Hope
is a state of mind,
not of the world. It is an
orientation of the spirit and
orientation of the heart; it transcends
the world that is immediately experienced and
is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in
this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things
are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously
heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is
good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious
the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not
the conviction that something will turn out well,
but the certainty that something makes
sense, regardless of how it
turns out.