Hope, the secret weapon of philosopher Byung-Chul Han

Winston Churchill, a man who was very prone to depression, said: “If you are going through hell, keep going.” This advice implies that everything, the good and the bad, is temporary, like life itself.

What kills hope, according to Byung-Chul Han, is not despair; on the contrary, despair is its starting point, the beginning of the journey. As he explains in the prelude to the book, the opposite of hope is fear.