Quotes on Hope
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170. Hope
"Let us not amuse ourselves with subtleties and sonnets, when speaking about hope, which is the follower of faith and the precursor of eternity; but if you only mean those air-built hopes which today excites and to-morrow will destroy, let us talk away, and remember that we only talk of the pleasures of hope; we feel those of possession, and no man in his senses would change the last for the first: such hope is a mere bubble, that by a gentle breath may be blown to what size you will almost, but a rough blast bursts it at once. Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
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265. Hope
His Lordship mentioned a charitable establishment in Wales, where people are maintained, and supplied with every thing, upon the condition of their contributing the weekly produce of their labour; and he said, they grow quite torpid for want of property. Johnson: "They have no object for hope. Their condition cannot be better. It is rowing without a port."
Boswell: Life
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447. Envy; Happiness; Hope
"Envy is commonly reciprocal. We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself."
Johnson: Rasselas
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from Rasselas.
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484. Hope; Pessimism; Sorrow
"The state of a mind oppressed with a sudden calamity ... is like that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new-created earth, who, when the first night came upon them, supposed that day would never return. When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how they will be dispelled: yet a new day succeeded the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. But they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort do as the savages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from Rasselas.
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533. Hope; Imagination; Pleasure
"The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope."
Johnson: Rambler #2 (March 24, 1750)
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585. Fear; Hope
"As hope enlarges happiness, fear aggravates calamity."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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721. Hope
"There is no temper so generally indulged as hope; other passions operate by starts on particular occasions, or in certain parts of life; but hope begins with the first power of comparing our actual with our possible state, and attends us through every stage and period, always urging us forward to new acquisitions, and holding out some distant blessing to our view, promising us either relief from pain, or increase of happiness."
Johnson: Rambler #67 (November 6, 1750)
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722. Hope
"Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does it appear that the happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the want of this general blessing; or that life, when the gifts of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would not still be wretched, were it not elevated and delighted by the expectation of some new possession, of some enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall at last be satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent."
Johnson: Rambler #67 (November 6, 1750)
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723. Hope
"Hope is ... very fallacious, and promises what it seldom gives; but its promises are more valuable than the gifts of fortune, and it seldom frustrates us without assuring us of recompensing the delay of greater bounty."
Johnson: Rambler #67 (November 6, 1750)
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755. Hope
"Hope is always liberal, and they that trust her promises make little scruple of revelling today on the profits of the morrow."
Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets)
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814. Hope; Over-Anticipation
"Being accustomed to give the future full power over my mind, and to start away from the scene before me to some expected enjoyment, I deliver myself up to the tyranny of every desire which fancy suggests, and long for a thousand things which I am unable to procure."
Johnson: Rambler #73 (November 27, 1750) -- from a fictional correspondent "Cupidus"
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1,136. Effort; Hope
"All industry must be excited by hope."
Johnson: Rambler #117 (April 30, 1751)
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1,333. Hope
"He that indulges hope will always be disappointed."
Johnson: Rambler #165 (October 15, 1751)
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1,410. Delusion; Hope
"There are multitudes whose life is nothing but a continuous lottery; who are always within a few months of plenty and happiness, and how often soever they are mocked with blanks, expect a prize from the next adventure."

Johnson: Rambler #182 (December 14, 1751)
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1,453. Experience; Hope
"We naturally indulge those ideas that please us. Hope will predominate in every mind, till it has been suppressed by frequent disappointments."
Johnson: Rambler #196 (February 1, 1752)
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1,470. Happiness; Hope; Memory; Satisfaction
"It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity. The time present is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation."
Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752)
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1,479. Hope
"Hope is the chief blessing of man, and that hope only is rational of which we are certain that it cannot deceive us."
Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752)
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1,544. Disappointment; Hope
I am afraid, every man that recollects his hopes must confess his disappointment; and own that day has glided unprofitably after day, and that he is still at the distance from the point of happiness.

Johnson: Adventurer #69 (July 3, 1753)
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1,547. Delusions; Hope

So scanty is our present allowance of happiness, that in many situations life could scarcely be supported, if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from futurity; and reanimate the languor of dejection to new efforts, by pointing to distant regions of felicity, which yet no resolution or perseverance shall ever reach.

But these, like all other cordials, though they may invigorate in a small quantity, intoxicate in a greater; these pleasures, like the rest, are lawful only in certain circumstances, and to certain degrees; they may be useful in a due subserviency to nobler purposes, but become dangerous and destructive, when once they gain the ascendant in the heart: to sooth the mind to tranquillity by hope, even when that hope is likely to deceive us, may be sometimes useful; but to lull our faculties in a lethargy, is poor and despicable.

Johnson: Adventurer #69 (July 3, 1753)
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1,548. Delusions; Hope
To indulge hope beyond the warrant of reason, is the failure alike of mean and elevated understandings; but its foundation and its effects are totally different: the man of high courage and great abilities, is apt to place too much confidence in himself, and to expect from a vigorous exertion of his powers more than spirit or diligence can attain; between him and his wish he sees obstacles indeed, but he expects to overleap or break them; his mistaken ardour hurries him forward; and though perhaps he misses his end, he nevertheless obtains some collateral good, and performs something useful to mankind and honourable to himself.
Johnson: Adventurer #69 (July 3, 1753)
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1,565. Hope
"Where there is no hope, there can be no endeavour."
Johnson: Rambler #110 (April 6, 1751)
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1,744. Expectations; Hope
"It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them. He that has pictured a prospect upon his fancy, will receive little pleasure from his eyes; he that has anticipated the conversation of a wit, will wonder to what prejudice he owes his reputation. Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded; for hope itself is happiness, and its frustration, however, frequent, are less dreadful than its extinction."
Johnson: Idler #58 (May 26, 1759)
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