37 Quotes About Hopelessness

In moments of despair, words can offer a surprising source of solace. We may all feel overwhelmed by hopelessness at times, but it's often the wisdom of others that guides us through the darkest hours. That's why we've carefully curated a collection of 37 poignant quotes about hopelessness. Each quote provides a unique perspective, a glimmer of understanding, and perhaps, a gentle push towards finding light in the shadows. Whether you're seeking comfort for yourself or looking to support someone else, these words of wisdom might just offer the inspiration needed to reignite a flicker of hope.

1. “Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation– the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

2. “And another way of explaining it is to say that shit happens, and there's no space too small, too dark and airless and fucking hopeless, for people to crawl into.” - Nick Hornby

3. “Only the hopeless love God.” - Jennifer Donnelly

4. “I became intent on saving him through showing him that he was loved.” - Joyce Johnson

5. “It’s just that you go so crazy being alone like that. Sometimes he’d forget my water or food and I’d cry and cry and cry.” She stops talking and looks out the window. “I would try to tell myself stories to pass the time. Fairy tales. Parts of books. But they got used up.” - Holly Black

6. “A broom that was almost never used was leaned up against the wall. He took it and started to sweep. Dust flew up his nose. When he had been sweeping for a while he realised he had no dustpan. He swept the pile of dust under the couch. Better to have a little shit in the corners than a clean hell. He flipped through the pages of a porno, put it back. Wound his scarf around his neck until his head felt like it was about to explode, released it. Got up and took a few steps on the rug. Sank to his knees, prayed to god.” - John Ajvide Lindqvist

7. “He's holding onto me, but this time it feels like he's holding onto me because his earth has shifted off its axis, and I'm his core.” - Colleen Hoover

8. “Do me a favor?” Anything. I’ll do anything you ask me to, so long as you’re shirtless.” - Colleen Hoover

9. “Live. If you mix the letters up in the words like and love, you get live.” - Colleen Hoover

10. “I tilt my head and ask “What firsts have wealready passed?”“The easy ones,” he says. “First hug, first date, first fight, first time we slept together,although I wasn’t the one sleeping. Now we barely have any left. First kiss. First time tosleep together when we’re both actually awake. First marriage. First kid. We’re doneafter that. Our lives will become mundane and boring and I’ll have to divorce you andmarry a wife who’s twenty years younger than me so I can have a lot more firsts andyou’ll be stuck raising the kids.” He bring his hand to my cheek and smile at me. “So yousee, babe? I’m only doing this for your benefit. The longer I wait to kiss you, the longerit’ll be before I’m forced to leave you high and dry.” - Colleen Hoover

11. “I take my seat and pick the e-reader back up. “You know, Breckin. You really are pretty damn great.” He smiles and winks at me. “It’s the Mormon in me. We’re a pretty awesome people.” - Colleen Hoover

12. “You’re attracted to me?” “Oh, God,” I groan. “That’s the last thing you need for your ego.” “That’s probably true,” he laughs. “Better hurry up and insult me before my ego gets as big as yours.” “You need a hair cut,” I blurt out. “Really bad. It gets in your eyes and you squint and you’re constantly moving it out of the way like you’re Justin Bieber and it’s really distracting.” - Colleen Hoover

13. “I’m just a brother who loved his sister more than life itself.” - Colleen Hoover

14. “ You fell asleep right when she was about to find out her mother’s secret. How dare you. I’ll be back tomorrow night so you can finish reading it to me. And by the way, you have really bad breath and you snore way too loud. ” - Colleen Hoover

15. “He flashes me his dimple-laden grin, and I faint.  No… literally. I fainted.” - Colleen Hoover

16. “You shouldn’t offer cookies without milk, you know. You’re a pretty pathetic hostess.” - Colleen Hoover

17. “He’s quiet for a minute, then grins again. “I can’t believe you think I’m hot.” “Shut up.” “You probably faked passing out the other day, just so you could be carried in my hot, sweaty, manly arms.” “Shut up.” “I’ll bet you fantasize about me at night, right here in this bed.” “Shut up, Holder.” “You probably even…” I reach over and clamp my hand over his mouth. “You’re way hotter when you aren’t speaking.” - Colleen Hoover

18. “Sky, if you’re asking me to stop, I will. But I’m hoping you’re not, because I really don’t want to stop, so please.” He pulls back and looks down into my eyes, still barely moving his body against mine. His eyes are full of ache and worry and he’s breathless when he speaks. “We won’t go any further than this, I promise. But please don’t ask me to stop where we already are. I need to watch you and I need to hear you because the fact that I know you’re actually feeling this right now is so fucking amazing. You feel incredible and this feels incredible and please. Just… please.” - Colleen Hoover

19. “When I said you weren’t getting kissed tonight, I meant it. But dammit, Sky. I had no idea how fucking difficult you would make it.” - Colleen Hoover

20. “Looks like we have quite the predicament here, boys.” I smile at both of them, then eye the coffee in Breckin’s hands. “I see the Mormon brought the queen her offering of coffee. Very impressive.” I look at Holder and cock my eyebrow. “Do you wish to reveal your offering, hopeless boy, so that I may decide who shall accompany me at the classroom throne today?” Breckin looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. Holder laughs and picks his backpack up off the desk. “Looks like someone’s in need of an ego-shattering text today.” - Colleen Hoover

21. “It turns out, Holder doesn’t have an issue with Mormons at all. He just has an issue with assholes.” - Colleen Hoover

22. “I had fun today,” he says. “You’re kind of weird.” - Colleen Hoover

23. “Time to go,” he says. “I already see this heading somewhere I’m too drunk to go right now. I’ll see you tomorrow night.” I jump up and run and block the window before he can leave. He stops in front of me and folds his arms over his chest. “Stay,” I say. “Please. Just lay in bed with me. We can put pillows between us and I promise not to seduce you since you’re drunk. Just stay for an hour, I don’t want you to go yet.” He immediately turns and heads back to the bed. “Okay,” he says simply. He throws himself onto my bed and pulls the covers out from beneath him. That was easy.” - Colleen Hoover

24. “Not your face, your dimple. And no. You’re the only guy I’ve ever had the urge to lick.” He smiles at me confidently. “Good. Because you’re the only girl I’ve ever had the urge to love.” - Colleen Hoover

25. “There’s a gate?” I ask, confused. “Why do we always climb the fence?” He shoots me a sly grin. “You were in a dress the two times we’ve been here. Where’s the fun in walking through a gate?” - Colleen Hoover

26. “What in the hell happened to your eye?” I laugh and roll off the bed, out of harm’s way. “You happened.” I make my way toward the window. “I need to clear my head. I’m gonna go for a run. Wanna come?”   Six crinkles up her nose. “Yeah… no. You have fun with that.” - Colleen Hoover

27. “And just when I though things were starting to get better, everything had gone wrong again.” - Rachel Ward

28. “There is no such thing as hopeless situation” - Vijay Dhameliya

29. “I just practically begged him to kiss me, and he’s critiquing my grammar?” - Colleen Hoover

30. “I am mad at you, Holder,” I say with an unsteady, but sure voice. “But no matter how mad I’ve been, I never for one second stopped wanting you here with me.” - Colleen Hoover

31. “It’s killing me, baby,” he says, his voice much more calm and quiet. “It’s killing me because I don’t want you to go another day without knowing how I feel about you. And I’m not ready to tell you I’m in love with you, because I’m not. Not yet. But whatever this is I’m feeling—it’s so much more than just like. It’s so much more. And for the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure it out. I’ve been trying to figure out why there isn’t some other word to describe it. I want to tell you exactly how I feel but there isn’t a single goddamned word in the entire dictionary that can describe this point between liking you and loving you, but I need that word. I need it because I need you to hear me say it.” - Colleen Hoover

32. “The way he’s watching me makes me feel needed like no one’s ever been able to make me feel. In a way, he makes me feel necessary. Like my existence alone is necessary for his survival.” - Colleen Hoover

33. “You’re incredibly brave. And you’re going to make it through this because you have a very strong heart. A heart that is capable of loving so much about life and people in a way you never dreamt a heart could love. And you’re beautiful in here. Your heart is so beautiful and someday someone is going to love that heart like it deserves to be loved.” - Colleen Hoover

34. “Enamorarse sabiendo que todo está perdido y no hay ninguna esperanza.” - Jose Emilio Pacheco

35. “She felt worthless and hollow. There was no hope of fixing this.And when hope is gone, time is punishment.” - Mitch Albom

36. “She turned and walked down the musty, dimly-lighted corridor, along a strip of carpeting that still clung together only out of sheer stubbornness of skeletal weave. Doors, dark, oblivious, inscrutable, sidling by; enough to give you the creeps just to look at them. All hope gone from them, and from those who passed in and out through them. Just one more row of stopped-up orifices in this giant honeycomb that was the city. Human beings shouldn't have to enter such doors, shouldn't have to stay behind them. No moon ever entered there, no stars, no anything at all. They were worse than the grave, for in the grave is absence of consciousness. And God, she reflected, ordered the grave, for all of us; but God didn't order such burrows in a third-class New York City hotel.” - Cornell Woolrich

37. “There’s a moment in everybody’s life when you’re hopeless, just hopeless with hope and trust. And then something happens, something too big to understand, and then everything changes” - Will Donner