Hope Vs Optimism

March 22nd, 2010

Came across a quote today (from Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, used in relation to the US finally passing its health care legislation) which perfectly summed up the theme of Age of Misrule, The Dark Age and Kingdom of the Serpent:

“Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope. Hope is the knowledge that we can choose; that we can learn from our mistakes and act differently next time. That history is not a trash bag of random coincidences blown open by the wind, but a long slow journey to redemption.”

Categories: Book News | 4 Comments

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4 Responses to Hope Vs Optimism


  1. clive whitelock said, on March 22nd, 2010 at 3:55 pm:

    These are very stirring words.

  2. Geoff said, on March 22nd, 2010 at 6:50 pm:

    Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,
    But leave—oh! leave the light of Hope behind.
    Thomas Campbell

    Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair.
    Thomas Hobbes

    Hope is a waking dream.
    Aristotle

    Love lives on hope, and dies when hope is dead; It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.
    Pierre Corneill

    For me , hope is the greatest of all our human qualities , or the greatest of our self – delusions .
    Give me hope`s strength , and empowering of the spirit over optimism`s bland and banal rhetoric .
    Geoff.

  3. Justin Blazier said, on March 23rd, 2010 at 4:41 am:

    I have hope that this legislation will work out for the better, but I do not have faith that it will. Does that make sense?

  4. Michael said, on March 24th, 2010 at 12:08 pm:

    Not really for me but maybe it’s just semantics, I guess. Hope and faith are the same thing in my books. A hope devoid of faith is an awkward optimism.

    And I laughed when I saw such a genuine grin on Biden’s face as he spoke aloud my thoughts exactly “This is a big fucking deal!” =D

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