quote · Legacy record
One spiritual writer has observed that human beings are born with two diseases: life, from which we die; and hope, which says the first disease is not terminal. Hope is built into the structure of our personalities, into the depths of our unconscious; it plagues us to the very moment of our death. The critical question is whether hope is self-deception, the ultimate cruelty of a cruel and tricky universe, or whether it is just possibly the imprint of reality.
One spiritual writer has observed that human beings are born with two diseases: life, from which we die; and hope, which says the first disease is not terminal. Hope is built into the structure of our personalities, into the depths of our unconscious; it plagues us to the very moment of our death. The critical question is whether hope is self-deception, the ultimate cruelty of a cruel and tricky universe, or whether it is just possibly the imprint of reality.
Approximate author period: c. 1973 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Brennan Manning
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1973 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1934 to 2013; Wikidata Q4961254, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4961254 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 29417; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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