Daily Inspiration Quote by Kin Hubbard

Optimism, in Kin Hubbard's hands, isn’t sunshine; it’s procrastination with a smile. The line flips the usual definition on its head: the optimist isn’t the person convinced the future will be great, but the person convinced the future - especially the part that hurts - will politely reschedule itself. It’s a joke built on the bait-and-switch of "what’s going to be", a phrase that typically carries fatalistic weight. Hubbard keeps that weight, then yanks the rug out with "postponed", turning destiny into something you can put off like a dentist appointment.

The intent is social diagnosis disguised as a one-liner. Hubbard was a journalist in an era when American boosterism and moral pep talks were becoming mass-market products, sold alongside new consumer comforts and a growing faith in progress. His cynicism is measured, not nihilistic: he’s not arguing that hope is stupid, only that a certain kind of hope is a psychological loophole. The subtext is about how people negotiate anxiety - not by denying reality, but by managing its timing. Disaster isn’t denied; it’s deferred.

What makes the line work is its quiet cruelty. "A fellow" sounds folksy, even affectionate, like this is harmless Americana. Then you realize Hubbard is describing a whole cultural habit: treating consequences as calendar problems. It’s optimism reframed as temporal bargaining, the oldest trick in the modern self-soothing playbook.