Oscar Hammerstein Quotes

I want no part of making any contribution whatsoever to the despair which eventually follows downbeat thinking.

Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.

The Opera was a very cold film, a hopeless and dark film, no hope, no love.

False hope really makes you cynical.

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

If I had to lay bets, my bet would be that everything is going to go to hell, but, you know, what else have we got except hope?

A world without hope, but no despair

Any system which says, This is a rotten world, wait for the next, give up, do nothing, succumb--that may be the basic Lie and if we participate in believing it and acting (or rather not acting) on it we involve ourselves in the Lie and suffer dreadfully... which only reinforces that particular Lie.

I don't want to stay in the bad place, where no one believes in silver linings or love or happy endings.

Tragedy is restful: and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it.

With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, 'Studs, you're an optimist.' I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what's the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven.

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

It may be that the seemingly intrinsic attraction that past time has for me is merely a desire for escapism, as I look out at the nation and world with little optimism.

Boast is always a cry of despair, except in the young it is a cry of hope.

Hope is the raw material of losers.

The world is bad but not without hope. It is only hopeless when you look at it from an ideal viewpoint.

Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings.

It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.

And as far as false hope, there is no such thing. There is only hope or the absence of hope-nothing else.

When I first started coaching, one of the worst things that I think I heard was 'It will be O.K.' I would wonder, 'How the hell is it going to be O.K.?' The worst word in the English language is 'hope.'

There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair.

Cynicism stems from disappointment. Cynical and faithless people were not always like that. They were filled with possibilities and hope as kids. But they tried and perhaps failed.

I have never seen a hopeful person join a gang.

The only deadly sin I know is cynicism.

Newman's second law: Just when things look darkest, they go black.