Quotes by theme

13 Quotes About Hope

Not optimism — something sturdier. These quotes are about the disciplined refusal to give up on a future you cannot yet see.

“When doubt haunts me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to comfort me.”

— Mahatma Gandhi The Bhagavad Gita

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

— Mahatma Gandhi Dharma

“Your heart is weighed on the scale against the feather of Maat. May it be found as light.”

— Anonymous scribe Maat

“I am one whose heart is light. I have done what is loved by gods and men.”

— Anonymous scribe Maat

“Today, victory over yourself. Yesterday, victory over a lesser opponent. Tomorrow, victory over a greater one.”

— Miyamoto Musashi Mental Toughness

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

— Jalaluddin Rumi Sufism

“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.”

— Hafiz of Shiraz Sufism

“A poet is someone who can pour Light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your beautiful parched, holy mouth.”

— Hafiz of Shiraz Sufism

“O God, if I worship Thee in fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not from me Thine eternal beauty.”

— Rabia al-Adawiyya Sufism

“When you understand the meaning of impermanence, all clinging falls away. When clinging falls away, the heart is light. When the heart is light, the mind is free.”

— Milarepa Tonglen

“However long the night, the dawn will break.”

— African proverb Ubuntu

“We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.”

— Junichiro Tanizaki Wabi-Sabi

“We do not dislike everything that shines, but we do prefer a pensive lustre to a shallow brilliance — a murky light that, whether in a stone or an artifact, bespeaks a sheen of antiquity.”

— Junichiro Tanizaki Wabi-Sabi