It is better to hope and to be wrong, than never to have hoped in the first place. It is like the notion that it is better to try, and fail, then to give up not having made the attempt. Better to go down swinging than looking. A noble attempt, that makes you the better meaning of the word human: it exercises the heart more than as a muscle. It is also a show of strength, especially when you have hoped before and been let down, that a certain courage is required to hope once more. And of course, there is even a patron saint of lost causes, one St. Jude. There is no saint of bitterness, no saint of cynicism. Of love, faith, and hope, love is the greatest and hope is most likely viewed as the least, but how powerful the smallest candle when shining in a vasty dark. There is always hope: just believe this, and it will be true. Light that candle.