When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it. Always.

-Mahatma Gandhi1

If you are going through hell, keep going.

-Winston Churchill2

Despair is becoming a permanent fixture in modern life. The problems we face are so enormous and our efforts so inadequate that it often seems that we are in full retreat. It is as if we have suffered a culture-wide stroke as a people, which has paralyzed our ability to think and act in rational ways.

Marcia Angell, physician, author, and the first woman to serve as editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, sums up the reasons for the despair so many people feel. She says, ‘I am in my seventies