Optimism

When mankind explores and expands into the universe, there should be a great deal of optimism so let's find a few expressions of that in Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.

En route to Saturn:

"'Here we are, safe and comfortable till we reach Saturn. After that we should never lack for excitement, or for material to work with on the way home.'
"'True.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Saturn Game" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 1-73 AT pp. 29-30.

On the Grand Survey:

"After three years we were weary and had suffered losses. Oh, the wonder wasn't gone. How could it ever go - from world after world after world?...
"It was still a heart-speeding thing to find another sentient race, actually more than to find another planet colonizable by man."
-Poul Anderson, "Wings of Victory" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 79-102 AT p. 79.

Exploring Gray/Avalon:

"'...[the Ythrians] have scientific curiosity and, yes, in them perhaps even more than in the humans who went along, a spirit of adventure. Oh, it was a wonderful thing to be young in that band!'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 103-134 AT p. 115.

For a student in San Francisco Integrate:

"'A certain Master Merchant I know will soon be in the market for another apprentice and accepts what I have to told him about you. Are you interested?'
"I collapsed into Betty's arms. She says she'll find a way to follow me."
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 175-197 AT p. 197.

When journeyman David Falkayn has averted a war and explained that mercantilism is nobler than knighthood which depends on slavery or serfdom and killing:

"He murmured, as best he could in Latin, 'Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea...'"
-Poul Anderson, "A Sun Invisible" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 263-315 AT p. 314.

When Nicholas van Rijn recruits Emil Dalmady as an entrepreneur:

"'Afterward you go get rich, if you survive, and have a big ball of fun even if you don't. Hokay?'"
-Poul Anderson, "Esau" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 517-553 AT pp. 552-553.

When the Polesotechnic League has begun:

"'The world's great age begins anew....'
"As it has before, and will again...
"We cannot foretell what will come of it. We do not know where we are going. Nor do most of us care. For us it is enough that we are on our way." - Le Matelot.
-Poul Anderson, "Hiding Place" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 555-609 AT 555-556.

"A loftier Argo cleaves the main,
"Fraught with a later prize;
"Another Orpheus sings again,
"And loves, and weeps, and dies.
"A new Ulysses leaves once more
"Calypso for his native shore." -Shelley.
-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 273-327 AT p. 273.