“The hopeful man sees success where others see failure, sunshine where others see shadows and storm.” —O.S. Marden
Hope makes all the difference between a potentially happy and productive life, and a life of torment and disappointment. Hope is a state of mind, and those who have it are happier just by having it, regardless of the current state of their lives. In the words of Vaclav Havel, “Hope is a feeling that life and work have a meaning. You either have it or you don’t, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you.”
No matter how rough the journey of life becomes, those who have hope can continue, while those without hope falter. The expectation that things will be better farther down the road keeps the hopeful going. Without hope, most of us would just give up on life. Martin Luther once wrote, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.”
It has been said that “great hopes make great men.” It is almost a certainty that all those people who have achieved greatness throughout the history of the world were men and women of great hope. Imagine the Wright brothers, who were determined to find a way to fly. So many before them had tried and failed, yet Orville and Wilbur Wright still had hope that through perseverance they could succeed. On Dec. 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first powered flight in history at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Others built on the hope and progress of the Wright brothers, and, when Orville Wright died in 1948, he had lived long enough to see aviation reach the milestone of having a plane fly faster than the speed of sound.
Helen Keller is another good example of the importance of hope. Keller, who lost her ability to see, hear and talk before she was two years old, would have seemed doomed to a life of failure and misery from the very beginning. But through hope, hard work and the assistance of others, she became known around the world as an author and lecturer, and she inspired millions with her achievements. Hope was a key factor in Keller’s phenomenal success, and she gave hope and courage to millions of others.
Hope is a source of achievement, happiness and courage. With hope, almost nothing seems impossible. Without it, very little is possible. If we see little hope in our futures, we should work at developing a more positive attitude toward life. Hope is not the exclusive property of some people. We can all have hope if we want it badly enough and work at developing it. Hope is the most prized possession that any of us could possibly have. In the words of O.S. Marden, “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.”
Think about it.
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Copyright 2026
Allen W. Smith
