A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

HOPE for the best and prepare for the worst

1565 NORTON & SACKVILLE Gorboduc I. ii. Good is I graunt of all to hope the

best, But not to liue still dreadles of the worst. 1581 W. AVERELL Charles & Julia D7

To hope the best, and feare the worst, (loe, such is Loouers gaines). 1706 E. WARD Third

Volume 337 This Maxim ought to be carest, Provide against the worst, and hope the best.

1813 J. JAY Correspondence (1893) IV. 367 To hope for the best and prepare for the

worst, is a trite but a good maxim. 1836 E. HOWARD Rattlin the Reefer II. xxix. The

youngest of us cannot always escape—hoping, trusting, relying on the best, we should be

prepared for the worst. 1999 ’H. CRANE’ Miss Seeton’s Finest Hour i. 7 ‘We must all

hope for the best,’ Mrs. Seeton chided him gently. ‘As my nanny used to say: “Hope for

the best, expect the worst—and take what comes.”’ foresight and hindsight

HOPE is a good breakfast but a bad supper

1661 W. RAWLEY Resuscitatio (ed. 2) 298 But, said the fisher men, we had hope

then to make a better gain of it. Saith Mr. [Francis] Bacon well my Maisters, then Ile tell

you; hope is a good Breakfast but it is a Bad supper. 1817 H. L. PIOZZI Autobiography

(1861) II. 188 He was a wise man who said Hope is a good breakfast but a bad dinner. It

shall be my supper .. when all’s said and done. 1986 C. M. SCHULZ Washington Post 27

Aug. D15 (Peanuts comic strip) ‘I hope I get better grades this year. I hope I’ll be the

prettiest and smartest girl in the whole class..’ ‘“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad

supper.”’ disappointment; hope and despair

HOPE springs eternal

1732 POPE Essay on Man I. 95 Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Man never

Is, but always To be blest. 1865 DICKENS Our Mutual Friend II. III. X. Night after night

his disappointment is acute, but hope springs eternal in the scholastic breast. 1935 H.

SPRING Rachel Rosing viii. ‘It was understood, wasn’t it, that we could not dine

together?’ ‘Oh yes—but you know how it is. Hope springs eternal and so forth.’ 2002

Spectator 16 Mar. 11 But hope springs eternal in the Labour pessimist’s breast. Perhaps

this time Mr Blair and his American friends will get it all wrong. hope and despair

If it were not for HOPE, the heart would break

a 1250 Ancrene Wisse (1962) 43 Ase me seith, yef hope nere heorte to breke [as one

says, if there were not hope, the heart would break]. c 1440 Gesta Romanorum (EETS)

228 Yf hope wer not, hert schulde breke. 1616 J. WITHALS Dict. (rev. ed.) 582 If it were