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Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality.
Wallace Stegner
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Hope allows us to envision a better future, even when reality presents obstacles.

This quote by Wallace Stegner reflects the idea that hope often exists in a realm beyond tangible evidence or current circumstances. It emphasizes how our aspirations and ideals can sometimes be clouded by the harshness of reality, suggesting that while facts may ground us, it is hope that fuels our pursuit of possibility and change in our lives.

Themes

HopeRealityPossibilityWisdomFuture

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about the importance of resilience in the face of adversity.

More from Wallace Stegner

That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.
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Touch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed and betray others ... an accidental brushing of shoulders or touching of hands ... hands laid on shoulders in a gesture of comfort that lies like a thief, that takes, not gives, that wants, not offers, that awakes, not pacifies. When one flesh is waiting, there is electricity in the merest contact.
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Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers.
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I was shaped by the west and have lived most of my life in it, and nothing would gratify me more than to see it in all its subregions and subcultures both prosperous and environmentally healthy, with a civilization to match its scenery.
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Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.
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No place is a place until things that have happened in it are remembered in history, ballads, yarns, legends, or monuments. Fictions serve as well as facts.
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