What is hope?
As a noun, hope is defined as a feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. Or, a person or thing in which expectations are centered.
As a verb, it is defined as looking forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.
Other related words for the noun form of hope would be, promise, trust, chance, and optimism. For the verb form of hope, synonyms include believe, wish, want, expect, pray, anticipate, and aspire.
Is hope a philosophical value, or a religious belief, or an attitude?
Over the centuries, the perception of hope has changed. Ancient Greek thought suggests that hope was seen as an attitude of those with insufficient knowledge or of those who may have been easily swayed by wishful thinking. As a result, it had a negative connotation. In the tale of Pandora, all the evils had escaped from Pandora’s jar while only hope remained. There are several interpretations of this outcome. This may suggest that hope was all that remained for Pandora. Or, it can also be construed that hope was left available for humans or, on the other side of the coin, it was to keep hope away from man while all the other evils were released.
Early Western philosophers began to contemplate the nature of hope — that hope was a compound attitude, consisting of a desire for an outcome and a belief in that outcome’s possibility. In other words, hope is desiring an outcome that is uncertain but possible.
We may have heard or used hope in an expression such as I hope so, a hope chest, hoping against hope, hope for the best, and hope springs eternal. Hope is usually a positive attitude, belief, feeling, or emotion. On the other side of the coin, there’s false hope, or lost hope, or when it’s beyond hope.
At some point in our lives, we all hope for something. We hope ‘they’ get the order right, or hope ‘it’ gets delivered on time, we hope to get home in one piece. We may hope for a better tomorrow, for warmer weather, or a white Christmas. We hope they like what we got them, or we get what we wanted, or we hope they get what they deserve. I hope you focus on positivity and gratitude and continue to keep hope alive.
Peace, Love and Hope
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”
“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.”
“Hope, smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”