Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
- Rabindranath TagoreHope
Hope has an odd standing among the virtues: it was not always counted as one. In the Greek myth of Pandora it remains at the bottom of the jar after every affliction has escaped, and interpreters have argued for millennia over whether it is there as consolation or as the last evil. Nietzsche took the second view — hope, he claimed, prolongs the torment.
That tension makes this theme more interesting than it first appears. The lines gathered here move between hope as a sustaining force and hope as an avoidance of reckoning. They are worth reading together, because the difference usually lies not in the hope itself but in whether it accompanies action or replaces it.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
- Henry FordKeep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
- Helen KellerWhile I breathe, I hope.
- Latin ProverbOptimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
- Helen KellerHope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.
- Emily DickinsonHe who opens a school door, closes a prison.
- Victor HugoA leader is a dealer in hope.
- Napoleon BonaparteDarkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King Jr.Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May AlcottFaith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
- Augustine of HippoWe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
- Oscar WildeBeauty will save the world.
- Fyodor DostoevskyHope is a waking dream.
- AristotleAll the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
- Francis of AssisiThe wound is the place where the Light enters you.
- RumiDwell in possibility.
- Emily DickinsonWhile there's life, there's hope.
- CiceroTo live without hope is to cease to live.
- Fyodor DostoevskyRules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.
- Immanuel KantThere are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
- C. S. LewisHe who waits will be rewarded.
- Croatian ProverbDon't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
- Robert Louis StevensonWhere there is a will, there is a way.
- Croatian ProverbNever give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher StoweAlthough the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
- Helen KellerFaith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King Jr.Hope dies last.
- Croatian ProverbHow wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
- Anne Frank