What does this quote mean?

“They are upheld by hope”

Hope functions as support even before the characters fully understand what they are hoping for, separating sustaining expectation from complete intellectual certainty.

Source note: Lilith: A Romance; Project Gutenberg #1640. Mr. Raven speaks the line within MacDonald’s symbolic Christian fantasy, so it remains fictional and theological in context.

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

The seasonal image turns hardship into a temporary phase: decline can contain the possibility of renewal even when that renewal is not yet visible.

Source note: Final line of Ode to the West Wind; the changing seasons become a metaphor for historical and personal renewal.

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”

Recovery from a dark condition is pictured as difficult and lengthy rather than instant.

Source note: Paradise Lost, Book II; the line describes the difficult ascent from Hell toward light within Milton’s epic setting.

“’Tis the set of the soul that decides its goal and not the calm or the strife.”

The nautical metaphor places direction in the stance a person adopts toward conditions, arguing that purpose can survive both ease and adversity.

Source note: Poems of Optimism, “The Winds of Fate,” first published in this collection in 1913; Project Gutenberg #7421. The statement is metaphorical poetry about agency, not a denial of material constraints or unequal circumstances.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”

Hope is presented as an active foundation for achievement: confidence in possibility helps sustain the effort needed to move from intention to result.

Source note: Optimism: An Essay; Keller connects optimism with purposeful action rather than passive cheerfulness.

“What then remains but well our pow'r to use, And keep good-humour still whate'er we lose?”

Within Clarissa’s speech, the practical response to inevitable loss is to use one’s capacities well and preserve composure rather than trying to make change impossible.

Source note: The Rape of the Lock, Canto V; Clarissa speaks before the poem immediately returns to comic battle, a contrast that keeps the moral counsel inside the satire.