There are joys in life but there are also sorrows. Sometimes these sorrows are of the every day kind — sad, but survivable. Other sorrows affect us so profoundly, so significantly and indelibly that we instinctively know life will never be the same. We wonder how we can make it through another day.

I have been through such times. I have also walked with children, adults, and families through such times. That is how I know that hope can be found in even the most difficult seasons of life. At the most painful moments in our lives, when everything is peeled away and stripped bare, when it seems that nothing is left, I know that there is hope.

Even the smallest amount can make the greatest difference. Hope and resilience are what help us set goals and affect change, to persevere in the face of life challenges and thrive.

So no matter what you’re going through, know that you are not alone. You’ll get through this.

Below are 27 hope quotes to give you strength and inspiration during hard times.

1. Out of difficulties grow miracles.

   — Jean de la Bruyère

2. There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.
   — Pearl S. Buck

3. You are full of unshaped dreams. You are laden with beginnings…There is hope in you…
   — Lola Ridge

4. Whether you’ve seen angels floating around your bedroom or just found a ray of hope at a lonely moment, choosing to believe that something unseen is caring for you can be a life-shifting exercise.

   — Martha Beck

5. We must accept infinite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. 
   — Martin Luther King, Jr.

6. I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. 
   — Anne Frank

7. A lesson for all of us is that for every loss, there is victory, for every sadness, there is joy, and when you think you've lost everything, there is hope.
   — Geraldine Solon

8. There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.
   — J.R.R. Tolkien

9. Hope never abandons you; you abandon it.
   — George Weinberg

10. We always kept in our hearts the most noble, beautiful feeling that sets human beings apart: Hope.
    — Manel Loureiro

11. Hope. It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it’s the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.
    — Tahereh Mafi

12. Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.
    — Martin Luther

13. If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

    — Martin Luther King Jr.

14. There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.
    — Dalai Lama XIV

15. The very least you can do in your life is 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

16. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.
    — Howard Zinn

17. We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreperably broken.”
    — John Green

18. We can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

    —George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

19. To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.

    —Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living

20. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

    ― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

21. You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

    ― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

22. “There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. 
    " Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.” 
    ― Alexandre Dumas

23. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
    ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

24. “It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there ... I can Apparate us both back ... don't worry ..."
    "I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you.” 
    ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

25. to love life, to love it even
    when you have no stomach for it
    and everything you've held dear
    crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
    your throat filled with the silt of it.
    When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
    thickening the air, heavy as water
    more fit for gills than lungs;
    when grief weights you like your own flesh
    only more of it, an obesity of grief,
    you think, How can a body withstand this?
    Then you hold life like a face
    between your palms, a plain face,
    no charming smile, no violet eyes,
    and you say, yes, I will take you
    I will love you, again. 
    ― Ellen Bass

26. A star falls from the sky and into your hands. Then it seeps through your veins and swims inside your blood and becomes every part of you. And then you have to put it back into the sky. And it's the most painful thing you'll ever have to do and that you've ever done. But what's yours is yours. Whether it’s up in the sky or here in your hands. And one day, it'll fall from the sky and hit you in the head real hard and that time, you won't have to put it back in the sky again.
    ― C. JoyBell C.

27. To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
    ― G.K. Chesterton

depression, stress, and anxiety psychologist in mclean, falls church, arlington, and vienna

Victoria Chialy Smith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist providing individual therapy to children, teens, and adults. Our practice provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness based therapies, and other premier evidence-based treatments, and serves the Falls Church, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. Call, email, or schedule an appointment with us online today. We’re happy to help!