This feels like a very sad way to view optimism. It's from a work of fiction which only makes a guess about Hitler's worldview. If optimism is a delusion, then

This feels like a very sad way to view optimism. It's from a work of fiction which only makes a guess about Hitler's worldview. If optimism is a delusion, then so is pessimism, but only in the other direction. Neither view can tell us more than how we feel about the things around us.