52 Quotes About Hopelessness

In the tapestry of human emotions, hopelessness can often feel like an overwhelming thread. Yet, within the depths of this feeling lies a profound opportunity for reflection and understanding. The journey through the shadows of despair can unveil insights that resonate deeply with our shared human experience. Whether you're seeking solace, companionship in your own feelings, or a new perspective to ponder, exploring the words of others who've navigated similar paths can offer unexpected comfort and clarity. Here, we've curated a collection of 52 poignant quotes that delve into the complex nuances of hopelessness, each offering a unique lens through which to view and perhaps soothe the ache of despair. These thoughts, penned by a diverse range of voices, invite you to embark on a contemplative journey that may illuminate your darkest moments with the flicker of hope.

1. “The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.” - Oscar Wilde

2. “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

3. “And were your back as broad as heaven, and your purse full of gold, and did your compassion reach from here to hell itself, there is nothing you can do.” - Alan Paton

4. “All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot!” - Dr. Seuss

5. “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

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

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

8. “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

9. “The moment she was cursed, I lost her. Once it wears off- soon- she will be embarrassed to remember things that she said, things she did, things like this. No matter how solid she feels in my arms, she is made of smoke.” - Holly Black

10. “It was a dead hole, smelling of synthetic leather and disinfectant, both of which odors seemed to emanate from the torn scratched material of the seats that lined the three walls. It smelled of the tobacco ashes which had flooded the two standing metal ashtrays. On the chromium lip of one, a cigar butt gleamed wetly like a chewed piece of beef. There was the smell of peanut shells and of the waxy candy wrappers that littered the floor, the smell of old newspapers, dry, inky, smothering and faintly like a urinal, the smell of sweat from armpits and groins and backs and faces, pouring out and drying up in the lifeless air, the smell of clothes—cleaning fluids imbedded in fabric and blooming horribly in the warm sweetish air, picking at the nostrils like thorns—all the exudations of the human flesh, a bouquet of animal being, flowing out, drying up, but leaving a peculiar and ineradicable odor of despair in the room as though chemistry was transformed into spirit, an ascension of a kind,…Light issuing from spotlights in the ceiling was sour and blinding like a sick breath.There was in that room an underlying confusion in the function of the senses. Smell became color, color became smell. Mute started at mute so intently they might have been listening with their eyes, and hearing grew preternaturally acute, yet waited only for the familiar syllables of surnames. Taste died, mouth opened in the negative drowsiness of waiting.” - Paula Fox

11. “It seemed to her as though everything that was good and true had been blasted out of the world. All those things had been crushed destroyed made to disappear.” - Anna Godbersen

12. “In the daytime, I know that they're (Russians) close. But at night, my optimism abandons me, I buckle. The night is German, and who am I against the night?” - Ana Novac

13. “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

14. “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

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

16. “Real ugly endings are better than fake happily ever after's” - Colleen Hoover

17. “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

18. “He places his palm over my heart, then pulls my hand to his chest over his own heart. He lowers his eyes to my level, ensuring I’m here with him, giving him my complete attention. “Fuck all the firsts, Sky. The only thing that matters to me with you are the forevers.” - Colleen Hoover

19. “No matter what happens life just keeps going and moving forward and words keep flowing and truths keep spewing whether you like it or not and life never lets you pause and just catch your fucking breath.” - Colleen Hoover

20. “Sure. But if the book sucks, we’re re-evaluating the friendship.” - Colleen Hoover

21. “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

22. “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

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

24. “ 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

25. “Want me to run with you?” he asks, nudging his head toward the sidewalk behind me. Yes, please.“No, it’s fine.” - Colleen Hoover

26. “I wonder if Dean is his nice persona and Holder is his scary one. Holder is definitely the one I saw at the grocery store earlier. I think I like Dean a lot better.” - Colleen Hoover

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

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

29. “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

30. “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

31. “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

32. “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

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

34. “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

35. “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

36. “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

37. “Speaking of… does this mean you get your phone back?” I shrug. “I don’t really want that phone back. I’m hoping my whipped boyfriend will get me an iPhone for Christmas.” - Colleen Hoover

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

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

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

41. “We spend so much time defending our choice to do this that it becomes hard to show any vulnerability at all. There's only so many times you can handle someone asking about your fall back for when things don't work before you start thinking that maybe the fall back should just be your plan.” - Cora Carmack

42. “Life can’t be divided into chapters...only minutes. The events of your life are all crammed together one minute right after the other without any time lapses or blank pages or chapter breaks because no matter what happens life just keeps going and moving forward and words keep flowing and truths keep spewing whether you like it or not and life never lets you pause and just catch your fucking breath.I need one of those chapter breaks. I just want to catch my breath, but I have no idea how.” - Colleen Hoover

43. “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

44. “I wanted to cry because I needed you there with me so bad. I knew in that moment that I was in love with you. I was in love with the way you loved me. When you wrapped your arms around me and held me, I knew that no matter what happened with my life, you were my home. You stole the biggest piece of my heart that night.” - Colleen Hoover

45. “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

46. “Knowing someone isn't coming backdoesn't mean you ever stop waiting” - Toby Barlow

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

48. “Of Course God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is)... Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.” - C.S. Lewis

49. “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

50. “A guy with no will to live isn't worth killing.” - Yukako Kabei

51. “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

52. “I wonder… because that’s all I can do. Silently wonder about the hopeless boy who somehow burrowed himself into the forefront of my thoughts and won’t go the hell away.” - Colleen Hoover