Stolen Wisdom

I thought I'd post this before thooperman could, cause then there's a chance someone will think the thought originated with me!
It's kind of in the stream of what Brian McLaren says in the preface of Generous Orthodoxy, and yet paradoxically different - he says that it is not so much that he is a brilliant thinker, it is more that he is quicker to put into writing what others have been thinking for a while. I like that style of humility.
Anyway, the original stolen wisdom goes along this line taking about pessimism vs optimism:

Many people find it easy to identify what is wrong with any given object, organization or person. Rare ability is found when one is able to stop what is right, noble, good.

I would add that it is very hard, even life sucking, to around pessimistic people for a large part of any given lifetime.