Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them.

There is an authentic biology of hope. Belief and expectation - the key elements of hope - can block pain by releasing the brain's endorphins and enkephalins, mimicking the effects of morphine.

Hope can be imagined as a domino effect, a chain reaction, each increment making the next increase more feasible... There are moments of fear and doubt that can deflate it.

Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them.

Hope is the elevating feeling we experience when we see - in the mind's eye - a path to a better future.

To hope under the most extreme circumstances is an act of defiance that permits a person to live his life on his own terms. It is part of the human spirit to endure and give a miracle a chance to happen.

I had learned that every patient has the right to hope, despite long odds, and it was my role to help nurture that hope.