The article presents the results of theoretical and empirical investigation of characteristics of hope. Content analysis of 158 Russian proverbs and sayings, 277 popular modern aphorisms, as well as comparative analysis, allowed to find out that in comparison to folklore linguistic consciousness, there is a trend of decrease in positive attitude to hope in modern people. Hope is evaluated ambivalently. The article points out that there are two clearly distinguished vectors of hope: positive and negative; active and passive.
