In Dante’s Inferno, a sign above the gate to hell reads LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH’ENTRATE. ('ABANDON YOU ALL HOPE WHO ENTER HERE').
What is hope?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it means desire combined with expectation.
In other words, hope is selfishness combined with pride: wanting something to fix me, plus the expectation that the universe will mould around my desire and deliver what I want. This is a pure manifestation of ego.
When I am happy, I do not need hope. When I am unhappy, it is not wise to foster selfishness and then to combine it with the delusion I can see and maybe even control the future, in order to comfort myself. In fact, it is possibly the most insane form of comfort. If I am unhappy, it means I have not got my own way, contrary to my expectations. In other words: "I wanted and expected something but didn't get it. But I'm going to make myself feel better by continuing to want and expect something, disassociate from the Now, and live in a fantasy future."
A better response to unhappiness: I'm unhappy because I am deluded in thinking I need anything to go my way to be OK. The only reason I'm not happy is because I wish things were otherwise. Everything is always OK. Even pain, even physical pain, is OK, as long as I accept it, being present to the sensations in my body. When I do that, and the narrative drops, all is well in the Now.
Hope is the poison administered to the poisoned. The preferable solution is to remove the original poison.
Abandon ye all hope and enter the Now.