A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

HOPE for the best and prepare for the worst

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  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

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  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

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  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