On Hope

Recently, while doing some research for a dental article in a health magazine, I came upon this quote by Benjamin Franklin, “He that lives upon hope will die fasting”. To my understanding, he seemed to be saying that it is not wise to rely on hope in our lives. Maybe he reasoned that human effort is much more reliable, or indeed all that matters, therefore the idea of depending on hope was perhaps quite irrelevant to him.

Being such a famous and important person in history that he was, I wondered if what he said is untrue? Being the scientist and logical thinker that he was, he surely would not have made statements without thought, but was he just being a little too cynical?  

Looking at my children, it all started to make sense. I think what he meant was that hope and effort are synergistic. A certain amount of effort is required to realize a hope. We can only love our children and give them the best that we can, according to our finances, time and energy. And when we have done that, we can only hope that they will develop to the best of their potential and live fulfilling lives. As humans, there are many things that we have no control over, that we can only hope will turn out well.

To live without hope surely is depressing, and yet to live on empty expectations and desires without any effort on our part, is surely, as Franklin says, a dead end.

Written by: Dr Debbie Hong