There have been great ____ since his time, but few others have felt so strongly the ____ of human existence.
A. heretics - sagacity
B. optimists - tremulousness
C. skeptics - exaltation
D. pessimists - futility
Pessimists: A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view.
Futility: The quality of having no useful result; uselessness.