Hope is not the same as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but rather the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Anyone who takes themselves too seriously runs the risk of appearing ridiculous. The same does not happen with someone who is always able to laugh at themselves.
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that he cares less and less about it.