quotes, quotations and passages on hope

Hope is the feeling you have that the
feeling you have isn't permanent.

Jean Kerr

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 H. Erikson

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous. The defeat of hope leads not to despair, but to resignation. The resignation of those who have had a grasp of hope retains hope’s power. Thornton Wilder The Eighth Day

Hope is an adventure, a going forward, a confident search for a rewarding life. Karl Menninger Hope is like the sun which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. Samuel Smiles

The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope. That is why the patient's hopes are the physician's secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients of any prescription. Norman Cousins

Refusal to hope is nothing more than a decision to die.

Bernie S. Siegel

quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
the people behind the words - our current e-zine - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four

Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

Hope saves a person in the midst of misfortunes.

Menander

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion
for the possible.

William Sloan Coffin, Jr.

If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.

Thomas Fuller

It is certainly wrong to despair; and if
despair is wrong, hope is right.

John Lubbock

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps the
chief happiness which this world affords.

Samuel Johnson

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done without hope or confidence.

Helen Keller

Strong hope is a much greater stimulant of life
than any single realized joy could be.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Francis Bacon

hope

We all have hope. Sometimes, oddly enough, we don't want to admit it--to others or to ourselves--but no matter how bad things get in our lives, we have hope. It's one of the greatest gifts that we've been given, for out of hope come all of our scientific and medical advances -- why even start trying something new if there's no hope for a successful outcome? Hope is what keeps us going on those dark, dark nights in our lives when it seems as if the sun never again will shine, but we have to give hope its due; we have to let its light shine in our lives if it's to do any good. We have to tell ourselves that things will get better, that life will radiate its beauty in our lives once more, if we but let it.

Hope never dies in us, yet often we cover its light, or we cover our ears so that we won't hear it sing its song. But that's like turning off a lamp when we most need its light, or shutting the door on a best friend when we most need company. We were created to be hopeful creatures, to look at the possibilities in the world and in ourselves, yet many of us aren't willing to do so, and we deny that there's even hope in the world, and once we deny the existence of hope, we start living dull, lightless lives that serve no one -- ourselves or those who surround us. To live is to hope, and to hope is to live.

Personally, I remember that even during my darkest depressions, I've always felt the flame of hope, no matter how tiny it seemed to be. The problem was that all of the negative thoughts that were my depression kept arguing against the hope, calling it stupid, telling me that it was unrealistic and unjustified. The hope inside of me was like the one person who is willing to stand up with a voice of reason against a mob, only to be attacked by that mob and left for dead. Thankfully, it didn't die, or I might have.

When the voice of hope speaks inside of you, listen closely. The voice of hope could be called the voice of God, the voice of all the wonderful people with whom we share this world, the voice of truth and reality. It's those other voices inside of you, the voices of despair and condemnation and hopelessness, that are the liars. Call them what they are, and give them no credence. It's hope that springs eternal. These other things are temporary parts of ourselves that we have to learn to reject, like someone renting our house who not only isn't paying their rent, but who's destroying the house. To restore peace and equilibrium, we have to get rid of the renter and restore the hope of better days to come.

tom walsh

Hope works in these ways: it looks for the good in people
instead of harping on the worst; it discovers what can be done
instead of grumbling about what cannot; it regards problems,
large or small, as opportunities; it pushes ahead when it would
be easy to quit; it "lights the candle" instead of "cursing the darkness."

unattributed

The important thing is not that we can live on hope alone,
but that life is not worth living without it.

Harvey Milk

We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

John F. Kennedy

Hope never abandons you; you abandon it.

George Weinberg

There is no hope unmingled with fear,
and no fear unmingled with hope.

Baruch Spinoza

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter.
Who would think that those branches would turn green
again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope, like the gleaming candle's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

Oliver Goldsmith

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader). All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another. Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

The hopeful person sees success where others see failure,
sunshine where others see shadows and storm.

Orison Swett Marden

Articles and book excerpts on hope:

Can a Caterpillar Fly? Release from Clinical Depression      Lori Dickerson
The "I Can't" Funeral      Author Unknown
I Have a Dream (excerpt)      Martin Luther King, Jr.

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life.
It gives human beings a sense of destination and the energy to get started.

Norman Cousins

Every blade of grass, each leaf, each separate floret
and petal, is an inscription speaking of hope.

Richard Jefferies

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world.
Hope is the dream of a waking person.

Pliny the Elder

Our greatest hope is for the experience of joy, and often we are
not as smart as we think we are when it comes to predicting what
would bring us that joy. . . Hope that is attached to a particular
outcome is looking for pleasure but fishing for pain, because
attachment itself is a source of pain. It is best to hope for an
experience of life in all its fullness--a life that can embrace both
joy and sorrow, and will still be at peace.

Marianne Williamson

If you do not hope, you will not find out what is beyond your hopes.

Clement of Alexandra

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

hope

Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace
that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them.

Vincent McNabb

Hope is the parent of faith.

C.A. Bartol

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.

George Iles

The word which God has written
on the brow of every person is hope.

Victor Hugo

Hope and new beginnings are fresh every morning. It is not
necessary to wait for a circumstance to bring hope. Hope,
real hope, comes when we lay down our own ideas and
plans. . . . our mind, will, and emotions. . .before God as a
hand of cards dealt and say to him, “How would YOU play them?”

Laura Lewis Lanier