The hope is the best and the worst thing at the same time.

For tho' we know what we ought to be; & what it would be very sweet & beautiful to be; yet we can't be it. That is most sad, too. Life is a long Dardenelles, My Dear Madam, the shores whereof are bright with flowers, which we want to pluck, but the bank is too high; & so we float on & on, hoping to come to a landing-place at last . . .

Life is must be filled with endless hope.

Hope is the grace of endurance in the stormy days.

Nevertheless, in this sea of human wretchedness and malice there bloomed at times compassion, as a pale flower blooms in a putrid marsh.

When you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.