Pessimism (n.) is somewhat counter-intuitively, a kind of life-affirming total embrace of the nature of a nasty world. Rather than to artificially take refuge in optimism vis-a-vis a meaningless and cruel world, nietzsche embraced a dionysian pessimism as an art of living that is 'good for one's health' as a 'remedy and an aid in the service of growing and struggling life.
Pessimism (n.) need not mean collapse: there may be a pessimism of strength, a suffering from the very fullness of life that seeks the terrible as a worthy enemy.
Pessimism (n.) in practice: the practical pessimist, directed by a presentiment of coming disaster, is sluggishly indifferent to others' welfare and his own — if the ground stops bearing us, that too is very well.
Pessimism (n.) is rooted in self-hatred: we hate ourselves as we usually are because we can contribute nothing to producing the man of redemption — its root, not its flower; one day we shall learn to hate something more universal.
Pessimism (n.) is no right a sufferer earns by suffering: romantic pessimism inflates personal experience into a condemnation of the world.
Pessimism (n.) is often an inheritance from hungry ancestors: a little decent food decides whether we look forward hopefully or hollow-eyed — the Greeks, wealthy for centuries, made their best things bathed in sunlight.
Pessimism (n.) is not a sign of great misery but of comfort: it arises when life is so alleviated that its mosquito bites seem bloody — and the cure for it is misery.
Pessimism (n.) the preacher of death sees one sick man, one old man or one corpse and cries "life is refuted!" — but only he and his one-faced eyes are refuted.
Pessimism (n.) is not a problem but a symptom: asking whether not-to-be is better than to be is itself a disease.
Pessimism (n.) philosophical, belongs among comical things: the total value of the world cannot be evaluated, since there is nothing to measure it against.
Pessimism (n.) of indignation invents responsibility to give itself a pleasant feeling — revenge, "sweeter than honey."
Pessimism (n.) can also be the darkness before a storm — the pressure of plenitude, forces that do not yet know how to discharge themselves.
Pessimism (n.) can be the darkening before a storm: forces grow within us with no way to discharge — a doctrine that shows them a direction brings happiness by releasing them.
Pessimism (n.) philosophical, is among the comical things: the total value of the world is unevaluable — there is nothing to measure it against.