Here's a quote I transcribed from yesterday's NPR Morning Edition.

Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. So, if your heart's full of hope, you can be persistent when you can't be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So, while I'm not optimistic, I'm always very hopeful.

William Sloane Coffin, 1994

I envy those who were in his presence.

D