To be a member of the Labor Party is to be an optimist - optimistic about the future of Australia optimistic about the ability of government to make a difference.

On Australia Day 2010 as we enter this second decade of the 21st century Australians can be optimistic about our future but we cannot afford to mistake optimism for complacency.

In rising financial markets the world is forever new. The bull or optimist has no eyes for past or present but only for the future where streams of revenue play in his imagination.

My own nature hovers between neurotic and paranoid. I've developed the habit of mentally listing things that make me optimistic about the future. I do it every day.

Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past.

Something I've realized lately to my shock is that I am an optimist in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification and that we really can build the future that we want if we're smart about it.

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.

And the funny thing is I've always been an optimist - it's practically a congenital disorder with me.

A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

I am optimistic that peace can be achieved in the region because I believe that every society on earth can be free and that if freedom comes to the Middle East there can be peace.