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About this quote

What does it mean?
Hope is likened to an archer who misses the target, either short or wide.
In plain terms
Hope aims too far and often misses the mark.
What can you take from it?
Expectations often miss reality.

Where it applies

  • planning
  • dealing with failure

Putting it to work

  • setting realistic goals
  • managing expectations

Questions to consider

  • When has hope misled you?
  • Is aiming high worth the risk?

Another view

It dismisses hope as largely ineffective.

More from Abraham Cowley

  1. Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discover And not to me, they no less silent lover?

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  2. To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world

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  3. What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own?

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