quotations about hope
Help, then, is the ballast that keeps us steady, that recognizes where along the path are the dangers and pitfalls that can throw us off; hope tempers fear so we can recognize dangers and then bypass or endure them.
JEROME GROOPMAN
The Anatomy of Hope
The mind which renounces, once and forever, a futile hope, has its compensations in ever-growing calm.
GEORGE GISSING
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
A ship ought not to be held by one anchor, nor life by a single hope.
EPICTETUS
fragment
In hopelessness there is always hope.
DAN SIMMONS
Hyperion
None are completely wretched but those who are without hope.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
Without a minimum of hope, we cannot so much as start the struggle.
PAULO FREIRE
Pedagogy of Hope
Hope hath a large mouth.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
That which obstructs hope often increases it.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Cut the Wings of your Hens and Hopes, lest they lead you a weary Dance after them.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1754
Hope is, indeed, a deceitful enchantress; but she sheds a sweet radiance on the stream of life, and never exerts her magic except to our advantage. We seldom attain what she beckons us to pursue; but her deceptions resemble those which the dying husbandman in the fable practiced upon his sons, who, by telling them of a hidden mass of wealth, which he had buried in a secret place in his vineyard, led them so sedulously to delve the ground, and turn up the earth about the roots of the vines, that they found, in deed, a treasure, though not in gold, in wine.
WILLIAM MATHEWS
Hints on Success in Life
Hope, the magician, charms the distant prospect,
And fancy pictures all the world as good!
C. B. LANGSTON
"Youth"
False hopes are more dangerous than fears.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Children of Hurin
Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.
G. K. CHESTERTON
Heretics
Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.
LEMONY SNICKET
The Beatrice Letters
We are promised abundance of all good things--yet we are rich only in hunger and thirst. What would become of us if we did not take our stand on hope, and if our heart did not hasten beyond this world!
JEAN CALVIN
Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul
Those that hope little cannot grow much.
GEORGE MACDONALD
The Hope of the Gospel
Hope is a prodigal young heir, and Experience is his banker; but his drafts are seldom honoured, since there is often a heavy balance against him, because he draws largely on a small capital, is not yet in possession, and if he were, would die.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
ANNE LEMOTT
Bird by Bird
In somewhat the same way as reasonable belief is to be distinguished from superstition, so is reasonable hope ("hope that maketh not ashamed") to be distinguished from that which is vain and illusory. It is also true that in somewhat the same way as the strength of the belief furnishes a very effective evidence for the reasonableness of the belief to the man who holds it, so does the assurance of hoping give much additional testimony to the reasonableness of the hope for the mind that entertains it. In both cases, a certain value, which is something more than purely "subjective," cannot easily be denied to this support of truth in a form that is primarily emotional. It is more reasonable to believe what one can honestly believe with a strong feeling of confidence in its "objective" truthfulness. It is more reasonable to hope what one can honestly hope with a large measure of firm assurance. Nor is this measure of emotional evidence to be esteemed as of value to those only who store it in their own bosoms. Beliefs and hopes that are kept ever warm and vital in the bosom of humanity, by being near to its heart and source of vital life-currents, are lawfully as well as actually most well nourished and most vigorous.
GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD
What May I hope?
Shame on the man who goes to his grave escorted by the miserable hopes that have kept him alive.
EMIL CIORAN
The Temptation to Exist