Hope is one of life’s greatest miracles. The human ability to hold onto belief in the possibility of a better scenario, even when presented with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is truly phenomenal. So, it’s easy to understand why so many writers have featured hope in their works, and why hope continues to inspire us—in writing and in life.
Here we’ve gathered some of the most inspirational quotes about hope from some of our favorite audiobooks.
1. “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” - Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
2. “When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.” - Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four
3. “Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
4. “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.” - Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
5. “We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.” - John Green, Looking for Alaska
6. “You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better.” - Yann Martel, Life of Pi
7. “Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.” - Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
8. “When you throw everything up in the air anything becomes possible.” - Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
9. "Be good, be young, be true! Evil is nothing but vanity, let us have the pride of good, and above all let us never despair." - Alexandre Dumas fils, Camille: The Lady of the Camellias
10. “Mature hope requires both a clear intention and a simultaneous letting go.” - Frank Ostaseski, The Five Invitations
11. “Still, if I don’t believe in the possibility, I might go mad from fear.” - Libbie Hawker, Daughter of Sand and Stone
12. "There's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.” - Stephen King, Different Seasons
13. “That was all a man needed: hope. It was lack of hope that discouraged a man.” - Charles Bukowski, Factotum
14. “Hope, in its stronger forms, is a great deal more powerful stimulant to life than any sort of realized joy can ever be.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist
Quotes About Hope and Strength
When the odds are stacked against you, it can become harder and harder to hold onto your hope of success or for brighter days. Here we’ve gathered quotes about hope that are specifically about finding the strength necessary to maintain it. Read through these words to help bolster your own potency for staying positive.
15. “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, Daughter of Smoke & Bone
16. “We need hope, or else we cannot endure.” - Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses
17. “Maybe everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of.” - Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger
18. "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." - Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
19. "Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward all the life there is with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand. All the rest is darkness." - Stephen King, It
20. "He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.'" - Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
21. “More than anything, it is that sense—that despite great differences in wealth, we rise and fall together—that we can't afford to lose.” - Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope
22. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” - Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
23. “No. Don't give up hope just yet. It's the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.” - Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four
24. “To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.” - Erich Fromm, The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology
Quotes About Hope for the Future
Aside from hoping for positive outcomes in our own lives, we all hold out hope for a better future. Whenever things look dark, these quotes can hold up a light to help you see a path forward.
25. “We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming—well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.” - Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses
26. “Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.” - Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
27. “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” - Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala
28. “It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee.” - Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
29. "I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities." - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
30. "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction." - Howard Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train
31. “Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.” - Veronica Roth, Allegiant
32. “So everything lets us down, including curiosity and honesty and what we love best. ‘Yes,’ said the voice, ‘but cheer up, it's fun at the end.’” - Roberto Bolaño, 2666
33. “Nobody knows how things will turn out, that's why they go ahead and play the game...You give it your all and sometimes amazing things happen, but it's hardly ever what you expect.” - Gennifer Choldenko, Al Capone Does My Shirts
34. “The longest way must have its close—the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Quotes About Hope and Love
One of the scariest scenarios involving hope is in matters of love. In all relationships, love means opening yourself up to another person and hoping that they won’t break your heart. It’s a risk, but as these quotes below will remind you, it’s one that’s worth taking.
35. “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
36. “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person.” - Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
37. “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
38. “We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.” - Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire
39. “Hope is not about proving anything. It's about choosing to believe this one thing, that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us.” - Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
