TinyDad

With a recession looming, everyone seems to think that things are spiraling out of control in the United States. Praising the past, complaining about the present, and predicting doom for the future is popular right now, but things may not be as bad as they seem.

In fact, this kind of negative thinking should be expected. It has clearly been a part of human nature for a long time:

“Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”
- Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

It has never been confirmed, but it’s believed that Socrates was quoted saying that after he saw an early cut of the hit video game, Grand Theft Horse.

Here’s a good one from Nietzsche:

“Only sick music makes money today”
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1888)

And to round things out, here’s an upbeat quote from Roman poet, Catullus:

“Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill-bred it is!”
- Catullus (87-54 B.C.)

Not everybody falls for the negativity trap though. Here’s a collection of quotes from people who figured out our tendency to go negative:

“Posterity will say as usual: ‘In the past things were better, the present is worse than the past.’”
- Anton Chekhov, Russian Author (1860-1904)

“Our ignorance of history makes us libel to our own times. People have always been like this.”
- Gustave Flaubert, French Novelist (1821-1880)

“The worst time is always the present.”
- Jean de La Fontaine, French Poet (1621-1695)

“The illusion that times were are better than those that are has probably pervaded all ages.”
- Horace Greeley, American Newspaper Editor (1811-1872)

So cheer up everybody! Things aren’t as bad as you’re tempted to think they are.

Quotations from The Book of Positive Quotations, 2nd Edition
Image Credit: MShades