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We’re not omniscient. We don’t have crystal balls or time machines. All we have is our best assessment of an uncertain and changing landscape and the hope that we have honed our quitting skills enough to walk away when conditions turn against us.

…hope of success is more exciting than success itself. Success is pleasurable, but it leaves us at a loss for something interesting to do. If we fail, and if we can try again, then we still have a mission.

…studies show that when we’re in an optimistic state of mind, we pay more attention, think more clearly, and learn faster. Hope primes our minds for real success.

…our ability to make ourselves better as individuals – to dive into more satisfying work, to foster real hopes of success, to strengthen our social connections, to become a part of something bigger – also helps us work together, longer, on more complex and pressing problems.

Sometimes your fondest hopes just aren’t going to become reality – but other opportunities are still out there. So press on!

If customers are dying to buy [your product] and management cannot see its way to funding it, then there is no hope.

In contrast to blind faith, false hope, and magical thinking, realistic optimism balances a hopeful and positive perspective with a recognition that the desired outcome may or may not occur.

Optimism and hope provide choices. The opposite of hope is despair, and when we despair, it is because we feel there are no choices.

Without hope, we cannot survive, much less progress.

The leader who communicates passion gives hope and inspiration to other people.