‘To have no hope is to thirst beside a fountain’

“Hope is a gift. You can’t choose to have it. To believe and yet to have no hope is to thirst beside a fountain.”
— Ann-Marie MacDonald

Fall on Your Knees, the novel from which today’s quote comes, surely changed Ann-Marie MacDonald’s life. It was a bestseller upon its release in 1996, and her decades-spanning story about a Cape Breton family seemed to be on everyone’s coffee table or shelves for years to come.

The book, as I recall, dives deeply into faith, and its place in a world that was rapidly changing.

This quote is so deeply connected to Materia and her daughters, to religion and their experiences, but it does seem to stand apart from it all. It’s also a fine example of MacDonald’s diction and her insights. I find it such an exquisite way of describing the yearning of a human soul.

I’ve been collecting quotes from books, interviews, speeches, etc., since reviving my blog in January. You can read all of them here.