Edward W Said, during the difficult political times, would always cite Gramsci's dictum about "pessimism of the mind/optimism of the will." I encountered something similar in Isaac Deutscher's splendid biographical trilogy of Trotsky (The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879-1921), vol. 1. Trotsky (in 1901) spoke of pessimism of the present, and optimism of the future. I share that view.