Victor Pelevin “The Sacred Book of Werewolf”

You ask me what it’s like here.  To be brief, even the most hardened of optimists are now finding that any hope that the brown sea advancing on us from all sides consists of chocolate is melting away.  And, as the advert puts in so wittily, it is melting not in their hands, but in their mouths.

Oh, nowadays so many conceited people go about Society pretending to be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest disposition to pretend to be bad.  Besides, there is this to be said.  If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously.  If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t.  Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.  (Oscar Wilde)

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Sir Winston Churchill