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Hope springs eternal

  1. People always hope for the best, even in the face of adversity. This saying is from “An Essay on Man,” by Alexander Pope .


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Idioms and Phrases

People will keep on hoping, no matter what the odds. For example, I keep buying lottery tickets—hope springs eternal . This expression was coined by Alexander Pope ( An Essay on Man , 1732) and quickly became proverbial.

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Example Sentences

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be, blest.

Hope springs eternal in human breasts but the springs are stronger in the plump folks than in the rest of us.

As Pope says, 'Hope springs eternal in the human breast; man never is,' etc. (of course you know the rest).

It must have been a miner who wrote, that hope springs eternal in the human breast.

However, “hope springs eternal in the human breast” and he says he knows he will soon be well again.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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