i-TFTD #233: On Hope

#233-1. Never let go of hope. One day you will see that it all has finally come together. What you have always wished for has finally come to be. You will look back and laugh at what has passed and you will ask yourself, "How did I get through all of that?"
-Anon

#233-2. 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, pioneering self-help author of How to Win Friends and Influence People and other books (1888–1955)

#233-3. The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his  actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play,  we march always in the ranks of honor.
-Winston Churchill, British orator, author and Prime Minister (1874-1965)

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Hope, like faith, involves holding a belief in the mind that is not fully indicated or substantiated by facts. ‘Hope for the best, anticipate the worst,’ one of the many age! -old aphorisms drilled into me from a young age, has been a useful guide for prudent planning balanced with a general optimism.

But hopes do not always come true. What we do when they don’t has to be guided by conscience.