“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”.
Often attributed to Winston Churchill but it was used previously by Bertram Carr 1919 who was the Mayor of Carlisle, England whilst he was addressing “The Fifty-First Annual Co-operative Congress”, a gathering inspired by social reformers and the cooperative movement
"The past history of an old walled city such as this leaves its legacy of ideas antiquated and out of date. These, as expressed in tangible form, are an embarrassment, and hinder the wheels of progress, but we view these, I hope, in the spirit of the optimist to whom every difficulty is an opportunity, and not as the pessimist, to whom every opportunity presents some difficulty"
(Fragments of the phrase have been used earlier than that)
