Hope dies a thousand times but finally reasserts itself when it is truly needed. Hope for the species, hope for the planet, hope for the hopeless man or woman, hope that there will be fulfillment, hope that the half-mad, half-divine creature will get through and see the day when the universe opens up and reveals its true meaning. Hope that, in fact, human beings can confront problems and solve them before the problems crush the life out of the man and the woman.

Hope that the spirit conquers and thrives and creates and produces. Hope that all of the disillusionments and all of the broken aspirations can be transformed by the questing spirit and the mind that is eager and hungry for truth and for the excellence of self that is so resisted so many times!

A man who hopes is free. A man locked away in some godforsaken place but who hopes is freer than the putatively free man who squanders his freedom in pursuit of the immediate pleasure. We are cynical and pleasure-centered in this day and age because in some aspect of ourselves we have lost our hope. It is lost hope which attempts to destroy the best that is in anyone. It is lost hope that puts pleasure at the center of his experience rather than knowledge. It is lost hope that takes the drugs. It is lost hope that steals and is susceptible to corruption. It is lost hope that we deny most in ourselves and attempt to counterfeit something in exchange.

The attempt to thwart what is right and good in the spirit of the individual is something that a liberal democracy has to fear more than anything.

The good being that which makes us better as human beings. The good being that which draws us to beneficial ends and means.

If one is hypnotized by ostentatious wealth or the power of the present world or the new leisure to live as one wishes but has no hope for the future then we are at the end.

And why shouldn't we perish if we have lost our hope? We perish hundreds of time in our life because we have lost our hope. One of the secrets to life is to understand the nature of our hope and keep it alive in whatever temple we find for it

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