Hopelessness can touch everyone. It sneaks into our lives during the darkest times, making us feel trapped and lost. But there’s something strangely comforting in the words of those who have felt it too. Their quotes can reflect our deepest fears and also show us we’re not alone.
In this article, you’ll find some of the best hopeless quotes. These words capture the essence of despair, yet they also remind us of our shared human experience. Sometimes, the simplest words can offer the greatest comfort.
Understanding Hopeless Quotes
“The darkest hour has only sixty minutes.”
“There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow.”
“It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.”
“Hopelessness is a feeling that drowns the soul but nurtures the heart’s hidden strength.”
“We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”
“Sometimes when you lose your way, you find yourself.”
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.”
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”
“Hopelessness is but a state of mind, not of destiny.”
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
“Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
“Despair can be a great motivator.”
“The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go.”
“There’s no better place to search for hope than the future; there is no better time than now.”
“Hope is a waking dream.”
“Out of difficulties grow miracles.”
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.”
“In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.”
“When the world says, ‘Give up,’ Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.'”
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
“Hopelessness can only be conquered by deep realism about the present and boundless optimism about the future.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.'”
“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
“The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.”
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”
“Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.”
“When you’re surrounded by all these people, it can be lonelier than when you’re by yourself.”
Famous Hopeless Quotes
“The heart was made to be broken.”
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”
“we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“Love is the most beautiful of dreams and the worst of nightmares.”
“The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without a purpose.”
“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.”
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul— and sings the tunes without the words— and never stops at all.”
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.'”
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
“Despair and hopelessness are self-fulfilling prophecies.”
“Man is born to live, not to prepare for life.”
“Tears are words that need to be written.”
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
“When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.”
“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
“There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and recovered hope.”
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but they always fall. Think of it—always.”
“But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”
“It is not the length of life, but the depth of life.”
“Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.”
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
“You do not need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
“This too shall pass.”
“Even in the darkest of times, there is a glimmer of hope.”
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
“What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.”
Impact of Hopeless Quotes
“The dark is generous, and it is patient, and it always wins — but in the heart of its strength lies weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back.”
“The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without a purpose.”
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
“All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.”
“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”
“Sometimes life seems like it’s just one impossible thing after another.”
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“When it is darkest, we can see the stars.”
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.”
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
“There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.”
“Out of difficulties grow miracles.”
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
“This too shall pass.”
“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
“Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning… Anyone can start over and make a new ending.”
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.”
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
“When the night is darkest, the stars are the brightest.”
“And when you needed people the most, they were the ones you could count on the least.”
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
“All things are difficult before they are easy.”
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul—and sings the tunes without the words—and never stops at all.”
“Life is very interesting. some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.”
Overcoming Feelings in Hopeless Quotes
“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
“The harder the journey, the greater the triumph at the destination.”
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul—and sings the tunes without the words—and never stops at all.”
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
“Out of difficulties grow miracles.”
“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.”
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
“Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but actually you’ve been planted.”
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“To have a dream is one thing; to make it come true is another entirely. But it is possible.”
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.'”
“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you go; they merely determine where you start.”
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
“The best way out is always through.”
“When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on so long in the first place.”
“Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”
“Stars can’t shine without darkness.”
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
“The darkest hour has only sixty minutes.”
Historical Hopeless Quotes
“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.”
“I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top.”
“The creature of endless dismay, breaking endlessly from the ocean’s grasp.”
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
“We looked into each other’s eyes in a dumb, despairing embrace, an embrace of hopelessness.”
“But hopes were none for me, for me, neither time, nor change, nor life, nor death can bring relief.”
“It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.”
“There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow.”
“Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.”
“The hours that were mine, and the hours that were thine, and the hours that were no one’s at all.”
“Those who do not weep, do not see.”
“To live without hope is to cease to live.”
“It is a cruel, ironical art, that of composing novels; one drives the warm life out of our fellows, and becomes an immortal cold specter oneself.”
“The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; and hope of generations was in all those repaired knights.”
“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of.”
“And now I see with eye serene, the very pulse of the machine.”
“The darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.”
“Through me the way to the suffering city, through me the way to eternal pain, through me the way that runs among the lost.”
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“There is no despair like that of a soul that has lost its Christ.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
“The greatest tragedy in life is people failing to realize their own despair.”
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
“The good man is the friend of all living things.”
“There is nothing so easy as to be wise for others; a species of prodigality, by the by, for such wisdom is wholly wasted.”
“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”
“To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable.”
“The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end – you don’t come to an achievement; you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.”
“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.”
Personal Growth from Hopeless Quotes
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“Sometimes, when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but actually, you’ve been planted.”
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
“To live without hope is to cease to live.”
“When it is darkest, we can see the stars.”
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
“You do not find the happy life. You make it.”
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
“Out of difficulties grow miracles.”
“When the world says, ‘Give up,’ Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.'”
“The best way out is always through.”
“Stars can’t shine without darkness.”
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.”
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
“The darkest hour has only sixty minutes.”
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t.”
“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
“The sun itself is weak when it first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.”
Final Words
Reflecting on hopeless quotes can help us understand our feelings better and see that we are not alone in our struggles. These quotes may seem dark, but they can also offer comfort and connection during tough times.
Whether you’re looking for words to express your own feelings or seeking to find solace in others’ experiences, these quotes remind you that it’s okay to feel down sometimes. Life has its ups and downs, but sharing these moments through quotes can bring a sense of unity and understanding.