We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
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
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
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Ten thousand men possess ten thousand hopes.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The brightness of our life is gone.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
True hope dwells on the possible, even when life seems to be a plot written by someone who wants to see how much adversity we can overcome True hope responds to the real world, to real life; it is an active effort
—Walter Anderson
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 Industrialist
He who has never hoped can never despair.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.
—Bert Williams (1876–1922) American Entertainer, Actor
Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
—Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) Italian Catholic Religious Leader, Pope
He that lives on hopes will die fasting.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.
—Jacques Cousteau (1910–97) French Oceanographer, Documentary Director
Hope is the major weapon against the suicide impulse.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist
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
Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
It’s a lot better to hope than not to.
—Ben Stein (b.1944) American Lawyer, Writer, Economist, Humorist
And thou shalt be secure because there is hope.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
When the world says, “Give up,” hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
—Anonymous
Hope is a lover’s staff; walk hence with that, and manage it against despairing thoughts.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
Hope writes the poetry of the boy, but memory that of the man. Man looks forward with smiles, but backward with sighs. Such is the wise providence of God. The cup of life is sweetness at the brim—the flavor is impaired as we drink deeper, and the dregs are made bitter that we may not struggle when it is taken from our lips.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
Hope is a bad thing. It means that you are not what you want to be. It means that part of you is dead, if not all of you. It means that you entertain illusions. It’s a sort of spiritual clap, I should say.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope.
—Bernie S. Siegel (b.1932) American Physician, Writer
We promise according to our hopes, but perform according to our selfishness and our fears.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Before you give up hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made upon Lincoln.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American Author, Advertising Executive, Politician
The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.
—Barbara Kingsolver (b.1955) American Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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
How tight can life be without the space of hope?
—Arabic Proverb
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites; for she frequents the poor man’s hut, as well as the palace of his superior.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
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 Developmental Psychologist
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. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.
—Anne Lamott (b.1954) American Novelist
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
He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Hope and patience are two sovereign remedies for all, the surest reposals, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
Hope is the physician of each misery.
—Irish Proverb
Strong hope is a much greater stimulant of life than any single realized joy could be.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
—Elie Wiesel (b.1928) Romanian-born American Writer, Professor, Political Activist
I have a knack of hoping, which is as good as an estate in reversion, if one can keep from the temptation of turning it into certainty, which may spoil all.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
We have proved that the true strength of our nation comes not from the scale of our wealth but from the power of our ideals – opportunity, democracy, liberty and hope
—Barack Obama (b.1961) American Head of State, Academic, Politician, Author
Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist