Optimism

"The optimists are usually wrong and the pessimists are usually right. Yet, all the great changes in history were done by optimists."

Thomas Friedmann, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner [quote is not verbatim]

Fragile

"I envy those few people who truly understand that life is a fragile bargain, rescindable at any time by the other party, and live their lives accordingly."

Joseph Epstein