And as I watched him, I knew that in every dark night there was, somewhere, a small light burning that could never be quenched.

Hope is such a tenuous quality. To feel it and then to be denied what one most longs for ... Better, surely, not to hope at all, than to open the heart to a hope that is impossible.

Dawn will come,’ I told him quietly. ‘The night can be very dark; but I’ll stay by you until the sun rises. These shadows cannot touch you while I am here. Soon we’ll see the first hint of grey in the sky, the color of a pigeon’s coat, then the smallest touch of the sun’s finger, and one bird will be bold enough to wake first and sing of tall trees and open skies and freedom. Then all will brighten and color will wash across the earth and it will be a new day. I will stay with you, until then.

Hope fought hard to stay alive. Even when you thought it was beaten to nothing, burned to ashes, drowned deep, still it flickered away, waiting to be found again.

That's what it is to be a hero," Riordan says. "It's fighting on even when you're hopelessly outnumbered. It's seeing your friends dying all around you, witnessing the most shocking cruelty you could imagine, and still finding the courage to go on. It's doing the very best you can.

To allow hope into the heart is to open oneself to bitter disappointment.

With courage and hope, we can conquer our fears and do what we once believed impossible.

The most powerful weapon is hope.

There's a light shining in him, moving him forward: the light of freedom. That's what draws all of us to follow, to take risks, to keep on fighting when we see our comrades fall beside us. But there's no light without shadow.