Quotes about hope page 50
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Sect. 13
Variant translations: I believe that the civilisation into which India has evolved is not to be beaten in the world. Nothing can equal the seeds sown by our ancestry. Rome went; Greece shared the same fate; the might of the Pharaohs was broken; Japan has become westernised; of China nothing can be said; but India is still, somehow or other, sound at the foundation.
Greece, Egypt, Rome — all have been erased from this world, yet we continue to exist. There is something in us, that our character never ceases from the face of this world, defying global hostility for centuries.
1900s, Hind Swaraj (1908)
“By exposing myself, I hope to expose others to the many benefits of a vegetarian diet.”
Traci Bingham (1968) American actress
About her ad for PETA, "All animals have the same parts—have a heart, go vegetarian", as quoted in "Traci Bingham Gets to the Meat of the Matter", PETA.org (2002) https://web.archive.org/web/20020805202404/http://www.peta.org:80/feat/tracibee/index-uk.html.
Peter Wildeblood (1923–1999) British writer
Against the Law (1955), p. 1
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921) astronomer
Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1912HarCi.173....1L (1912)
George Washington Bethune (1805–1862) American hymnwriter
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 54.
Theodore Kaczynski (1942) American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist
Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 1
Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (1911–1983) British lecturer, novelist, historian, poet and biographer
The Corruptions of Society, p. 9 (See also: The American Dream..)
The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America (1975)
Radhanath Swami (1950) Gaudiya Vaishnava guru
?
The Journey Home: Autobiography of an American Swami (Tulsi Books, 2010)
Mario Cuomo (1932–2015) American politician, Governor of New York
Democratic National Convention Address (1984)
André Maurois (1885–1967) French writer
Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Loving
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831–1891) English statesman and poet
Part ii, canto ii.
Lucile (1860)
“2222. He that lives on Hope, has but a slender diet.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1736) : He that lives upon Hope, dies fasting.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Lucy Mack Smith (1775–1856) American religious leader
The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother (1853), "Rigdon's Depression"
Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist
"Nepal Suffering After Major Earthquake" https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2015/04/30/nepal-suffering-after-major-earthquake/, Around the World with Ken Ham (April 30, 2015) <br class="br">Around the World with Ken Ham (May 2005 - Ongoing)
Scott McClellan book What Happened
Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, on Bush's need to be a wartime president to improve the chance of a "great" legacy, What Happened, pp. 131
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The New Downing Street (April 15, 1850)
Richard Baxter (1615–1691) English Puritan church leader, poet, and hymn-writer
"Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 102.
“Hillary says she has been tested. Well, I hope so. You never know what Bill might bring home.”
Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host
Guest monologue on The Tonight Show http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jay-leno-takes-jimmy-fallons-867267, 17 February, 2016 <br class="br">The Tonight Show
Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy
Book 2, Ch. 29 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
The World, ii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part I - Lord, What is Man?
“Where there’s dope, there’s hope!”
Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly
Source: A Scanner Darkly (1977), Chapter 7 (p. 118)
“I've been in pain hope it doesn't show
I've been insane well the time is slow”
John Frusciante (1970) American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer
Been Insane
Lyrics, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994)
Don Soderquist (1934–2016)
Don Soderquist “ The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company https://books.google.com/books?id=mIxwVLXdyjQC&lpg=PR9&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PR9#v=onepage&q=Don%20Soderquist&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2005, p. 53. <br class="br">On Creating Teamwork
Enya (1961) Irish singer, songwriter, and musician
"The Bright Days of My Youth" (original Irish Gaelic title "Na Laetha Geal M'óige")
Song lyrics, Watermark (1988)
“Truly, we are dust and shadow; truly, desire is blind and greedy; truly, hope deceives.”
Francesco Petrarca Il Canzoniere
Veramente siam noi polvere et ombra,
veramente la voglia cieca e 'ngorda,
veramente fallace è la speranza.
Canzone 294, st. 4
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Death
“I hate that Alex and Damon. I hope they catch AIDS and die.”
Noel Gallagher (1967) British musician
Noel Gallagher cited in " Timeline: Blur v Oasis after Britpop http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4151510.stm" at news.bbc.co.uk, 14 August, 1995: Referring to Damon Albarn and Blur <br class="br">Controversy with other artists
Anish Kapoor (1954) British contemporary artist of Indian birth
Quoted in Sculptor Anish Kapoor’s works an eye-opener for us, 25 November 2011, 18 December 2013, Economic Times http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-11-25/news/27630725_1_anish-kapoor-sky-mirror-warehouse,
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
1950s, Atoms for Peace (1953)
Henry Knox (1750–1806) Continental Army and US Army general, US Secretary of War
Knox to George Washington on when the cannon would arrive. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.
George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States
2000s, 2008, Address to the United Nations General Assembly (September 2008)
Rod Coronado (1966) Native American eco-anarchist and animal rights activist
Activists Uncaged http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=23918
El Lissitsky (1890–1941) Soviet artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect
Quotes from: 'Ideological Superstructure'
1926 - 1941, Rußland: Die Rekonstruktion der Architektur in der Sowjetunion' (1929)
Max Barry (1973) Australian writer
October 8, 2005 weblog post http://www.maxbarry.com/2005/10/08/news.html#firstreviews
Ilana Mercer South African writer
"Praying to the Military Moloch," http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/06/praying-to-military-moloch.html Economic Policy Journal, June 6, 2014. <br class="br">2010s, 2014
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
1960s, State of the Union Address (1966)
“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).
Andrés Bonifacio (1863–1897) Filipino nationalist and revolutionary
Quoted in: Bryan C. Paraiso (2012) " Bonifacio reveals fervor in writings http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/315489/bonifacio-reveals-fervor-in-writings." Philippine Daily Inquirer. November 30, 2012.
David Brewster (1781–1868) British astronomer and mathematician
In a 1830 letter to James David Forbes, as found in Life and letters of James David Forbes, p. 40.
Theodore Hesburgh (1917–2015) Congressional Gold Medal recipient
"The Facts Of The Matter," Sports Illustrated (1959-01-19), ( online http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1070047/1/index.htm)
Jack McDevitt (1935) American novelist, Short story writer
Introduction
Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Omega (2003)
Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940) British civil servant and academic
Preface p. v
A History of Greek Mathematics (1921) Vol. 1. From Thales to Euclid
“That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.”
Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer
Il est sage de ne mettre ni crainte, ni espérance dans l’avenir incertain. <br class="br"> L’Étui de nacre: Le Procurateur de Judée http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Procurateur_de_Jud%C3%A9e [Mother of Pearl: The Procurator of Judea] (1892)
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) painter from France
late note of Berthe Morisot, c. 1892-1895; as cited in Berthe Morisot, Jean-Dominique Rey; translation in English, Flammarion, S.A. (ISBN: 978-2-08-020345-8), Paris, 2016, p. 133
1881 - 1895
“"Sir!" she checked him. "I think you are talking treason."
"I hope I am not obscure," said he.”
Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood
Source: Captain Blood (1922), Ch. V: "Arabella Bishop"
Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American labor and political leader
The Socialist Party and the Working Class (1904)
“No. I don't think so. I hope not.”
Rachel Trachtenburg (1993) American musician
On whether or not she'd rebel against her parents ( Miami Herald http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/columnists/evelyn_mcdonnell/16227628.htm December 13, 2006
Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) Austrian and British economist and Nobel Prize for Economics laureate
1980s and later, Interview in Silver & Gold Report (1980)
Omar Abdullah (1970) Indian politician
22 July 2008, Lok Sabha Give us a voice, says NC’s Omar Abdullah, floors House with own http://www.indianexpress.com/story/339280.html Indian Express, 23 July 2008.
Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist
Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)
Irving Babbitt (1865–1933) American academic and literary criticism
Source: "What I Believe" (1930), pp. 7-8
Lena Horne (1917–2010) American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer
Lena Horne (ca. 1997) in: Susan Ratcliffe (2012) Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, p. 208
Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780) British composer, writer and grocer
(from vol 2, letter 60: 5 Jan 1780, to Mr J. W___e [still in India] ).
Brad Paisley (1972) American country music singer
He Didn't Have to Be, written by Brad Paisley and Kelley Lovelace.
Song lyrics, Who Needs Pictures (1999)
Raymond Geuss book Philosophy and Real Politics
Philosophy and Real Politics (2008).
Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)
Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist
Press conference in New York, as quoted in CommingSoon (June 2007) http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=21257 <br class="br">2007
Sid Tepper (1918–2015) American songwriter
Song Red Roses for a Blue Lady
Brian Hanrahan (1949–2010) British journalist and television presenter
BBC Radio 4 website 20 December 2010 http://web.archive.org/web/20100327045801/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/people/presenters/brian-hanrahan/
Ricardo Sanchez (1953) United States Army Lieutenant General
Reporters and editors luncheon address (2007)
Harrington Emerson (1853–1931) American efficiency engineer and business theorist
Source: The twelve principles of efficiency (1912), p. 177; ; cited in Münsterberg (113; 53)
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/chaos-2005 of Chaos (11 August 2005) <br class="br">Reviews, Zero star reviews
Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
2007 Chairman's Letter
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)
Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady
Statement in the US Senate in response to the World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks (12 September 2001) http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=235656 <br class="br">Senate years (2001 – January 19, 2007)
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
Source: Earthsea Books, The Farthest Shore (1972), Chapter 3, "Hort Town" (Ged)
Clifford D. Simak book A Choice of Gods
A Choice of Gods (1972)
Context: I have become a student of the sky and know all the clouds there are and have firmly fixed in mind the various hues of blue that the sky can show — the washed-out, almost invisible blue of a hot, summer noon; the soft robin's egg, sometimes almost greenish blue of a late springtime evening, the darker, almost violet blue of fall. I have become a connoisseur of the coloring that the leaves take on in autumn and I know all the voices and the moods of the woods and river valley. I have, in a measure, entered into communion with nature, and in this wise have followed in the footsteps of Red Cloud and his people, although I am sure that their understanding and their emotions are more fine-tuned than mine are. I have seen, however, the roll of seasons, the birth and death of leaves, the glitter of the stars on more nights than I can number and from all this as from nothing else I have gained a sense of a purpose and an orderliness which it does not seem to me can have stemmed from accident alone.
It seems to me, thinking of it, that there must be some universal plan which set in motion the orbiting of the electrons about the nucleus and the slower, more majestic orbit of the galaxies about one another to the very edge of space. There is a plan, it seems to me, that reaches out of the electron to the rim of the universe and what this plan may be or how it came about is beyond my feeble intellect. But if we are looking for something on which to pin our faith — and, indeed, our hope — the plan might well be it. I think we have thought too small and have been too afraid...
Ch 24
“We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is an illusion.”
Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870–1938) United States federal judge
Pages 66 http://books.google.com/books?id=LGLuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22We+seek+to+find+peace+of+mind+in+the+word+the%22&pg=PA66#v=onepage – 67 http://books.google.com/books?id=LGLuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22formula+the+ritual+The+hope+is+an+illusion%22&pg=PA67#v=onepage <br class="br">Other writings, The Growth of the Law (1924) <br class="br">Context: Magic words and incantations are as fatal to our science as they are to any other. Methods, when classified and separated, acquire their true bearing and perspective as a means to an end, not as ends in themselves. We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is an illusion.
Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American judge
Speech to the American Bar Association (2 September 1925).
Context: The most ominous spirit of our times, as it seems to me, is the indication of the growth of an intolerent spirit. It is the more dangerous when armed, as it usually is, with sincere conviction. It is a spirit whose wrath must be turned away by the soft answers of a sweet reasonableness. It can be exorcised only by invoking the Genius which watched over our infancy and has guided our development— a good Genius— still potent let us believe — the American spirit of civil and religious liberty. Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to remember, as has well been said, "the essential characteristic of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed."
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)
Context: It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo, we shall boldly challenge unjust mores, and thereby speed up the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."
William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) English mathematician and philosopher
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority
Context: In regard, then, to the sacred tradition of humanity, we learn that it consists, not in propositions or statements which are to be accepted and believed on the authority of the tradition, but in questions rightly asked, in conceptions which enable us to ask further questions, and in methods of answering questions. The value of all these things depends on their being tested day by day. The very sacredness of the precious deposit imposes upon us the duty and the responsibility of testing it, of purifying and enlarging it to the utmost of our power. He who makes use of its results to stifle his own doubts, or to hamper the inquiry of others, is guilty of a sacrilege which centuries shall never be able to blot out. When the labours and questionings of honest and brave men shall have built up the fabric of known truth to a glory which we in this generation can neither hope for nor imagine, in that pure and holy temple he shall have no part nor lot, but his name and his works shall be cast out into the darkness of oblivion for ever.
Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933) Greek poet
Growing in Spirit http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_130.htm (1903) <br class="br">Collected Poems (1992) <br class="br">Context: He who hopes to grow in spirit<br>will have to transcend obedience and respect.<br>He'll hold to some laws<br>but he'll mostly violate<br>both law and custom, and go beyond<br>the established, inadequate norm.<br>Sensual pleasures will have much to teach him.<br>He won't be afraid of the destructive act:<br>half the house will have to come down.<br>This way he'll grow virtuously into wisdom.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
1950s, Atoms for Peace (1953)
Context: Occasional pages of history do record the faces of the "Great Destroyers" but the whole book of history reveals mankind's never-ending quest for peace, and mankind's God-given capacity to build. It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life. So my country's purpose is to help us move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light, to find a way by which the minds of men, the hopes of men, the souls of men every where, can move forward toward peace and happiness and well being.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
volume II, chapter VII: "The 'Origin of Species'", pages 311-312 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=327&itemID=F1452.2&viewtype=image; letter http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-2814 to Asa Gray (22 May 1860)<br>"Ichneumonidæ" sometimes altered to "parasitic wasps" in paraphrases of this passage.<br>Paraphrased as "I feel most deeply that this whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can." Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists (1916) page 197 http://books.google.com/books?id=nYArAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA198&f=false. <!-- Sometimes claimed that this appeared in Illustrated London News (21 April 1862), but a full search of every issue of Illustrated London News (1842–2003) through Gale Digital News Vault shows that this passage never appeared. --> <br class="br">The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887) <br class="br">Context: With respect to the theological view of the question. This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. Not believing this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can. Certainly I agree with you that my views are not at all necessarily atheistical.
“I am not alone in my fear, nor alone in my hope, nor alone in my shouting.”
Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: I am not alone in my fear, nor alone in my hope, nor alone in my shouting. A tremendous host, an onrush of the Universe fears, hopes, and shouts with me.
I am an improvised bridge, and when Someone passes over me, I crumble away behind Him.
“I am told that your mother is a religious woman, a widow of many years' standing; and that when you were a child she reared and taught you herself. Afterwards when you had spent some time in the flourishing schools of Gaul she sent you to Rome, sparing no expense and consoling herself for your absence by the thought of the future that lay before you. She hoped to see the exuberance and glitter of your Gallic eloquence toned down by Roman sobriety, for she saw that you required the rein more than the spur. So we are told of the greatest orators of Greece that they seasoned the bombast of Asia with the salt of Athens and pruned their vines when they grew too fast. For they wished to fill the wine-press of eloquence not with the tendrils of mere words but with the rich grape-juice of good sense.”
Audio religiosam habere te matrem, multorum annorum viduam, quae aluit, quae erudivit infantem et post studia Galliarum, quae vel florentissima sunt, misit Romam non parcens sumptibus et absentiam filii spe sustinens futurorum, ut ubertatem Gallici nitoremque sermonis gravitas Romana condiret nec calcaribus in te sed frenis uteretur, quod et in disertissimis viris Graeciae legimus, qui Asianum tumorem Attico siccabat sale et luxuriantes flagellis vineas falcibus reprimebant, ut eloquentiae toreularia non verborum pampinis, sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent.
Jerome (345–420) Catholic saint and Doctor of the Church
Letter 125 (Ad Rusticum Monachum)
Letters
Albert Camus book The Stranger
Variant translation: I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration.
As translated by Stuart Gilbert
The Stranger (1942)
Context: For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman. I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life she had taken a 'fiancé,' why she had played at beginning again. Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite. So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again. Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her. And I felt ready to live it all again too. As if the blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist
The Efficacy of Prayer (1958)
Context: Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God. Our act, when we pray, must not, any more than all our other acts, be separated from the continuous act of God Himself, in which alone all finite causes operate. It would be even worse to think of those who get what they pray for as a sort of court favorites, people who have influence with the throne. The refused prayer of Christ in Gethsemane is answer enough to that. And I dare not leave out the hard saying which I once heard from an experienced Christian: “I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning: before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic.” Does God then forsake just those who serve Him best? Well, He who served Him best of all said, near His tortured death, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” When God becomes man, that Man, of all others, is least comforted by God, at His greatest need. There is a mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore. Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
Source: 1910s, My Larger Education, Being Chapters from My Experience (1911), Ch. V: The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob
Context: I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.
My experience is that people who call themselves "The Intellectuals" understand theories, but they do not understand things. I have long been convinced that, if these men could have gone into the South and taken up and become interested in some practical work which would have brought them in touch with people and things, the whole world would have looked very different to them. Bad as conditions might have seemed at first, when they saw that actual progress was being made, they would have taken a more hopeful view of the situation.
“I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes.”
Liu Xiaobo (1955–2017) Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist
NPR http://www.npr.org/2012/02/16/146988012/liu-xiaobo-no-enemies-no-hatred-only-courage - "Liu Xiaobo: 'No Enemies, No Hatred,' Only Courage" 16 Feb. 2012 <br class="br">Context: I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes. Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.
“Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
King's often repeated expression that "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice" was his own succinct summation of sentiments echoing those of Theodore Parker, who, in "Of Justice and the Conscience" (1853) asserted: "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
Context: I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will be still rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched eyes have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. … When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.