Selected hope quotes

1. When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why.

2. There never was night that had no morn.

3. I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

4. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

5. In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

6. The more ugly, older, more cantankerous, more ill and poorer I become, the more I try to make amends by making my colours more vibrant, more balanced and beaming.

7. Well, right now it seems that things are going very badly for me, have been doing so for some considerable time, and may continue to do so well into the future. But it is possible that everything will get better after it has all seemed to go wrong. I am not counting on it, it may never happen, but if there should be a change for the better I should regard that as a gain, I should rejoice, I should say, at last! So there was something after all!

8. By working hard, old man, I hope to make something good one day. I haven't yet, but I am pursuing it and fighting for it.

9. Hope lies to mortals And most believe her, But man's deceiver Was never mine.

10. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.

11. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?

12. If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us. In the long run He never leaves decent folk in the lurch. Often He may test them, He may send trials upon them, but in the long run He always lets His sun shine upon them once more and at the end He gives them His blessing.

13. For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity.

14. Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.

15. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

16. Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.

17. It is to hope, though hope were lost.

18. A brave world, sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days.

19. Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.

20. I am still hopeful we can go through the season unbeaten - a frightening thought.

21. Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, things remain.

22. I try to take life as it comes, and just hope it keeps coming.

23. The entire universe will eventually disintegrate but by then I hope to be in a safer place.

24. Take heart! Many great things have been done by people in poor mental health.

25. I feel much better, now that I've given up hope.

26. I believe in the future a new Dante will write a new Divine Comedy.

27. At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I lived in. But at another point, much earlier I think, I'd quietly begun to hope for nothing at all in the way of love, so as not to be disappointed. It works. It gets to be a habit.

28. Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when they throw a penny in a fountain.

29. 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.

30. In the contradiction lies the hope.

31. The saviors of the world, society's last hope.

32. I have got a running stream of love you see. So no matter what stages.. they put us through, we'll never be blue.

33. There's always a way. Where there's a will there is a way. You have to believe.

34. The great challenge of adulthood is holding on to your idealism after you lose your innocence.

35. The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

36. I can but die... and I believe in God. Let me try and wait His will in silence.

37. Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.

38. I had fun, but I didn't really have anyone i particularly loved except for loving friends. But I have a certain amount of faith that it will come.

39. Education, the last hope of the liberal in all periods.

40. When the situation is hopeless, there's nothing to worry about.

41. But there still must be a way to have our children say... 'There are so many colors in the rainbow So many colors in the morning sun So many colors in the flower and I see every one.' (Live version)

42. One of the oldest and perhaps the noblest of human aspirations has been the abolition of poverty. By poverty I mean the grinding by undernourishment, cold and ignorance and fear of old age of those who have the will to work. We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us. We have not yet reached the goal, but given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and [sic] we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this Nation. There is no guarantee against poverty equal to a job for every man. That is the primary purpose of the economic policies we advocate.

43. O singers, resinous and soft your songs Above the sacred whisper of the pines, Give virgin lips to cornfield concubines, Bring dreams of Christ to dusky cane-lipped throngs.

44. The promise had not failed her. . . . She had won everything from life, for she had given the world a master. Words seemed to speak themselves in her ear . . . 'Bethink you of the blessedness. Every wife is like the Mother of God and has the hope of bearing a saviour of mankind.'

45. Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.

46. They say that life is a highway and its milestones are the years, And now and then there's a toll-gate where you buy your way with tears. It's a rough road and a steep road and it stretches broad and far, But at last it leads to a golden Town where golden Houses are.

47. However far modern science and technics have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson: Nothing is impossible.

48. Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life, The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!

49. Peace, peace is what I seek and public calm, Endless extinction of unhappy hates.

50. Yes, thou art gone! and round me too the night In ever-nearing circle weaves her shade. I see her veil draw soft across the day, I feel her slowly chilling breath invade The cheek grown thin, the brown hair sprent with grey; I feel her finger light Laid pausefully upon life's headlong train; - The foot less prompt to meet the morning dew, The heart less bounding at emotion new, And hope, once crush'd, less quick to spring again.

51. 'Because they are beautiful monsters..., And when they live in a network of peace and hope, when they trust the world and their deepest hungers are fulfilled, then within that system, that delicate web, there is joy. That is what we live for, to bind the monsters together, to murder their fear and give birth to their beauty.'' (Wyrms)

52. Maybe music will save the world.

53. To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night; To defy Power, which seems Omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope, till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates; Neither to change nor falter nor repent; This, like thy glory, Titan! is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This is alone Life; Joy, Empire, and Victory!

54. When it is darkest, men see the stars.

55. We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.

56. Saints will aid if men will call: For the blue sky bends over all!

57. History says don't hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.

58. Even such is time, that takes on trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with earth and dust; Who, in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days; But from this earth, this grave, this dust My God shall raise me up, I trust!

59. Failure is impossible.

60. Strength is the sign of vigor, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health, and the sign of everything that is good. As long as the body lives, there must be strength in the body, strength in the mind, strength in the hand.

61. 'The only philosophy which can be responsibly practised in face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption.'

62. I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past,-so good night!

63. 'Dream tonight of peacock tails, / Diamond fields and spouter whales. / Ills are many, blessings few, / But dreams tonight will shelter you.'

64. Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.

65. Basically I'm an optimist. Intellectually I can see man's balance is about fifty-fifty, and his chances of blowing himself up are about one to one. I can't see this any way but intellectually. I'm just emotionally unable to believe that he will do this. This means that I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist, I suppose.

66. Whether we be young or old, Our destiny, our being's heart and home, Is with infinitude, and only there; With hope it is, hope that can never die, Effort and expectation, and desire, And something evermore about to be.

67. Goodnight then: sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true, kindly upon all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France! Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands towards their just and true inheritance, and towards the broader and fuller age.

68. 'Hope' is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm -

69. Lennie:We could live offa the fatta the lan'. Ch. 3, p.57

70. ...philosophy will not be able to effect an immediate transformation of the present condition of the world. This is not only true of philosophy, but of all merely human thought and endeavor. Only a god can save us. The sole possibility that is left for us is to prepare a sort of readiness, through thinking and poeticizing, for the appearance of the god or for the absence of the god in the time of foundering Untergang for in the face of the god who is absent, we founder. Only a God Can Save Us.

71. Now I will never let go of you in my heart, Josif thought. I will love you forever, he thought. I am lying, he thought, and this time he was right

72. But whether there's some grand design really matters little to me. My only hope was this: to see what might be, to believe that it should be, and then to do all I could to bring it to pass, whatever the cost. When a life spins out as joyfully as mine has done, then the price, once paid so painfully, is now recalled in gladness. I have received full value

73. From the pain come the dream

74. If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars. ~ 6

75. We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent; We do not raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope. ~ 16

76. Hamm: Look at the ocean! (Clov gets down, takes a few steps towards window left, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window left, gets up on it, turns the telescope on the without, looks at length. He starts, lowers the telescope, examines it, turns it again on the without.) Clov: Never seen anything like that! Hamm (anxious): What? A sail? A fin? Smoke? Clov (looking): The light is sunk. Hamm (relieved): Pah! We all knew that. Clov (looking): There was a bit left. Hamm: The base. Clov (looking): Yes. Hamm: And now? Clov (looking): All gone. Hamm: No gulls? Clov (looking): Gulls! Hamm: And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon? Clov (lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated): What in God's name could there be on the horizon? (Pause.) Hamm: The waves, how are the waves? Clov: The waves? (He turns the telescope on the waves.) Lead. Hamm: And the sun? Clov (looking): Zero. Hamm: But it should be sinking. Look again. Clov (looking): Damn the sun. Hamm: Is it night already then? Clov (looking): No. Hamm: Then what is it? Clov (looking): Gray. (Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder.) Gray! (Pause. Still louder.) GRRAY! (Pause. He gets down, approaches Hamm from behind, whispers in his ear.) Hamm (starting): Gray! Did I hear you say gray? Clov: Light black. From pole to pole.

77. Sweet April-time - O cruel April-time! Year after year returning, with a brow Of promise, and red lips with longing paled, And backward-hidden hands that clutch the joys Of vanished springs, like flowers.

78. A vision without a task is but a dream. A task without vision is but drudgery. A vision with a task is the hope of the world.

79. I believe that in the 20th century, humanity has learned from many, many experiences. Some positive, and many negative. What misery, what destruction! The greatest number of human beings were killed in the two world wars of this century. But human nature is such that when we face a tremendous critical situation, the human mind can wake up and find some other alternative. That is a human capacity.

80. There is no sorrow under heaven which is, or ought to be, endless. To believe or to make it so, is an insult to Heaven itself. ~ Ch. 10

81. Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in Heaven... I want to meet you all, white and black, in Heaven.

82. Ev'rything's gonna be alright So, no woman, no cry

83. Boys, boys, there's a sweet thing Boys, boys, there's a sweet thing, sweet thing, If you want it, boys, get it here thing Cuz hope, boys is a cheap thing, cheap thing!

84. We went to the hospital; it was full. The doctor told me that two hundred had died the day before. I asked the cause of death; he shrugged and said, 'Tuberculosis, starvation, fatigue, and there are many who have no desire to live.'

85. London Bridge is safe and sound No matter what you keep repeating Nothing's gonna drag me down To a death that's not worth cheating

86. You see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not?'

87. Family is where America finds hope, where wings take dream.

88. 'Ah!' she said, lifting her lovely tear-bright eyes to the ceiling. 'If you knew all the dreams I've dreamed!'

89. I have many times resigned myself to never finding a true way out. But a new hope always emerges telling me that it is not yet too late for all of us to take stock and make a decision. I was brought up to believe in free will.

90. On Christopher Reeve: 'If we can do the work that we can do in this country -- the work we will do when John Kerry is president -- people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.'

91. Chorus: 'Hope for the best. Expect the worst. / Life is a play. We're unrehearsed.'

92. Dr. Cuddy: Oh, I looked into that philosopher you quoted, Jagger, and you're right, 'You can't always get what you want', but as it turns out 'if you try sometimes you get what you need'.

93. I choose to live in a universe that has some hope in it.

94. There's always hope:.even when there isn't faith. And sometimes, without hope or faith, there must be charity

95. Yes, the springtime was in need of you. Often a star waited for you to espy it and sense its light. A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past, or as you walked below an open window, a violin gave itself to your hearing. All this was trust. But could you manage it? Were you not always distraught by expectation, as if all this were announcing the arrival of a beloved?

96. What a glorious morning for America!

97. Whence comes solace? Not from seeing, What is doing, suffering, being; Not from noting Life's conditions, Not from heeding Time's monitions; But in cleaving to the Dream And in gazing at the Gleam Whereby gray things golden seem.

98. Hope For Appetite with an opinion of attaining, is called HOPE. Despaire The same, without such opinion, DESPAIRE.

99. Some say life, will beat you down. Break your heart, and steal your crown. So I started out, from God-knows where. I guess I'll know when I get there.

100. Some days are diamonds. Some days are rocks.