We've all got some rethinking to do where hope is concerned. Most of us today still might think of hope as merely an elusive feeling that randomly enters and leaves us. We might still misunderstand hope as being something we're either waiting for or missing when it disappears. We may feel important against what we perceive to be the whims of hope. While this may seem the case, the reality is that we can orchestrate hope in our lives any time we wish. We can work at feeling hopeful again. We can search for symbols of hope. We can invite our friends to be hopeful with us, and we can trust that hope will happen.  

Excerpt from A Consumer's Guide to HOPE; Where to find it and How to keep it, Ruth O'Lill, A.R.E. Press, 1994

" Emerging from the confines of a cocoon, the butterfly gives hope. It symbolizes change and transformation as in the release from the safety of the known into a new and more beautiful unknown. It personifies rebirth and renewal...new hope!"  Adelle North

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all."  Emily Dickenson

"Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, adorns and cheers our way; and still, as darker grows the night, emits a brighter day."  Oliver Goldsmith

"When the world says, "Give up," hope whispers, "Try it one more time."  Unknown

"We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes."  John F. Kennedy

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."  Lin Yutang

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do."  Helen Keller

"If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life 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.