But my dreams – those dreams of long ago they still give me hope and faith in my class. I can’t believe that there’s no hope. Can’t. Alan Bleasdale, Boys from the Black Stuff: George’s Last Ride, George to Chrissie, BBC 1982
‘Hope to the last!’ said Newman, clapping him on the back. ‘Always hope; that’s dear boy. Never leave off hoping; it don’t answer. Do you mind me, Nick? it don’t answer. Don’t leave a stone unturned. It’s always something, to know you’ve done the most you could. But, don’t leave off hoping, or it’s of no use doing anything. Hope, hope, to the last!’ Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
But although he reasoned like this, Owen could not help longing for something to believe, for some hope for the future; something to compensate for the unhappiness of the present. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
God doesn’t love you. God despises you. So there’s no hope. Naked 1993 starring David Thewlis & Lesley Sharp & Katrin Cartlidge & Greg Cruttwell & Claire Skinner & Peter Wight & Ewen Bremner & Elizabeth Barrington & Gina McKee & Darren Turnstall et al, director Mike Leigh, Johnny to Brian
The seemingly random events of Brexit, Trump, and a rise in populism and hate in our world are not haphazard or isolated at all. They are all connected to a loss in hope for a better future for large portions of the population. Underlying this loss of hope is a new economic reality where it’s not just the poor who are missing out on economic gains. Much of the middle class is also feeling squeezed. Instead of technology allowing for a fifteen-hour work week, as Keynes predicted when he penned his 1930s essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, vast numbers of people are working longer, in jobs they rightly fear will soon be gone. Trapped — wondering how they will provide for their families and basic needs when the other shoe drops. At the same time, we are seeing a massive rise in inequality: in the United States, the top 5% of the population now holds more than two-thirds of the wealth, while the remaining 95% of the population fights for their share of the other third. Just three people — Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett — account for more wealth than 50& of the population. Jeff Booth, The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future
One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope. Napoleon Bonaparte
There’s always hope. If you’ve got the money to pay for hope … I need to fight fire with money. Trailer Park Boys s10e2: You Want the Lot Fees? Suck Them Out of the Tip of My Fucking Cock, lawyer to boys
A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
Hopium: People become addicted not to hope … [but] the synthetic chemical substitute for hope … There’s some political saviour that’s going to put everything all right … People are getting caught up in the momentum and the madness. The Corbett Report: James Corbett on Obama, Trump, Q, Musk & Hopium, James Corbett online 2023