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It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil
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“It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil”

Helen Keller

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Source
Optimism: An Essay
Date
1903
Meaning

Meaning of “It is a mistake always to contemplate the…”

Keller explicitly rejects an optimism that refuses to see harm, making clear-eyed attention to difficult facts part of her constructive outlook.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Optimism: An Essay (1903), Project Gutenberg #31622. The following paragraph calls ignorant or indifferent optimism dangerous and false.

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Themes

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AttitudeFailureHonestyHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesHumilityIntegrityMindOptimism Quotes About Constructive ExpectationPositive Quotes About a Constructive OutlookResponsibilityShortThinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & JudgmentTruthMistakesPerspective
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A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
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“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”

Thomas Paine · Common Sense · 1776
Meaning & context

Custom can disguise error by making the familiar feel legitimate; critical judgment requires re-examining practices that have escaped scrutiny through repetition.

Source details

Common Sense (1776), Introduction. The represented opening sentence is verified in Project Gutenberg #147 and the validated scan-backed Wikisource transcription; Paine argues that familiarity can make a wrong practice appear right before public argument unsettles the custom.

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Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things.
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“Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things.”

William James · The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy · 1897
Meaning & context

James resists treating every possible intellectual mistake as catastrophic, because an excessive fear of error can itself prevent inquiry, experience and the possibility of gaining truth.

Source details

The Will to Believe, essay “The Will to Believe”; Project Gutenberg #26659. James is contrasting the risk of being mistaken with the cost of refusing every uncertain intellectual venture.

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He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
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“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”

John Stuart Mill · On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Understanding a position requires serious contact with competing arguments; familiarity with only one side can produce confidence without real comprehension.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

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It’s better by far to hunt for a star, than the spots on the sun abiding.
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“It’s better by far to hunt for a star, than the spots on the sun abiding.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox · Poems of Cheer · 1914
Meaning & context

Wilcox contrasts constructive attention with habitual fault-finding, recommending a perspective that actively looks for what remains promising without claiming flaws do not exist.

Source details

Poems of Cheer, “As You Go Through Life,” represented 1914 edition; Project Gutenberg #3238. The poem explicitly acknowledges that things go wrong, so the line is about chosen attention rather than denial.

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The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in their right relations.
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“The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in their right relations.”

Ralph Waldo Trine · In Tune with the Infinite; or, Fullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty · 1897
Meaning & context

Optimism is defined here as a broader way of interpreting circumstances: the positive outlook is linked to seeing relationships and the whole situation rather than only one discouraging part.

Source details

In Tune with the Infinite, Prelude; Project Gutenberg #23559. The sentence belongs to Trine’s philosophical New Thought contrast between optimist and pessimist and should not be treated as a clinical definition.

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