Terence Rattigan Quotes

I am of the opinion, and even more so the older I get, that it is more difficult to have hope than it is to despair. And I mean this in the sense that in order to have hope you must acknowledge the despair and then you have to get beyond it. Taken from a radio interview given on BBC Radio 4's Open Book

You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.

It is hope, not despair, that undoes us all.

To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.

"Ah, Miss, hope is an excellent thing for such as has the spirits to bear it!" said Mrs Wickam, shaking her head. "My own spirits is not equal to it, but I don't owe it any grudge. I envys them that is so blest!"

One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.

We need hope. There's nothing worse than to live a life of despair. For a person to have no hope just sucks the blue out of every sky.

Some of my cronies call me a pessimist and a decadent, but there is always a background of faith behind resignation.

Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful...How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow? It is natural--you need to smile to your sorrow because you are more than your sorrow.

The very purpose of our life is happiness, which is sustained by hope. We have no guarantee about the future, but we exist in the hope of something better. Hope means keeping going, thinking, ‘I can do this.’ It brings inner strength, self-confidence , the ability to do what you do honestly, truthfully and transparently.

You won't find the truth of life in morbidity, only in hope.

Fear is the enemy of hope.

Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.

The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions.

Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.

Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope.

I think the one thing that I cannot do without each day is hope. If you put me in a position where you took all my hope away, I'm not sure I could make it through the day.

“To think the way you do,” he said smiling, “you have to be a man who lives either on a tremendous despair, or on a tremendous hope.” “On both, perhaps.”

Unhappiness has nothing to teach, and resignation is ugly.

We need hope, or else we cannot endure.

The main trouble with despair is that it is self-fulfilling.

Hope is the best possession.

But hope is no less realistic than despair. It is still our choice whether to live in light or lie down in darkness.

If we lose our hope, that's our real disaster!

Don't ever give up on life. Life can be so beautiful, especially after you've spent a lot of time with it.