Hope Dies Last

There’s a Russian proverb that says, “Hope dies last.”

Anytime I hear an old proverb, I like to stop and sit with it for a bit. If something became a proverb, people found it worthwhile enough to keep passing along – worth remembering, worth living by.

This one reminds me of something I read recently: one of the best predictors for health later in life is optimism. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but at the same time, why wouldn’t it be?

If you’re pessimistic, isn’t your life just becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy? You expect the worst, so that’s what you find. But if you’re optimistic – if you hold onto hope – that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy too. Just in the other direction.

“Hope dies last” can be both a truth and a proclamation.

It’s true that hope can be the last thing we hold on to. When everything else has failed, when every other option is exhausted, hope remains.

But it can also be our proclamation – something we speak into existence. A reminder to ourselves that we won’t give up. Never.

Hope dies last.