Hope is the last thing to abandon the unhappy.
—Unknown
My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure that everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart.
Hope is the feeling that life and work have a meaning. You either have it or you don’t, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you.
Life without hope is an empty, boring, and useless life. I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me.
I am thankful to God for this gift. It is as big as life itself.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Hope is the chief blessing of man; and that hope only is rational of which we are sensible that it cannot deceive us.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A student never forgets an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration.
—William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American Author, Critic, Scholar
In old age the consolation of hope is reserved for the tenderness of parents, who commence a new life in their children, the faith of enthusiasts, who sing hallelujahs above the clouds; and the vanity of authors, who presume the immortality of their name and writings.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
Hope is one of the principal springs that keep mankind in motion.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.
—William Sloane Coffin (1924–2006) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Peace Activist
Hope is the most sensitive part of a poor wretch’s soul; whoever raises it only to torment him is behaving like the executioners in Hell who, they say, incessantly renew old wounds and concentrate their attention on that area of it that is already lacerated.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
Hope is like the cork to the net, which keeps the soul from sinking in despair; and fear, like the lead to the net, which keeps it from floating in presumption.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar
I always entertain great hopes.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier.
—Anonymous
Patience is the art of hoping.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
He that lives on hopes will die fasting.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Man is, properly speaking, based upon hope; he has no other possession but hope; this world of his is emphatically the place of hope.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; and grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonor.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
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
We do not raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
People who build hope into their own lives and who share hope with others become powerful people.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go n in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The gift we can offer others is so simple a thing as hope.
—Daniel Berrigan (b.1921) American Catholic Poet, Peace Activist, Priest
This wonder we find in hope, that she is both a flatterer and a true friend.—How many would die did not hope sustain them; how many have died by hoping too much!
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
There is no medicine like hope, no incentives so great, and no tonics so powerful as the expectation of something better tomorrow.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The mighty hopes that make us men.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Hope is love’s happiness, but not its life.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
One measure of a civilization, either of an age or of a single individual, is what that age or person really wishes to do. 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 (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Hope is generally a wrong guide, though it is good company along the way.
—George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–95) British Statesman, Writer, Politician
Our hopes are but memories reversed.
—Indian Proverb
To be happy, the temperament must be cheerful and gay, not gloomy and melancholy.—A propensity to hope and joy, is real riches; one to fear and sorrow, is real poverty.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune’s spite; revive from ashes and rise.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
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
The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.
—Bert Williams
Never deprive someone of hope—it may be all they have.
—Anonymous
Hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
The men whom I have seen succeed best in life always have been cheerful and hopeful men; who went about their business with a smile on their faces; and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men; facing rough and smooth alike as it came.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
He that lives in hope danceth without musick.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
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
Though you are disappointed is hope; never let hope fail you! Though one door is shut, there are thousands still open to you.
—Friedrich Ruckert (1788–1866) German Poet, Translator