A pessimist is just a well informed optimist

Cum spunea bunul meu prieten, Turambar: paranoia bine temperata nu strica niciodata.

Ia cititi domniile dumneavoastra aici. Sa vedeti ca depresia nu are doar parti rele.

There's a silver lining even around the mushroom cloud of an atomic explosion :p.

Courtesy of Dan Selaru, bunul matematician depresiv care ne explica de ce e bine uneori sa fii prost si ingamfat. You know, it bloody helps in your bloody political career.

:)

===========

Depressive realism: Some studies have shown that depressed people appear to have a more realistic perception of their importance, reputation, locus of control, and abilities (Alloy and Abramson, 1979; Dobson and Franche, 1989).

People without depression are more likely to have inflated self-images and look at the world through "rose-colored glasses", thanks to cognitive dissonance and a variety of other defense mechanisms.

This does not necessarily imply that a happy person is delusional. Also, depressed individuals can be unrealistically negative (e.g. Pacini, Muir and Epstein, 1998).