up this is?' It's an empty reading, substanceless. Ironically, it’s juvenile. Being 'messed up' is not a theme. Darkness is not a narrative. Violence on its own is not mature. Every description I’ve given thus far is missing the crucial piece, the 'so what?', the 'why should I care?'... To brand any of these games as the darkest Zelda is to miss the forest for the trees, focus on the storytelling methods without considering what the stories themselves are doing with them. Heroism shines when contrasted with the darkness. Acts of compassion mean more when stakes are high. And this perspective also misses the levity of the stories, and what those moments contribute as well. A world without joy and humor isn’t a compelling world to fight for. Every one of these games become meaningful through their lightest elements, absurd side characters and silly mini games and the idea of Link not being heavy until he takes the metal boots out of his pocket and puts them on his feet. Zelda games flourish in this twilight, the melding of light and dark. The disparate tones mutually empower each other."
Web Video
Teruko: I can tell you're trying to open up to me, but I won't let you. Sorry. You're right. Life is cruel. That's exactly why we should stop trying to bond with each other. That way, it'll hurt less when people die. You most of all, Eden. You're the last person I wanna be friends with.
Eden: Eh? Why?
Teruko: Because...Because you're too kind to me. I've noticed. All this time, when I've been blaming others for turning against me, you've never once brought up the fact that you've stayed by my side the whole time. Anyone else in your place would've brought it up already, to point to the fact that I'm wrong, and to get me to side with them. But you don't.
Eden: Teruko, relationships aren't transactional. It's not that I did something good for you that should you do something good for me. I want you to be my friend, but not because I'm a nice person and you feel obligated to.
Teruko: You're caring, selfless, and worst of all, hopeless naive. When that optimistic worldview of yours gets shattered by the harsh reality of this killing game, I don't want to have an emotional stake in it. Sooner or later that kindness of yours will have you breaking down, until you're too overwhelmed by grief to be able to act. That's not I plan to live. I'll join in on whatever activity you have planned, but I'm only humoring you. We're not going to become friends. I won't let that happen. I'll never trust or rely on anyone else ever again.
Eden: No. You're wrong, Teruko.
Teruko: Wrong? About what?
Eden: There's nothing naive about being optimistic. I'm not nice because I'm dumb or I don't know better. I chose to be this way. Even if the world is cold and cruel, I'll still make the choice to be kind. It's only human to feel grief, and it's only human to rely on others. I truly believe that's how we'll get through this killing game. Through expressing grief, and then relying on one another. So I'll prove you wrong. Kindness isn't weakness. Not caring about others is the worst way to live. One day, I'll make you understand that. Until then, you can call me naive and hopeless all you want. Got it?
Teruko: ...(Somehow, hearing her words made my chest hurt. It's just my injury acting up again. Nothing else.)
"I will take an insincere display of charity over a genuine display of apathy every day of the week."
— Todd in the Shadows, "We Are the World 25 for Haiti" review
Western Animation
"If you look for light, you will often find it. But if you look only for the dark, it is all you will ever see."
— Iroh, The Legend of Korra
Superman: What made you change your mind?
Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate: You.
Superman: Something I said?
Fate: Something you did. You went back. You didn't stand a chance, but you went back. Til then, I thought it was only the forces of evil that wouldn't give up. I was wrong.
Superman: (offering him the Helmet of Fate) Your helmet.
Fate: I'll be needing it.
— Superman: The Animated Series, "The Hand Of Fate"
Real Life
"Cynicism transforms experience and healthy skepticism into a pernicious prejudice that assumes negative conduct and intentions and damns to failure every effort to make things better. Cynicism is a dark lens that that shapes everything we see and how we feel."
— Blog by Michael Josephson
"And if there is any hope for any of us in this giant explosion in which we inhabit then surely that's it: Intellect and romance triumph over brute force and cynicism!"
"In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically."
"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
"A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin."
"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough."
— Frank Crane
"Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact."
"Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them."
"In a time of dismay and dread, is it admirable for filmmakers to depict pure evil? Have 9/11, suicide bombers, serial killers and kidnappings created a world in which the response of the artist must be nihilistic and hopeless? At the end of your film, after the other characters have been killed in sadistic and gruesome ways, the only survivor is the one who is evil incarnate, and we hear his cold laughter under a screen that has gone dark. Your answer, that the world is evil and therefore it is your responsibility to reflect it, is no answer at all, but a surrender."
— Roger Ebert, to David DeFalco on his film Chaos.
"The next real literary 'rebels' in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles... These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that'll be the point. Maybe that's why they'll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval."
"I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every time, because hip is short-term. Earnest is long-term. Earnestness is highly underestimated. It comes from the core, while hip is trying to impress you with the surface."
— Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
— George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
"I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it`s reflecting life — toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things — and not tilted down to the gutter part of the time, into the troubled vistas of conflict."
— Greer Garson
"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were."
"The cynics may be the loudest voices, but I promise you, they will accomplish the least."
"There's nothing weak about being honorable. You're not a sucker to have integrity and treat others with respect."
"What we do echoes through generations. Whatever our backgounrds, we are all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents who were working in fire traps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told, 'Go back to where you come from.' Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged, spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote. If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth, and yet instead of giving up, they joined together and they said, 'Somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words in our founding documents to life.'"
"There are times where I feel discouraged. There are times where the future seems somewhat bleak ... and images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams. Whenever I feel such despondency, I remind myself that cynicism is the recourse of cowards."
"We've seen tough times in this country. You know we've gone through depressions and wars and bombings and terrorist attacks, and we've gone through Jim Crow, and we've always come out stronger. And that's what we have to continue to believe because what's our choice? To ball up in a corner and call it a day? Well that's not fair to this next generation that's coming before us that are counting on us to get this right."
— Michelle Obama
"Don't tell me things can't change."
"I choose the discipline of hope over the ease of cynicism.
I choose fortitude over fatalism.
I choose to be who my ancestors protected and my creator formed.
I choose strategy and organizing as the container for my anger.
I choose to be more than a conqueror."
I choose fortitude over fatalism.
I choose to be who my ancestors protected and my creator formed.
I choose strategy and organizing as the container for my anger.
I choose to be more than a conqueror."
— Brittany Packnett
"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so."
— Noam Chomsky
"Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes."
"Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don't have to try."
— Peggy Noonan, Good Housekeeping
"Cynicism isn't smarter, it's only safer."
"The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in the darkness and blind to the light, always pursuing vermin and never hunting noble game."
— Henry Ward Beecher
"Realists are, as a rule, only men in the rut of routine who are incapable of transcending a narrow circle of antiquated notions."
— Theodor Herzl
"Cynicism isn't cool, smart or sexy, its just laziness with an edgy makeover. It's your egos way of tricking you into thinking that apathy is heroic. It's not. The worst forces in the world are praying for your cynicism. You want to fix something?
✨Concern + Effort + Creativity✨"
✨Concern + Effort + Creativity✨"
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
— Dr. Kent M. Keith, Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments (often misattributed to Mother Teresa)
"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness... What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction... And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
— Howard Zinn
"Funny story, I watched Smiling Friends recently and I didn't get the hype at first. It's not a bad show, it's actually pretty good, but I had no idea why people fell in love with the thing. People told me without irony that it is one of the best things that Adult Swim has ever put on the air. That is a tall order. And then it clicked; Smiling. Friends. The show is about characters trying to make others happy and it doesn't end with the characters learning again and again that it's a pointless endeavor. Every happy ending isn't subverted with pain and suffering, they actually end episodes with people being happy and not every punchline is misery and suffering. Like, it's the first show in a very long time whose message doesn't begin and end that life sucks and then you die. We need more of this; four, five, six seasons-one hundred episodes, Morty! O-one hundred episodes of trying to make people smile!"
"WE ARE NOT "BORN TO DIE". DOES A BOOK BEGIN JUST TO FINISH? DOES A SONG OPEN WITH A BEAUTIFUL CHORD PURELY TO END?"
"YES. WE ARE BORN WITH THE INEVITABLE FATE OF DEATH. BUT THAT IS MERELY THE FINAL ACT OF THE PLAY. WE ARE BORN TO LOVE, BE JOYOUS, TO MOVE, LEARN, CRY, AND FEEL. WE ARE, IN FACT, BORN TO LIVE."
— Vanegood
