Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Hope is a light diet, but very stimulating.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
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
We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. And then, if we are true to plan, our statures touch the skies.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
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) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
Hope is the last to abandon the unhappy.
—Italian Proverb
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity…
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
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
For hope is but the dream of those that wake.
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721) English Poet, Diplomat
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
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
Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
We judge a man’s wisdom by his hope.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Refusal to hope is nothing more than a decision to die.
—Bernie S. Siegel (b.1932) American Physician, Writer
Hope is the poor man’s bread.
—Common Proverb
In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope.
—Bernie S. Siegel (b.1932) American Physician, Writer
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Hope is a very unruly emotion.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Hope is the physician of each misery.
—Irish Proverb
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
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always To be Blest.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Justice divine has weighed: the doom is clear. All hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher