While there's life, there's hope! ~ Cicero
"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 —
Emily Dickinson, Poem 254 in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960), edited by Thomas H. Johnson.
I am prepared for the worst, but hope the best.
Benjamin Disraeli, The Wondrous Tale of Alroy, pt. 10, ch. 3.
I thought that the light-house looked lovely as hope,
That star on life's tremulous ocean.
Thomas Moore, p. 328.
Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, Wait and hope.
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (1845), ch. 117
To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.
Erich Fromm, The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone, you'll never walk alone.
Oscar Hammerstein II, lyric for "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the musical Carousel (1945)
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Václav Havel, Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 5 : The Politics of Hope
Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope; and few are reduced so low as that.
William Hazlitt, Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823), No. 34
Hope is the poor man's bread.
English proverb, reported in George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651), No. 437
He that lives in hope danceth without music.
English proverb, reported in George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1640), No. 1006
I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 8 April 1816, as published in Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson (2nd edition, 1830), ed. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Vol. 4, p. 271
Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.
Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 67 (6 November 1750)
Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.
Samuel Johnson, The Idler, No. 58 (26 May 1759)
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
Samuel Johnson, letter of 8 June 1762, in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol. 1, p. 103
The triumph of hope over experience.
Samuel Johnson, in reference to an unhappily married man remarrying immediately after his wife's death, as quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol. 2, p. 82
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
Helen Keller, Optimism (1903
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Traditional proverb, as found in Roger L'Estrange, Seneca's Morals (1702)
Hope proves man deathless. It is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
Henry Melvill, in "The Advantages of a State of Expectation" in Sermons by Henry Melvill, B. D (1844), edited by Charles Pettit McIlvaine, Sermon X, p. 113
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher, Death, and God adore;
What future bliss He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1734), Epistle I, line 91
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1734), Epistle I, line 95
A man's hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.
Ezra Pound, Guide to Kulchur (1938), part 3, sec. 6, ch. 22
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.
Proverbs 13:12 (KJV)
In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store we sell hope.
Charles H. Revson, as quoted in Andrew Tobias, Fire and Ice (1976)
True hope is swift, and flies with swallows' wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, scene ii
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope.
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act III, scene i
Imagine a man who doesn't believe in anything, hope for anything, doesn't love anyone. This is a description of a dead or paralyzed soul. This happens from great grief, or from an unhappy upbringing when parents make from their children's souls paralytics.
Simon Soloveychik, Parenting for Everyone (1989)
Many are the strange chances of the world... and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.
J. R. R. Tolkien, in The Silmarillion (posthumous, 1977)
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