When we need it most, it’s the hardest to find. Hold on to too much of it, and we risk falling prey to naivete. But carry too little, and we can become our own worst enemies, shielding our hearts from new possibilities. What is this paradoxical, ever-abundant and simultaneously scarce phenomena? Hope.
Indeed, hope can be one of our most powerful driving forces and our biggest downfall. It can serve as a catalyst for great prosperity or as rose-colored glasses that shield us from life’s inevitabilities. To put a not-so-simple concept simply, hope is the lifeblood of humanity. To hope is to look forward into the unknown and believe that positive things await, despite a lack of concrete evidence.
In its best form, hope is a potent elixir, easing our present ailments and giving us strength to face the future. So whether we’re feeling full of hope or notably devoid of it, these quotes about hopefulness serve to remind us just how important it is to hold on to — or find — this optimistic conviction.
When there is no hope, it is incumbent on us to invent it.Albert Camus
Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.Neal Shusterman
“Hope” is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul, / And sings the tune without the words, / And never stops at all.Emily Dickinson
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.Martin Luther King Jr.
The longest way must have its close, — the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.Harriet Beecher Stowe
Hang on to your hopes, my friend / That’s an easy thing to say / But if your hope should pass away / Simply pretend / That you can build them again.Paul Simon
Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.Robert G. Ingersoll
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I cannot reach them: but I can look up, and see their beauty; believe in them, and try to follow where they lead; remember that frost comes latest to those that bloom the highest.Louisa May Alcott
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?Percy Bysshe Shelley
Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child, / Listen to the DON’TS / Listen to the SHOULDN’TS / The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS / Listen to the NEVER HAVES / Then listen close to me — / Anything can happen, child, / ANYTHING can be.Shel Silverstein
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.Henry David Thoreau
Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.Laini Taylor
Don’t ever underestimate the impact you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.Michelle Obama
Such is the force of this beautiful and wilful conviction, it carries itself in the face of all opposition. I am never discouraged by absence of good. I never can be argued into hopelessness.Helen Keller
Just like moons and like suns, / With the certainty of tides, / Just like hopes springing high, / Still I’ll rise.Maya Angelou
’Tis not in the high stars alone, / Nor in the cup of budding flowers, / Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone, / Nor in the bow that smiles in showers, / But in the mud and scum of things / There alway, alway something sings.Ralph Waldo Emerson
In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.Robert Frost
Hope, or an expectation of future good, is of so extensive an influence, that whether true or false, well or ill founded, it is one of the principal springs that keep mankind in motion.Andrew Fuller
When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.Amanda Gorman
Featured image credit: Bettmann via Getty Images
