Why deny it?
Pessimists interest me, optimists almost always bore me.
As my friend André Comte-Sponville writes in his preface to the re-edition of
Portraits de pessimistes
by Challemel-Lacour (at Éditions des instants),
the pessimists amuse me, by exaggeration, the spirit of system, bad faith.
What are they not already dead?
It is entirely in their power, Epicurus objected, if life displeases them that much.
But here it is: they take too much pleasure in saying bad things about it to decide to put an end to it!
This is especially true if they have talent, and they have it more often than optimists.
The latter quickly give me the blues, by too much happiness promised or claimed.
The pessimists are the opposite: they make me want to live, to think, to fight, including against them, by the at least partial truth that they reveal ”.
The quote is long, but it's said so well, and so in keeping with what I think, that I would be reluctant to give just one.
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