The worldly hope men set their hearts upon turns ashes—or it prospers; and anon, like snow upon the desert’s dusty face, lighting a little hour or two—is gone.
—Omar Khayyam (1048–1123) Persian Mathematician
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet, I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing.
—Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Lyricist, Farmer
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher
Hope, like the gleaming taper’s light, adorns and cheers our way; and still, as darker grows the night, emits a brighter ray.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Author, Playwright, Poet, Physician
Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
In time of trouble avert not thy face from hope, for the soft marrow abideth in the hard bone.
—Hafez (1325–89) Persian Poet, Mystic
Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.
—Unknown
In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Hope is a prodigal young heir, and experience is his banker, but his drafts are seldom honored since there is often a heavy balance against him, because he draws largely on a small capital and is not yet in possession.
—Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) English Angelic Priest, Writer, Collector
When hope is hungry, everything feeds it.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
Hope is a vigorous principle; it is furnished with light and heat to advise and execute; it sets the head and heart to work, and animates a man to do his utmost. And thus, by perpetually pushing and assurance, it puts a difficulty out of countenance, and makes a seeming impossibility give way.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) English Anglican Theater Critic, Theologian
Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Logician, Mathematician, Historian, Social Critic
When you’re depressed, the whole body is depressed, and it translates to the cellular level. The first objective is to get your energy up, and you can do it through play. It’s one of the most powerful ways of breaking up hopelessness and bringing energy into the situation.
—O. Carl Simonton
Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.
—John Ciardi (1916–86) American Poet, Teacher, Etymologist, Translator
Hope is an adventure, a going forward — a confident search for a rewarding life.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist
Hope has as many lives as a cat or a king.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
Just as dumb creatures are snared by food, human beings would not be caught unless they had a nibble of hope.
—Petronius Roman Courtier, Novelist
Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Atheist Politician, Orator, Social Critic, Essayist
We must have hope or starve to death.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political leader, Inventor, Diplomat, Author
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher
Hope is the thing with feathers|That perches in the soul|And sings the tune without the words|And never stops at all,||And sweetest in the gale is heard;|And sore must be the storm|That could abash the little bird|That kept so many warm.||I’ve heard it in the chillest land|And on the strangest sea,|Yet never, in extremity,|It asked a crumb of me.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Hope is a light diet, but very stimulating.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
—Lu Xun (1881–1936) Chinese Writer
Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
Honor begets honor, trust begets trust; faith begets faith; and hope is the mainspring of life.
—Henry L. Stimson (1867–1950) American Political leader, Military Leader, Lawyer
In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope.
—Bernie Siegel
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Hope — fortune’s cheating lottery, where for one prize, a hundred blanks there be.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend, not the man for your banker, though he may do for a traveling companion.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does it appear that the happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the want of this general blessing; or that life, when the gifts of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would not still be wretched, were it not elevated and delighted by the expectation of some new possession, of some enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall at last be satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes, rather than their minds.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Entrepreneur, Business
It is worth a thousand pounds a year to have the habit of looking on the bright side of things.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
The men whom I have seen succeed best in life always have been cheerful and hopeful men; who went about their business with a smile on their faces; and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men; facing rough and smooth alike as it came.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
While there’s life, there’s hope.
—Common Proverb
Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
It has been a thousand times observed, and I must observe it once more, that the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Author, Playwright, Poet, Physician
Of course all life is a process of breaking down, but the blows that do the dramatic side of the work – the big sudden blows that come, or seem to come, from outside – the ones you remember and blame things on and, in moments of weakness, tell your friends about, don’t show their effect all at once. There is another sort of blow that comes from within – that you don’t feel until it’s too late to do anything about it, until you realize with finality that in some regard you will never be as good a man again. The first sort of breakage seems to happen quick – the second kind happens almost without your knowing it but is realized suddenly indeed. Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Hope — of all ills that men endure, the only cheap and universal cure; the captive’s freedom, and the sick man s health, the lover’s victory, and the beggar’s wealth.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
Hope is the most beneficial of all the affections, and doth much to the prolongation of life, if it be not too often frustrated; but entertaineth the fancy with an expectation of good.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
People who build hope into their own lives and who share hope with others become powerful people.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
There is no medicine like hope, no incentives so great, and no tonics so powerful as the expectation of something better tomorrow.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
In the depth of winter I finally learned there was inside me an invincible summer.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance. Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Hope is the major weapon against the suicide impulse.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That’s why we want to be considerate of every man—Who knows what’s in him, why he was born and what he can do?
—Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) Russian Writer, Dramatist, Political Activist, Novelist
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960) American Songwriter, Composer, Theater Producer, Writer
Honest winter, snow clad and with the frosted beard, I can welcome not uncordially; but that long deferment of the calendar’s promise, that weeping loom of March and April, that bitter blast outraging the honor of May — how often has it robbed me of heart and hope.
—George Gissing (1857–1903) English Novelist
To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.
—Erik Erikson (1902–94) German-born American Psychologist, Psychoanalyst, Writer
We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Far away, there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations; I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) American Novelist
Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.
—William Sloane Coffin (1924–2006) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Peace Activist
Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
I am a little deaf, a little blind, a little impotent, and on top of this are two or three abominable infirmities, but nothing destroys my hope.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher
My only hope lies in my despair.
—Jean Racine (1639–1699) French Dramatist
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
Lord save us all from… a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State