Showing posts tagged hope
“
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
Albert Einstein

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” - Oscar Wilde

It seems like it has been a rough week, and while I was out with some friends tonight, one of my friends despaired at how there is so much wrong with the world and how depressing that is. And they marveled at how I wasn’t in a deep depression, given what I’m studying.

It’s something I think about a lot, actually. Why shouldn’t I just give up? Why struggle and fight? What’s the point, because I’m not going to eradicate poverty or inequality? I won’t gain anything from it. I don’t believe in god, so it’s not as if I think that doing good deeds will guarantee me entrance at the pearly gates. I don’t even know if I’ll have children or not. So why bother?

Because I believe in humanity. I believe in our ability to overcome great obstacles, and to work together to accomplish great things. I believe that while I may not see significant progress during my lifetime, I am nonetheless playing a critical (even if small) role in laying the groundwork for the future.

The great things accomplished tomorrow will only be done so because of the things done by great people today.

History will be my judge, and that is what motivates me. I have hope for the future, and so I have hope today. As cynical as I can be sometimes, I remember this and I refuse to give up.

“
If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.
Noam Chomsky (via mohandasgandhi)
(Reblogged from mohandasgandhi)
“

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. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Howard Zinn (via mohandasgandhi)
(Reblogged from mohandasgandhi)
brooklynmutt: A tattoo for America A viewer of The Rachel Maddow Show sent this to her and it was posted on Maddowblog. Go and read the letter that accompanied this pic. Grabbing a piece of the text would not have done it justice. View high resolution

brooklynmutt:

A tattoo for America

A viewer of The Rachel Maddow Show sent this to her and it was posted on Maddowblog. Go and read the letter that accompanied this pic. Grabbing a piece of the text would not have done it justice.

(Reblogged from brooklynmutt)
“

All I ask is one thing — I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch — please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record it’s my least favorite quality — it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.

Conan O’Brien on his last episode of The Tonight Show