“A pessimist is a well-informed optimist”
Entry in progress—B.P.
“The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the pessimist is better informed” is another form of the same saying.
22 November 1967, Citizen Times (Cedar Rapids, IA), pg. 6, col. 6:
Betcha Didn’t Know..
...that a pessimist is a well-informed optimist.
24 December 1967, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Las Vegas Scene” by Forrest Duke, pg. 3D, col. 3:
Incidentally, young Frank (Sinatra, Jr.—ed.) defines a pessimist as a well-informed optimist.
Google Books
Proceedings
Volume 53
American Law Institute
1976
Pg. 378:
MR. HERSHMAN: Do you know that in New York a pessimist is a well-informed optimist?
PROFESSOR CASNER: What is that?
MR. HERSHMAN: A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.
Google Books
The Uncertain Course:
New Weapons, Strategies and Mind-Sets
By C. Carl G. Jacobsen
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
1987
Pg. 91:
There is an old Israeli proverb that a pessimist is really a well-informed optimist.
Google Books
The Soviet Union:
Empire, Nation, and System
By Aron Kat︠s︡enelinboĭgen
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers
1990
Pg. 384:
There is a joke going around in the Soviet Union that “a pessimist is a well-informed optimist.”
Google Books
Russia’s Policy Challenges:
Security, Stability, and Development
By Stephen K. Wegren
Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.
2003
Pg. 190:
Russians have even come to joke that a pessimist in their country is simply a well-informed optimist.
Google Books
Tiny Revolutions in Russia:
Twentieth Century Soviet and Russian History in Anecdotes
By Bruce Adams
New York, NY: RoutledgeCurzon
2005
Pg. 64:
389. “What is the difference between a pessimist and an optimist?”
AR: “A pessimist is a well-informed optimist. An optimist is a well-instructed pessimist.”
Twitter
tamara nisnevitch
@tomanis28
Know the difference between optimist and pessimist? Pessimist is just a well-informed optimist. Lets all be pessimists from time to time
4:14 PM - 24 Aug 2015
Charlotte, NC