Hope humbles more than despair.

Meaning: Anticipating better futures makes us more vulnerable to disappointment than accepting current misfortune.

Origin: From 'A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases' (1870). Public domain.

More proverbs about Wisdom

• Hunger costs little; daintiness much. — Simple needs are cheaply met; refined tastes demand expensive indulgence.
• Jest not at another's infirmities. — Mocking someone's weaknesses or afflictions breeds cruelty and diminishes your own humani…
• There's no joy without alloy. — Pure pleasure is impossible; every good thing contains some mixture of difficulty or sorr…
• Joy surfeited turns to sorrow. — Excessive pleasure breeds complacency and inevitable disappointment when abundance inevit…
• As easy kiss my hand. — Dismissing something as trivially simple often blinds us to hidden difficulty or complexi…
• The ladle cools the pot. — A subordinate's efforts can moderate or restrain a superior's excessive force or passion.

← Back to Proverbs

Loading the full interactive collection…