These quotes are from thinkers throughout the ages. I think it shows that humans have long known that hope is more than a word, but a living thing. Hope is not wishful thinking, but seeing life as it really is. The world may seem like a downright mean place, but we persevere and are rewarded. Hope is not a concept, rather hope is alive.

If one has truly lost hope, one would not be on hand to say so. -Eric Bentley

Hope is a strange invention--
A Patent of the Heart--
In unremitting action
Yet never wearing out.

'Hope' is the thing with feathers,
 That perches in the soul,
And sings the tunes without the words,
 And never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Hope has two beautiful daughters Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. -Augustine of Hippo

The best definition of the gospel message I ever heard is that the gospel is the permission and command to enter difficulty with hope. -- Donna Schaper, A Book of Common Power

A Christian will part with anything rather than his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory. -Thomas Brooks (1608-81) 

Whatever is the object of a saint?s hope is the subject of his prayer. -William Gurnall (1616-79) 

The hope of glory is to the justified man like a cool, perennial fountain in a secluded garden, to which ever and anon he retires from the busy, noisy world and, sitting down by its holy stream while he meditates on the freeness and perfectness of the right he has to the fountain of immortality, drinks in with holy meditations new foretastes of the blessedness which is to come. -Robert Murray M?Cheyne (1813-34) 

The hope of Christ is the hope of His redeemed: ?I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also? (John 14:3). This promise is as precious to Christ as it ever can be to us. The joy of meeting is surely no less for the coming Bridegroom than for the waiting bride. The life of Christ in glory is one of longing expectation; the full glory only comes when His beloved are with Him. -Andrew Murray (1828-1917) 

There are no hopeless situations, only people who think hopelessly. -Winifred Newman (20th century) 

Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusion. It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. It is the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying.  And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it in his way and in his time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling him both how and when to do it. -Eugene Peterson (20th century) 

I cannot, indeed, see through my cross to the far end; yet I believe I am in Christ?s books, and in his decree (not yet unfolded to me), a man triumphing, dancing and singing on the other side of the Red Sea, and laughing and praising the Lamb, over beyond time, sorrow, deprivation, prelates? indignation, losses, want of friends, and death. -Samuel Rutherford (1600-61)

 Hope is passion for what is possible. -- Kierkegaard

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but which direction we are moving. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery. - Ann Frank

We judge of man's wisdom by his hope.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We live by admiration, hope and love. - William Wordsworth

True hope dwells on the possible, even when life seems to be a plot written by someone who wants to
see how much adversity we can overcome. - Walter Anderson
)
Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow. - O. S. Marden

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. - Pliny the Elder (23-79)

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.- Robert Ingersoll

All human wisdom is summed up in two words -- wait and hope. -Alexandre Dumas (1837-1914)

 Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. -- Dale Carnegie

 The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.--Norman Cousins

 Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. -- Martin Luther

 The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -- Joseph Addison

 As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move, and the map to move by. We have a hundred alternatives, a thousand paths and an infinity of dreams. Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go; hopeless, we are lost forever. -- Source Unknown

 We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

 Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.-- Tom Clancy

 The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. -- Barbara Kingsolver

 When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.
-Pauline R. Kezer

 We live by admiration, hope and love. -- William Wordsworth

 We judge of man's wisdom by his hope. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. -- Helen Keller

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. (Pope John XXIII
 
 Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. Seneca
 
 Ninety-eight percent of what I worried about never happened. Mark Twain
 
 You have to have emptiness before it can be filled. You have to exhale before you can inhale. Tom Yeomas
 
 To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another. Katherine Paterson
 
 Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. -Henry Ward Beecher
 
 Success is not measured by the position one has reached in life, rather by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed. - Booker T. Washington
  
 It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done. -Samuel Smiles
 
 If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. -Andrew A. Rooney
 
 With every deed you are sowing a seek, though the harvest you may not see. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 
 Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience. -Denis Waitley
 
 Every great mistakes has a halfway moment - a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.  Pearl S. Buck
 
 Mistakes are a fact of life.  It is the response to error that counts.  -Nikki Giovanni
 
 Don't give up at half time.  Concentrate on winning the second half. Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.
 
 Nothing changes more constantly than the past. For the past that influences our lives does not consist of what happened, but of what men believe happened.  -Gerald W. Johnston
 
 The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Mahatma Gandhi
 
 
 The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts life.  William James
 
Hope is itself a species of happiness,and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords. - Samuel Johnson 
 
Everything done in this world is done by hope. -Martin Luther 

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. 
-Samuel Johnson

Lord, all our success is because of what you have done. (Isaiah)

Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
To all the people you can
As long as you can
-John Wesley

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

The Opportunity is Today
Our work is solemn
Therefore we dare not trifle
Our task is difficult
Therefore we dare not relax
Our opportunities are brief
Therefore we dare not delay
Out path is narrow
Therefore we dare not wander
But our prize will be glorious
Therefore we dare not faint

Just A Closer Walk With Thee
I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I'll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
When my feeble life is o'er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o'er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good. -

Hope" is the thing with feathers- that perches in the soul... -Emily Dickenson
 
He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.
He who has help has hope, & he who has hope has everything. [which is it? There is hope in realizing the answer that since both are true there must be a third choice, and a fourth, etc]

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. -Elie Weisel

Never deprive someone of hope - it may be all they have. -Unknown

Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness. - Alfred Bernhard Nobel

A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.  - Zadok Rabinwitz

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous. - Thornton Wilder

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.   - Albert Einstein

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.  - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

When you come to the edge of all that you know, you must believe one of two things: There will be earth upon which to stand, or you will be given wings to fly. - Unknown

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.   - Harriet Beecher Stowe

The secret of all those who make discoveries is that they regard nothing as impossible.   - Justus Liebig

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.- Eleanor Roosevelt

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.  - Unknown

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. - Walt Disney

A wise person can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.- Unknown

We judge of man's wisdom by his hope.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you reach for the stars, you may not get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud, either.
- Unknown

What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life. - Emil Brunner

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.  - Henry David Thoreau

To those who can dream there is no such place as faraway.- Unknown

The poorest man is not without a cent, but without a dream.- Unknown

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
  - Helen Keller

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. - Dale Carnegie

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started. - Norman Cousins

While there's life, there's hope.  - Marcus Tullius Cicero
[where there's hope, there's life ?]

 Hope is the expectation that something outside of ourselves, something or someone external, is going to come to our rescue and we will live happily ever after. -Dr. Robert Anthony

Hope is the parent of faith. -Cyrus A. Bartol

Before you give up hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made on Lincoln. -Bruce Barton

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips it's turn. -Hal Borland

Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. -Robert Browning

Everyone is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope. -John Ciardi

Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure. -Abraham Cowley

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. -Martin Luther King Jr.

In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible. -Martin Luther

Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness. -Alfred Nobel

He who does not hope to win has already lost. -Jose Joaquin Olmedo

I've found that the chief difficulty for most people was to realize that they had really heard new things: that is things that they had never heard before. They kept translating what they heard into their habitual language. They had ceased to hope and believe there might be anything new. -Peter Demianovich Ouspensky

Hope, the patent medicine for disease, disaster, sin. -Wallace Rice

Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles. -Samuel Smiles

Our hopes are but memories reversed.-Source Unknown

The secret of the true love of work is the hope of success in that work. It is not for the money reward, for the time spent, or for the skill exercised, but for the successful result in the accomplishment of the work itself. -Sidney A. Weltmer

After rain comes sunshine; after darkness comes the glorious dawn. There is no sorrow without its alloy of joy; there is no joy without its admixture of sorrow. Behind the ugly terrible mask of Misfortune lies the beautiful soothing countenance of Prosperity. So, tear the mask. -Obafemi Awolowo

He who does not hope to win has already lost. -Jose Joaquin de Olmedo

 When there is a hill to climb, don't think that waiting will make it smaller.

Your mind is only as strong as your weakest think.

 If at first you don't succeed, you are about average?People who believe things can't be done will go out and prove they are right. It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dreams of yesterday are the hopes of today and the realities of tomorrow.-Anon

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow?If you can look at the sunset & smile, then you still have hope. If you can see the good in other people, then you still have hope. If you meet new people with a trace of excitement & optimism, then you still have hope. If you still give people the benefit of the doubt, then you still have hope. If the suffering in others still fills you with pain, then you still have hope. If you still watch love stories or want endings to be happy, then you still have hope. If you can look at the past and smile, then you still have hope. If when faced with bad, & told everything is futile, you can still look at the up at the end of the conversation & say "yeah...but...," then you still have so much hope. If you still offer your hand of friendship to those who have touched your life, then you still have hope. If you refuse to let a friendship die, or accept that it must end, then you still have very much hope...Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, & achieves the impossible. -Anonymous

Hope is medicine for a soul that's sick and tired. -Eric Swensson