quotations about hope
False hopes are more dangerous than fears.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Children of Hurin
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
I still believe in a place called Hope, a place called America.
BILL CLINTON
speech at Democratic National Convention, August 29, 1996
While there is life there is hope--and while there is hope there is life.
E. E. HOLMES
Joyful Through Hope
Shame on the man who goes to his grave escorted by the miserable hopes that have kept him alive.
EMIL CIORAN
The Temptation to Exist
Hope is delicate suffering.
AMIRI BARAKA
Cold
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
The greatest architect and the one most needed is Hope.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Hope is fragile and needs to be tended and renewed.
PATRIC SHADE
Habits 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
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
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"
Hope--it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.
THE ARCHITECT
The Matrix Reloaded
When you are well and truly screwed, either you just sit pissing yourself or you invent some reason to hope.
JAMES ALAN GARDNER
Ascending
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
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
To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.
PEARL S. BUCK
To My Daughters
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
Hope is but a charlatan that ceases not to deceive us. For myself happiness only began when I had lost it.
CHAMFORT
The Cynic's Breviary