Sunday, December 7th, 1941 - Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat - you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war.
On Christmas Day, 1941, Admiral Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters everywhere you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, “Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?”
Admiral Nimitz’s reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, “The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?”
Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, “What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?”
Nimitz explained, “Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk, we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America. I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That’s why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or, God was taking care of America.”
Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredricksburg, Texas - he was a born optimist. Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.
President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat. There is a reason that our national motto is: “In God We Trust.”
A team is a reflection of its leadership. - Unknown
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. - Colin Powell
Your life is a reflection of your thoughts. Think well. - Danielle Pierre
An optimist is a girl who mistakes a bulge for a curve. - Ring Lardner
An optimist is simply a pessimist with no job experience. - Dilbert
Optimist: a proponent of the doctrine that black is white. - Ambrose Bierce
Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist. - Robert G. Allen
Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. - Norman Cousins
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. - Winston Churchill
Optimist: someone who tells you to cheer up when things are going his way. - Edward Murrow
Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice. - Cyril Connolly
The visionary leader is an optimist, for no pessimist ever made a great leader. - William W Francis
An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly is looking for a way to get out. - George Jean Nathan
At the sum of all fears, the only thing that is painted... is a reflection of you. - Lionel Suggs
My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor. - Phyllis Diller
Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other. - Brian Tracy
Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other. - Brian Tracy
An optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity. - Winston Churchill
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. - Helen Keller
In the long run, the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. - Unknown
The one quality that can be developed by studious reflection and practice is the leadership of men. - Dwight D Eisenhower
That the Pearl Harbor attack should have succeeded in achieving surprise seems a blessing from heaven. - Hideki Tojo
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sail. - John C Maxwell
Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you. - Mary Lou Retton
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Winston Churchill
The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. - Peter Ustinov
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. - James Branch Cabell
The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. - Robert Brault
Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. - Peter F Drucker
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. - Bill Vaughan
I have never had to face anything that could overwhelm the native optimism and stubborn perseverance I was blessed with. - Sonia Sotomayor
In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right. - Jack Nicholson
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. - John Quincy Adams
In Japan, animation is a big part of your media diet. I moved out to Los Angeles at 9, and when I got homesick, I would watch anime. - Hiro Murai
Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster; it's more like a cha-cha. - Robert Brault
Motherhood is the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It's huge and scary - it's an act of infinite optimism. - Gilda Radner
To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. - Unknown
Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Why do you Irish always answer a question with a question?",
New York Mayor Al Smith: "Do we now?" - Franklin D Roosevelt
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
see also History, Military & Nationality Sections
British League of Pessimists
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