"With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, 'Studs, you're an optimist.' I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what's the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven."

People, Hope, Optimism, Despair

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"With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, 'Studs, you're an optimist.' I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what's the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven."

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"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."

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"We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones."

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Explore more quotes by Studs Terkel

"I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be."

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"I want to praise activists through the years. I praise those of the past as well, to have them honored."

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"With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, 'Studs, you're an optimist.' I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what's the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven."

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"I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope, because the hope is for us to survive as a human species. That's very realistic."

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"Nonetheless, do I have respect for people who believe in the hereafter? Of course I do. I might add, perhaps even a touch of envy too, because of the solace."

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"Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt."

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"I always love to quote Albert Einstein because nobody dares contradict him."

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"All the other books ask, 'What's it like?' What was World War II like for the young kid at Normandy, or what is work like for a woman having a job for the first time in her life? What's it like to be black or white?"

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"I hope that memory is valued - that we do not lose memory."

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"Someone who does an act. In a democratic society, you're supposed to be an activist; that is, you participate. It could be a letter written to an editor."

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