Quotes about hope
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“Time has taught me not to lose hope, yet not to trust too much in hope either.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Variant: Time has taught me not to loose hope, yet not to trust too much in hope either
Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Time

“Hope is cruel and has no consequence”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind

“To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.”

Raymond Williams (1921–1988) philosopher

Resources of Hope (published posthumously in 1989), p. 118

Despair

“Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

Way, Imagination, Courage

“William: "I'm sure we can all pull together, sir."
Vetinari: "Oh, I do hope not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.”

Terry Pratchett book The Truth

Source: The Truth

Men

“And so we exchange privacy for intimacy. We gamble with it, hoping that by exposing ourselves, someone will find a way in. This is why the human animal will always be vulnerable: because it wants to be.”

Max Barry (1973) Australian writer

Source: Lexicon

Way, Animals

“Before I could figure out how to apologize for being such an idiot, she tackled me with a hug, then pulled away just as quickly. "I'm glad you're not a guinea pig."
"Me, too." I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Cecily, Act II
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Life, Time

“Choking with dry tears and raging, raging, raging at the absolute indifference of nature and the world to the death of love, the death of hope and the death of beauty, I remember sitting on the end of my bed, collecting these pills and capsules together and wondering why, why when I felt I had so much to offer, so much love, such outpourings of love and energy to spend on the world, I was incapable of being offered love, giving it or summoning the energy with which I knew I could transform myself and everything around me.”

Stephen Fry book Moab Is My Washpot

Source: Moab Is My Washpot

Love, Death, World, Beauty

“Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Hope

“We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaid. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

People, Beauty, Dreams

“Marriage: a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don’t know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive of and have carefully omitted to investigate.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: The Course of Love

Marriage, People, Future

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

People, Fear

“I don't regret it, you know. I would do it all again. Children are our hope for the future."
THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, said Death.
"What does it contain, then?"
ME.”

Terry Pratchett book Sourcery

Source: Sourcery

Death, Children, Future

“In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”

Barack Obama Remarks of Senator Barack Obama on New Hampshire Primary Night

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama on New Hampshire Primary Night (8 January 2008)
2008
Context: We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.
Context: We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check; we've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.

Falseness, Hope

“Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.”

Mark Twain book Life on the Mississippi

Source: Life on the Mississippi

God

“Ask yourself these three questions, Tatiana Metanova, and you will know who you are. Ask: What do believe in? What do you hope for? What do you love?”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Variant: Ask yourself three questions and you will know who you are. Ask 'What do you believe in? What do you hope for? But most important - ask what do you love?
Source: The Bronze Horseman (2001)

Love, Question

“This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.

We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some--perhaps many--may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:

This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

World, Music, Way, Feeling

“All the roads are dark. Only at the end is there a hope of light.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book The Darkest Road

Source: The Darkest Road

Light

“You are a dream; I hope I never meet you.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Dreams

“cause when there's life there's still hope”

Michael Morpurgo book War Horse

Source: War Horse

Life

“your faith and hope are in god.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Hope for Each Day: Words of Wisdom and Faith

God, Faith

“Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Source: Different Seasons

“there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Source: Different Seasons

Hope

“In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

“If at first an idea does not sound absurd, then there is no hope for it. —ALBERT EINSTEIN”

Michio Kaku (1947) American theoretical physicist, futurist and author

Source: Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel

Idea

“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there's life, there's hope.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Life, Hope

“God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

God

“You know how to pray, don’t you? Just put your hands together and hope.”

Terry Pratchett book Going Postal

Source: Going Postal

“Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Source: Different Seasons

Fear

“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

People, World, Positive

“I hope to-morrow will be a fine day, Lane.
It never is, sir.
Lane, you're a perfect pessimist.
I do my best to give satisfaction, sir.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

Perfection

“Life is too short to spend hoping that the perfectly arched eyebrow or hottest new lip shade will mask an ugly heart.”

Kevyn Aucoin (1962–2002) American make-up artist and photographer

Life, Heart

“It's the only condition I know. Bitter Love, Loneliness, contempt for corruption, blind hope. It's where I live. A permanent state of bereavement. This is nothing new.”

Gregory Maguire book Son of a Witch

Source: Son of a Witch

Love, Loneliness

“When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

People, World, Hope

“It's impossible for me to say one word about all that music has meant to me in my life. How, then, can I hope to be understood?”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Life, Music

“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Love, Peace, Soul, Heart

“The Shift hasn't happened yet, maybe it never will, but sometimes-just enough times to give me hope-my brain jars back into where it's supposed to be.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Time

“Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2004, Democratic National Convention speech (July 2004)
Context: In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? I'm not talking about blind optimism here... No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead.

God

“I hope I remember everything," said Toni.
"You won't," said Trapp. "That's how you learn. But after you make the same mistake one, or two, or five times, you'll eventually get it. And then you'll make new mistakes.”

Louis Sachar (1954) American writer of children's books

Source: The Cardturner: A Novel about a King, a Queen, and a Joker

Learning, Time

“My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

Love, Country

“In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs man’s torments.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human

... die Hoffnung: sie ist in Wahrheit das übelste der Übel, weil sie die Qual der Menschen verlängert.
I.71
Variant: Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
Source: Human, All Too Human (1878)

Reality, Evil, Hope

“I looked and looked at her, and knew as clearly as I know I am to die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth, or hoped for anywhere else.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

Love, Imagination

“a person hoping to become a poet must have the capacity of thinking of several things at a time.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Speak, Memory

Source: Speak, Memory

Thinking, Time, Personality

“A sense of humor is the best indicator that you will recover; it is often the best indicator that people will love you. Sustain that and you have hope.”

Andrew Solomon book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Love, People, Sense, Depressing

“Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

Despair

“A visiting pastor at our church in Plains once told a story about a priest from New Orleans. Father Flanagan’s parish lay in the central part of the city, close to many taverns. One night he was walking down the street and saw a drunk thrown out of a pub. The man landed in the gutter, and Father Flanagan quickly recognized him as one of his parishioners, a fellow named Mike. Father Flanagan shook the dazed man and said, “Mike!” Mike opened his eyes and Father Flanagan said, “You’re in trouble. If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me what it is.ℍ “Well, Father,” Mike replied, “I hope you’ll pray for me.” “Yes,” the priest answered, “I’ll pray for you right now.” He knelt down in the gutter and prayed, “Father, please have mercy on this drunken man.ℍ At this, a startled Mike woke up fully and said, “Father, please don’t tell God I’m drunk.ℍ Sometimes we don’t feel much of a personal relationship between God and ourselves, as though we have a secret life full of failures and sins that God knows nothing about. We want to involve God only when we plan to give thanks or when we’re in trouble and need help. But the rest of our lives, we’d rather keep to ourselves.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

Life, God, Secret, Feeling

“Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that’s all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that’s all we have - to hold on tight until the dawn”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love, Truth, Tear, Cry

“Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.”

Arthur Miller The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

Act 1
The Ride Down Mount Morgan (1991)
Source: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to Alexander Hamilton (28 August 1788) http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-06-02-0432 <br class="br">1780s <br class="br">Context: I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man, as well as prove (what I desire to be considered in reality) that I am, with great sincerity & esteem, Dear Sir Your friend and Most obedient Hble Ser⟨vt⟩

“The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Funny

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer … It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2008, Election victory speech (November 2008)

World, Fear, Dreams, Democracy

“We must beware of yielding to the pressure of a spirit of cowardly conformity which proclaims itself everybody's friend in the hope that everybody will obligingly return the compliment.”

Antonin Sertillanges (1863–1948) French philosopher

Source: The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

“But it's just because the chances are all against you, just because there is so little hope, that life is sweet over here.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

Life, Chance

“If I died, would it get me out of my geometry test tomorrow? One could only hope.”

Kristin Cast book Marked

Source: Marked

“Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.”

Erik H. Erikson (1902–1994) American German-born psychoanalyst & essayist

Life, Confidence

“I am the escaped one,
After I was born
They locked me up inside me
But I left.
My soul seeks me,
Through hills and valley,
I hope my soul
Never finds me.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Soul

“I realize full well how hard it must be to go on living alone in a place from which someone has left you, but there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

World

“Look: the trees exist; the houses
we dwell in stand there stalwartly.
Only we
pass by it all, like a rush of air.
And everything conspires to keep quiet
about us,
half out of shame perhaps, half out of
some secret hope.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Duino Elegies

Source: Duino Elegies

Secret, Tree, Housing

“All he knew was that you couldn't hope to try for the big stuff, like world peace and happiness, but you might just about be able to achieve some tiny deed that'd make the world, in a small way, a better place. Like shooting someone.”

Terry Pratchett book The Fifth Elephant

Source: The Fifth Elephant

Happiness, World, Peace, Way

“The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Death, Heart, Hope

“One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.” That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to “make all things new.” Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean “we have no clue so don’t even try to imagine,” but rather, you cannot outdream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope.”

John Eldredge

Source: The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer To The Heart Of God

God, Lie, Imagination, Lovers

“I love you, too."
But this hopeful farewell does little to bring peace of mind, even now.
Loving you has never been the problem.
What's troubling me is how loving you may never be enough.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Fourth Comings

Love, Peace, Problem

“A person, who no matter how desperate the situation, gives others hope, is a true leader.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Personality

“Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Fear

“Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art.”

Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996) American artist

Love, Happiness, Sadness, Art

“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

“How long have you been holding those words in your head, hoping to use them?”

John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and physician

Source: Lethal People

“You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it’s all a question of balance.”

Rohinton Mistry (1952) Canadian writer

Question, Despair

“I USHERED SOULS INTO THE NEXT WORLD. I WAS THE GRAVE OF ALL HOPE. I WAS THE ULTIMATE REALITY. I WAS THE ASSASSIN AGAINST WHOM NO LOCK WOULD HOLD.
"Yes, point taken, but do you have any particular skills?”

Terry Pratchett book Mort

Source: Mort

World, Soul, Reality

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Life, World, Smile, Time

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Hope

“the way i see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up.”

Karen Hesse book Out of the Dust

Source: Out of the Dust

Money, Dreams, Way, Time

“The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

Hope

“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Love

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Attributed in The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) by Josiah G. Holland, p. 23; also in The Real Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867) by George Alfred Townsend, p. 6; according to Townsend, Lincoln made this remark to his law partner, William Herndon. It is disputed whether this quote refers to Lincoln's natural mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who died when he was nine years old, or to his stepmother, Sarah Bush (Johnston) Lincoln.
Posthumous attributions

Angels, Mother's Day, For Parents, For Mother

“On that night after Phoebe had given her Pandora report, I thought about the Hope in Pandora's box. Maybe when everything seemed sad and miserable, Phoebe and I could both hope that something might start to go right.”

Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons

Source: Walk Two Moons

Sadness, Night, Box

“Now to find Tristan, if he survived the excitement. I hope he did. I have some things to say to him, and none of them are 'Goddess bless'.

-Numair Salmalin”

Tamora Pierce book Wolf-Speaker

Source: Wolf-Speaker

“I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways; do your work with a good will, lift your feet up well when you trot, and never bite or kick even in play.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty

Way, Learning

“Before I could cry or scream I whirled around and stalked to my bedroom, slamming the door behind me.
I hope they all drown.

"Zoey your mother and I need to speak with you."
Great. Clearly they didn't drown.”

P. C. Cast book Marked

Source: Marked

Cry

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Beauty

“Shame on the man who goes to his grave escorted by the miserable hopes that have kept him alive.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In Reader's Digest (December 1954).
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Variant: An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

“If I died, would it get me out of my geometry test tomorrow? One could only hope." - Zoey Mongomery (Redbird)”

P. C. Cast book Marked

Source: Marked

“Welcome to fear, said Moist to himself. It's hope, turned inside out. You know it can't go wrong, you're sure it can't go wrong… But it might.”

Terry Pratchett book Going Postal

Source: Going Postal

Fear

“Sometimes it's better to end something & try to start something new than imprison yourself in hoping for the impossible.”

Karen Salmansohn American writer

“Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Marriage, Wedding

“High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

People, Democracy