The Latin word for hope, sperare, comes from the an Indo-European root spei, which means to expand. You can hear that old root in prosper, and you can hear its denial in despair. To be hopeful is not only to feel expansive, but to count on an ever-flowing bounty, while to despair is to feel constrained, to fear that the springs of life are drying up.
— Scott Russell Sanders, Hunting for Hope