Hope

It's work we must, and love we must,
And do the best we may,
And take the hope of dreams in trust
To keep us day by day.
~ William Stanley Braithwaite, from Lyrics of Life and Love (1904). It's A Long Way

I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). To the Fringed Gentian

Thy hopeful eye
Is bright as thine own sunny sky.
~ William Cullen Bryant, published in Graham's Magazine (July 1847). Oh Mother of a Mighty Race

Hearts wherein no hope may waken,
Like the clouds of night wind-shaken,
Chartless, anchorless, forsaken,
Drift we to the dark.
~ William Wilfred Campbell, The Dread Voyage: Poems (1893). The Dread Voyage

I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me;
If my bark sinks, 'tis to another sea.
~ William Ellery Channing, the younger, from Poems (1843). A Poet's Hope

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Once to Every Man: A Memoir (1977).

Have hopes, and hear the voice of better fate.
~ William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697). Act III. scene i

He has no hope who never had a fear.
~ William Cowper, from The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper (1842). Truth (written in 1782)

Apoplexie and lethargie,
As forlorn hope, assault the enemy.
~ Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes (1621). Second Week, First Day. Part III

It's the one activity that gives me hope that the human race won't commit suicide, though I still wouldn't count on it.
~ J. William Fulbright

Come, for the House of Hope is built on sand: bring wine, for the fabric of life is as weak as the wind.
~ Wilfred Wilson Gibson

Down went the owners -- greedy men whom hope of gain allured:
Oh, dry the starting tear, for they were heavily insured.
~ William Gilbert, from Fifty Bab Ballads: Much Sound and Little Sense (1876). Etiquette

Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope, and few are reduced so low as that.
~ William Hazlitt, in Selected Essays of William Hazlitt (1930). Characteristics (written in 1823)

It is a good old rule to hope for the best.
~ William Hazlitt, in Literary Remains (1836). On The Conduct Of Life; or, Advice to a School-Boy (1822 essay)

The grand support of life in hope is found;
Just as the body's held up by the ground.
~ William Hutton, from Poems, chiefly tales (1804). Maxims

One of the best safeguards of our hopes, I have suggested, is to be able to mark off the areas of hopelessness and to acknowledge them. . . .
~ William F. Lynch

To face the areas of hopelessness directly, not with dispair but with the creative intent of keeping them from polluting all the areas of possibility.
~ William F. Lynch

False hope really makes you cynical.
~ Bill Maher, ABC TV. Politically Incorrect

But always hope and hope, a thousand tongues
Speaking one word in many languages.
~ William Vaughn Moody, Poems (1901). Until The Troubling Of The Waters

I hope that we shall have leisure from war, -- war commercial, as well as war of the bullet and the bayonet; leisure from the knowledge that darkens counsel; leisure above all from the greed of money, and the craving for that overwhelming distinction that money now brings: I believe that, as we have even now partly achieved liberty, so we shall achieve equality, and best of all, fraternity, and so have leisure from poverty and all its griping, sordid cares.
~ William Morris, Address delivered before the Trades' Guild of Learning, London (4 December 1877). The Decorative Arts, Their Relation To Modern Life And Progress

When all our efforts have come to nothing, we naturally tend to doubt not just ourselves, but also whether God is just. At those moments, our only hope is to seek every evidence that God is just, by communing with the people we know who are strongest in faith.
~ Bill Moyers, (1986).

Hope remains when pride is gone,
And it keeps you moving on. . . .
~ Willie Nelson

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

Strong hope is a much greater stimulant of life than any realized joy could be.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

No one can choose a beneficial direction in life without hope that change for the better is possible.
~ William Watson Purkey, in the Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice (1992). An Introduction To Invitational Theory

Hope which is to be unconquerable must be large and impersonal. Whatever my personal activities, I may be defeated by death or by certain kinds of diseases; I may be overcome by enemies; I may find that I have embarked upon an unwise course which cannot lead to success. In a thousand ways the failure of purely personal hopes may be unavoidable, but if personal aims have been part of larger hopes for humanity, there is not the same utter defeat when failure comes.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, The Conquest of Happiness (1930). Effort and Resignation

A high hope for a low heaven.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act I, scene i

Courage and comfort, all shall yet go well.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act II, scene iv

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act V, scene ii

The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act III, scene i

Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd yourself?
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene vii

Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites; for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior.
~ William Shenstone, from Works in Verse and Prose (1764). Essays on Men and Manners

Soft hope is the relique I bear,
And my solace wherever I go.
~ William Shenstone, A Pastoral Ballad in Four Parts (written in 1743). I: Absence

In depression . . . faith in deliverance, in ultimate restoration, is absent. The pain is unrelenting, and what makes the condition intolerable is the foreknowledge that no remedy will come -- not in a day, an hour, a month, or a minute. . . . It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul.
~ William Styron, The Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990).

We have no hope of solving our problems without harnessing the diversity, the energy, and the creativity of all our people.
~ Roger Wilkins

Hope is not a prerequisite in order to undertake, nor is success a prerequisite for perseverance.
~ William of Nassau (heraldic motto)

Come, gentle Hope! with one gay smile remove
The lasting sadness of an aching heart.
Thy voice, benign Enchantress! let me hear;
Say that for me some pleasures yet shall bloom, --
That Fancy's radiance, Friendship's precious tear,
Shall soften, or shall chase, misfortune's gloom.
~ Helen Maria Williams, from Poems on Various Subjects. With introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France (1823). Sonnet to Hope

While thee I seek, protecting Power!
Be my vain wishes still'd;
And may this consecrated hour
With better hopes be fill'd.
~ Helen Maria Williams, from Poems on Various Subjects. With introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France (1823). A Hymn

Once the inevitabilities are challenged, we begin gathering our resources for a journey of hope.
~ Raymond Williams, Resources of Hope (1989).

To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.
~ Raymond Williams, in New Internationalist Magazine (November 2002).

I'm hoping to be in the final -- 8 o'clock sharp at the dance.
~ Venus Williams, The Associated Press (6 September 2001).

Make the hope of your heart a vision --
Look to heaven, and find it there!
~ William Winter, from The Poems of William Winter (1909). Refuge

Hope rules a land forever green.
~ William Wordsworth, The Wishing-gate (1828)

Not without hope we suffer and we mourn.
~ William Wordsworth, from Poems in Two Volumes (1807). Elegiac Stanzas

Of what the world shall be
When the years have died away.
~ William Young, Wishmakers' Town (1885).