“If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.”
Alternate translation: Hope not without despair, despair not without hope. (translated by Zachariah Rush).
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind, Line 12
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Seneca the Younger225
Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist -4–65 BCRelated quotes
“None without hope e'er lov'd the brightest fair,
But love can hope where reason would despair.”
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (1709–1773) British politician
Epigram; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist
Source: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
“It's not the despair, Laura, I can stand the despair. It's the hope.”
Michael Frayn (1933) British writer
Clockwise (1986), cited from Malcolm Page File on Frayn (London: Methuen, 1994) p. 65.
“2542. Hope is as cheap as Despair.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Despair exists only when there is hope.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
11th Public Talk, London, UK (25 May 1961)
1960s
“Prayer is a bridge from despair to hope.”
Bill Hybels (1951) American writer
Too Busy Not to Pray (2008, InterVarsity Press)
“My only hope lies in my despair.”
Mon unique espérance est dans mon désespoir.
Atalide, Bajazet, (1672), act I, scene IV.