hope

USAGE, n. The First Person of the literary Trinity, the Second and Third being Custom and Conventionality. Imbued with a decent reverence for this Holy Triad an industrious writer may hope to produce books that will live as long as the fashion.

VALOR, n. A soldierly compound of vanity, duty and the gambler's hope.

REPRESENTATIVE, n. In national politics, a member of the Lower House in this world, and without discernible hope of promotion in the next.

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.

PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile.

OBLIVION, n. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock.

LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.

HOPE, n. Desire and expectation rolled into one.

DELUSION, n. The father of a most respectable family, comprising Enthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and many other goodly sons and daughters.