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
Link
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
Link
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.
Link
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.
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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"
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
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)
Link
1,565. Hope
"Where there is no hope, there can be no endeavour."
Johnson: Rambler #110 (April 6, 1751)
Link
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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