quotations about hope
Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.
VACLAV HAVEL
Disturbing the Peace
To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another--that is surely the basic instinct. Baser even than hate, the thing with teeth, which can be stilled with a tone of voice or stunned by beauty. If the whole world of the living has to turn on the single point of remaining alive, that pointed endurance is the poetry of hope. The thing with feathers.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER
High Tide in Tucson
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 is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.
ECKHARD TOLLE
The Power of Now
We watch our hopes, far flickering in the night,
Once radiant torches, lighted in our youth,
To guide, through years, to some broad morn of truth;
But these go out and leave us with no light.
HENRY ABBEY
"While the Days Go By"
I have faint hopes: I have some it is true -- just enough to keep body and soul together.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg, May 12, 1811
There is nothing so well known as that we should not expect something for nothing, but we all do, and call it hope.
EDGAR WATSON HOWE
Country Town Sayings
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?
Hope is the only method of recapturing hope.
HIROKAZU MIYAZAKI
The Method of Hope
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Letter, Jun. 8, 1762
Hope--it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.
THE ARCHITECT
The Matrix Reloaded
We have often to be thankful for hopes frustrated.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Expectancy speeds progress. Therefore, live in a continual state of expectancy. No matter how much good you are experiencing today, expect greater good tomorrow. Expect to meet new friends. Expect to meet new and wonderful experiences. Try this magic of expectancy and you will soon discover a dramatic side to your work which gives full vent to constructive feeling.
ERNEST HOLMES
This Thing Called You
The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.
MARIAN ZIMMER BRADLEY
The Fall of Atlantis
Hope joined us in the cradle, and will be with us at the last.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH
"On Hope", Short Essays
The most absurd and the most rash hopes have sometimes been the cause of extraordinary success.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES, Reflections and Maxims
Hope is fragile and needs to be tended and renewed.
PATRIC SHADE
Habits of Hope
Hope is an explorer who surveys the country ahead. That is why we know so much about the Hereafter and so little about the Heretofore.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"Epigrams of a Cynic"
Thou beautiful unknown! Hope gilds thy couch
With bright enchanting hues, and gleaming crown,
As if man sees in thee a proper child,
And wraps thee lovingly, with tender care,
Watching thy young existence with delight,
And, with exceeding joy, and warm caress,
Offers thee early worship, praise, and pray'r.
C. B. LANGSTON
"The New Year's Wreath"
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN
He Can Who Thinks He Can