The Optimist's Handbook : A Companion To Hope /The Pessimist's Handbook : A Companion To Despair

Description

'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars' - Oscar Wilde. 'I tell you, we're in a blessed drain-pipe, and we've got to crawl along it till we die' - H.G. Wells. Are optimists just reckless dreamers? Are pessimists miserable doom-mongers or just erring on the side of caution? Is the glass half empty or half full? Brilliantly compiled and beautifully written, this is a rich anthology of evidence from both sides of any argument. Covering everything from Age to Beauty, Education to Globalization, Patriotism to Zoos, it is sop to any disposition; the perfect tool for squabbling families, a counterbalance for arguing couples and a mine of detail for the quarrelsome. Marriage: 'There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage' - Martin Luther. 'The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman' - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.