--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I could not blot out hope, for hope…" description: "\"I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future.\" — Lu Xun" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg" --- # I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future. ![“I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future.” quote by Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg) > “I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future.” [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Hope is essential for the future; it cannot be erased because it belongs to what lies ahead. **In simple terms:** Hope belongs to the future. Key Takeaway Nurture hope for tomorrow. Themes hope future resilience Mood inspirational reflective Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - recovering from loss - long‑term planning - social movements Key Concepts existentialism optimism psychology Questions to Reflect On - How does hope influence decision‑making? - When might hope be unrealistic? A Different Perspective Hope can become complacent. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Existential](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/) [Future](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/future/) [Hope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hope/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [Of all our feelings the only one which really doesn't belong to us is hope. Hope belongs to life, it's life itself defending itself.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julio-cort-zar/of-all-our-feelings-the-only-one-which-really-doesn-t-belong-to-us-is-2/) [Julio Cortazar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julio-cort-zar/) > [“Of all our feelings the only one which really doesn't belong to us is hope. Hope belongs to life, it's life itself defending itself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julio-cort-zar/of-all-our-feelings-the-only-one-which-really-doesn-t-belong-to-us-is/) [Julio Cortázar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julio-cort-zar/) > [“the essence of Hope belongs with me.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/morgan-parker/the-essence-of-hope-belongs-with-me/) [Morgan Parker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/morgan-parker/) > [Hope is a terrible thing, she said. Is it? Yes, it keep you living in another place, a place which doesn't exist. For some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-minot/hope-is-a-terrible-thing-she-said-is-it-yes-it-keep-you-living-in/) [Susan Minot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-minot/) > [But anyone who thinks themselves genuinely unbiased is bound to be taken in.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/but-anyone-who-thinks-themselves-genuinely-unbiased-is-bound-to-be/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [You have to reform yourself before reforming society and the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/you-have-to-reform-yourself-before-reforming-society-and-the-world/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [True, we must dare look things in the face before we dare think, speak, act, or assume responsibility. If we dare not even look,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/true-we-must-dare-look-things-in-the-face-before-we-dare-think-speak/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [The world is changing from day to day; it is high time for our writers to take off their masks, look frankly, keenly, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/the-world-is-changing-from-day-to-day-it-is-high-time-for-our-writers/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Why should young people look for guides who hang out gided placards to advertise themselves? They would do better to look for friends, unite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/why-should-young-people-look-for-guides-who-hang-out-gided-placards/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Like students going to school, the planes on their bombing missions fly over Beijing each morning. And each time I hear their engines attack…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/like-students-going-to-school-the-planes-on-their-bombing-missions/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Men who have not known the horror of death are not likely to be awed by it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/men-who-have-not-known-the-horror-of-death-are-not-likely-to-be-awed/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [True fighters dare face the sorrows of humanity, and look unflinchingly at bloodshed. What sorrow and joy are theirs! But the Creator's common device…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/true-fighters-dare-face-the-sorrows-of-humanity-and-look/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Though science has given us many marvels, it has also spoiled many of our pleasant dreams.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/though-science-has-given-us-many-marvels-it-has-also-spoiled-many-of/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [The ability to forget the past enables people to free themselves gradually from the pain they once suffered; but it also often makes them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/the-ability-to-forget-the-past-enables-people-to-free-themselves/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [“One thing I know is true. Try never to abandon hope for if you do, hope will surely try to abandon you.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sally-brampton/one-thing-i-know-is-true-try-never-to-abandon-hope-for-if-you-do-hope/) [Sally Brampton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sally-brampton/) ## More by Lu Xun > [The ability to forget the past enables people to free themselves gradually from the pain they once suffered; but it also often makes them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/the-ability-to-forget-the-past-enables-people-to-free-themselves/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Hope is a path on the mountainside. At first there is no path. But then there are people passing that way. And there is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/hope-is-a-path-on-the-mountainside-at-first-there-is-no-path-but-then/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [It is in the nature of things that some people should be unlucky enough to get their heads chopped off.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/it-is-in-the-nature-of-things-that-some-people-should-be-unlucky/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [The most painful thing in life is to wake up from a dream and find no way out. Dreamers are fortunate people. If no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/the-most-painful-thing-in-life-is-to-wake-up-from-a-dream-and-find-no/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [I entreat fresh visions from the painters. Be lavish with your vermilion to portray the mountains in the spring.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/i-entreat-fresh-visions-from-the-painters-be-lavish-with-your/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Though science has given us many marvels, it has also spoiled many of our pleasant dreams.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/though-science-has-given-us-many-marvels-it-has-also-spoiled-many-of/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Creation, even when it is a mere outpouring from the heart, wishes to find a public. By definition, creation is sociable. Yet it can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/creation-even-when-it-is-a-mere-outpouring-from-the-heart-wishes-to/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [“With the weight of four thousand years of cannibalism bearing down upon me, even if I was once innocent how can I now face…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/with-the-weight-of-four-thousand-years-of-cannibalism-bearing-down/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [True fighters dare face the sorrows of humanity, and look unflinchingly at bloodshed. What sorrow and joy are theirs! But the Creator's common device…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/true-fighters-dare-face-the-sorrows-of-humanity-and-look/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there is nothing - but as people walk this way again and again, a path…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/hope-is-like-a-path-in-the-countryside-originally-there-is-nothing/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Whoever thinks he is objective must already be half drunk.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/whoever-thinks-he-is-objective-must-already-be-half-drunk/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [When a great man has become petrified, and everyone begins to proclaim his greatness, he has already turned into a puppet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/when-a-great-man-has-become-petrified-and-everyone-begins-to-proclaim/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Men who have not known the horror of death are not likely to be awed by it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/men-who-have-not-known-the-horror-of-death-are-not-likely-to-be-awed/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [Like students going to school, the planes on their bombing missions fly over Beijing each morning. And each time I hear their engines attack…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/like-students-going-to-school-the-planes-on-their-bombing-missions/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) > [When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/when-you-talk-with-famous-scholars-the-best-thing-is-to-pretend-that/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) [Explore all 49 Lu Xun quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) ## More Existential quotes > [When we watch a play under the standard circumstances, we've lost volition and time is passing. A still play feels like an existential threat.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-greenberg/when-we-watch-a-play-under-the-standard-circumstances-we-ve-lost/) [Richard Greenberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-greenberg/) > [Sometimes it has to do with other longings that are much more existential. Sometimes you go elsewhere not because you are not liking the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/esther-perel/sometimes-it-has-to-do-with-other-longings-that-are-much-more/) [Esther Perel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/esther-perel/) > [No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/no-shepherd-and-one-herd-everybody-wants-the-same-everybody-is-the/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elon-musk/i-think-we-should-be-very-careful-about-artificial-intelligence-if-i/) [Elon Musk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elon-musk/) > [The argument that won the Brexit campaign is the one that said take back control... which is another way of saying we want to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frans-timmermans/the-argument-that-won-the-brexit-campaign-is-the-one-that-said-take/) [Frans Timmermans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frans-timmermans/) > [“When it has finished saying it, it no longer is. The longer it is in saying it, the more it can say it at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-ponge/when-it-has-finished-saying-it-it-no-longer-is-the-longer-it-is-in/) Francis Ponge > [We have an existential crisis, which is the climate crisis. Canada is one of the laggards in the industrialized world. Our record is terrible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-may/we-have-an-existential-crisis-which-is-the-climate-crisis-canada-is/) [Elizabeth May](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-may/) > [Did television execs have souls? Now, that was an existential question and a half.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-r-ward/did-television-execs-have-souls-now-that-was-an-existential-question/) [J.R. Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-r-ward/) > [“So am I dead? How many kinds of living and dead and living dead and dead living had I been in just these few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-frances-turner/so-am-i-dead-how-many-kinds-of-living-and-dead-and-living-dead-and/) [Joan Frances Turner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-frances-turner/) > [I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/i-can-negate-everything-of-that-part-of-me-that-lives-on-vague/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [I write very rarely. Only, in fact, when the sheet of paper suffers an existential crisis and threatens, if I don't surrender to it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kiki-dimoula/i-write-very-rarely-only-in-fact-when-the-sheet-of-paper-suffers-an/) [Kiki Dimoula](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kiki-dimoula/) > [Michael Jackson is an extremely productive ethnographer, a serious reader of phenomenological and existential philosophy, and a remarkable writer at a level that one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-kleinman/michael-jackson-is-an-extremely-productive-ethnographer-a-serious/) [Arthur Kleinman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-kleinman/) > [If I had to choose between the two ways of approaching the deity, I should prefer the existential relational way, to the abstract philosophical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-moore-cross/if-i-had-to-choose-between-the-two-ways-of-approaching-the-deity-i/) [Frank Moore Cross](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-moore-cross/) > [Huge public spending and borrowing in the face of an existential crisis is clearly the right thing to do, as is putting people's health…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caroline-lucas/huge-public-spending-and-borrowing-in-the-face-of-an-existential/) [Caroline Lucas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caroline-lucas/) > [The ability to forget the past enables people to free themselves gradually from the pain they once suffered; but it also often makes them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/the-ability-to-forget-the-past-enables-people-to-free-themselves/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) [Browse all 616 Existential quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lu Xun" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belongs-to-the-future/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Existential" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belongs-to-the-future/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c04/lu-xun-12813_existential_i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belon_690095.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future.” — Lu Xun", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Lu Xun", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "I could not blot out hope,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belongs-to-the-future/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/i-could-not-blot-out-hope-for-hope-belongs-to-the-future/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```