Expectations Quotes - Page 20

• The best use of history is as an inoculation against radical expectations, and hence against embittering disappointments.

  George Will

  Disappointment, History, Use

  George F. Will (1978). “The pursuit of happiness, and other sobering thoughts”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• ...Sometimes I suspect that what had really happened was that we became more resigned, more cynical, raised our pain thresholds as we lowered our expectations. All in all, settled for less.

  Emma Donoghue

  Pain, Cynical, Sometimes

  Emma Donoghue (2013). “Hood”, p.145, Pan Macmillan

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• Oh, come off it,” said Ron, striding over to her and whipping her results out of her hand. “Yep— ten ‘Outstandings’ and one ‘Exceeds Expectations’ at Defense Against the Dark Arts.” He looked down at her, half-amused, half-exasperated. “You’re actually disappointed, aren’t you?

  J. K. Rowling

  Art, Dark, Hands

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• How would I ever know when that moment was right, when expectation met anticipation and formed...connection?

  Rachel Cohn

  Connections, Anticipation, Moments

  Rachel Cohn, David Levithan (2010). “Dash & Lily's Book of Dares”, p.237, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• It's hard to close the door on optimistic expectations when you love someone.

  Dennis Lehane

  Optimistic, Doors, When You Love Someone

  Dennis Lehane (2011). “A Drink Before The War”, p.185, Random House

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• If I fall asleep, it is because I am overloaded. I sleep because one hour with Henry contains five years of my life, and one phrase, one caress answers the expectations of a hundred nights. When I hear him laugh, I say, "I have heard Rabelais.". And I swallow his laughter like bread and wine.

  Anais Nin

  Laughter, Fall, Wine

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• Because gratitude is the key to happiness, anything that undermines gratitude must undermine happiness. And nothing undermines gratitude as much as expectations. There is an inverse relationship between expectations and gratitude: The more expectations you have, the less gratitude you will have.

  Dennis Prager

  Gratitude, Keys, Key To Happiness

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• Fulfill me, make me happy, make me feel safe, tell me who I am. The world cannot give you those things, and when you no longer have such expectations, all self created suffering comes to an end.

  Eckhart Tolle

  Spiritual, Who I Am, Self

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• I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing. I will never define myself in terms of anyone else. I will never feel the pressure of peers or the burden of parental expectation. I can view everyone as pieces of a whole, and focus on the whole, not the pieces. I have learned to observe, far better than most people observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present because that is where I am destined to live.

  David Levithan

  Lonely, Past, Views

  David Levithan (2013). “Every Day”, p.10, Egmont UK

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• ...no way could I fall in love. I just couldn't go there yet. Settle for less. I didn't want to process through anything. I didn't want to pick up any pieces. Lower my expectations.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Falling In Love, Pieces, Want

  Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Invisible Monsters: A Novel”, p.48, W. W. Norton & Company

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• She was too much—for Zenith, Ohio. She’d tried at times to make herself smaller, to fit neatly into the ordered lines of expectation. But somehow, she always managed to say or do something outrageous—she’d accept a dare to climb a flagpole, or make a slightly risqué joke, or go riding in cars with boys—and suddenly she was “that awful O’Neill girl” all over again.

  Libba Bray

  Girl, Boys, Ohio

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• If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.

  Idries Shah

  Giving Up, Able, Perceive

  Idries Shah (1983). “Reflections”, p.141, Octagon Press Ltd

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• I only share when I have no unmet needs that I'm trying to fill. I firmly believe that being vulnerable with a larger audience is only a good idea if the healing is tied to the sharing, not to the expectations I might have for the response I get.

  Brené Brown

  Believe, Healing, Ideas

  Brené Brown (2012). “Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, andLead”, p.162, Penguin

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• If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention.' At first there can be a friction between our expectations of time and Tarkovsky-time and this friction is increasing in the twenty-first century as we move further and further away from Tarkovsky-time towards moron-time in which nothing can last—and no one can concentrate on anything—for longer than about two seconds.

  Geoff Dyer

  Moving, Two, Bored

  "Danger! High-radiation arthouse!" by Geoff Dyer, www.theguardian.com. February 5, 2009.

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• I don’t know. What do people see when they gaze at the sky? Inspiration? Beauty?” She heard him sigh. “Truth be told, this view always intimidated me. The sky’s so vast. I can’t help but feel it has expectations of me. Ones I’m already failing.” He was silent for a long moment. “It reminds me of your eyes.

  Tessa Dare

  Inspiration, Eye, Views

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• The human mind had a remarkable ability both to discount what it sees and make reality conform to expectation.

  Cinda Williams Chima

  Reality, Mind, Ability

  Cinda Williams Chima (2011). “The Warrior Heir”, p.152, Hachette UK

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• Self-actualized people...live more in the real world of nature than in the man-made mass of concepts, abstractions, expectations, beliefs and stereotypes that most people confuse with the world.

  Abraham Maslow

  Real, Men, Self

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• People should be left to believe what they like, so long as they harm no one else. Apart from normal expectations of politeness, it is not however clear why people should require their personal beliefs to be treated with special sensitivity by others, to the point that if others fail to tip-toe respectfully around them they will start throwing bombs.

  A.C. Grayling

  Believe, Long, People

  A. C. Grayling (2004). “Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life Without God”, p.130, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Breath by breath, let go of fear, expectation, anger, regret, cravings, frustration, fatigue. Let go of the need for approval. Let go of old judgments and opinions. Die to all that, and fly free. Soar in the freedom of desirelessness. Let go. Let Be. See through everything and be free, complete, luminous, at home -- at ease.

  Surya Das

  Letting Go, Regret, Home

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• Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for their father's mistakes.

  Barack Obama

  Father, Mistake, Men

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• If one is but secure at the foundation, he will not be pained by departure from minor details or affairs that are contrary to expectation. But in the end, the details of a matter are important. The right and wrong of one's way of doing things are found in trivial matters.

  Yamamoto Tsunetomo

  Important, Foundation, Details

  Miyamoto Musashi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Inazo Nitobe (2010). “Honor: Samurai Philosophy of Life - The Essential Samurai Collection; The Book of Five Rings, Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai, Bushido: The Soul of Japan.”, p.69, Bottom of the Hill

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• Her little butterfly soul fluttered incessantly between memory and dubious expectation.

  George Eliot

  Memories, Butterfly, Soul

  George Eliot (1859). “Adam Bede”, p.115, London

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• I realized early in my career that precisely what one reader doesn't like is what another reader loves. Collectively, any writer's audience presents a mishmash of expectations that can never all be met. What one-tenth of my readership may not be crazy about the other nine-tenths savors. The moment you start altering a book or a painting or any type of art as if it's a public collaborative, you crucify its soul. I'd rather irritate a few people and delight a lot than touch no one." ~ Karen Marie Moning

  Karen Marie Moning

  Art, Crazy, Book

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• For many of us, the hospital was as much a refuge as it was a prison. Though we were cut off from the world and all the trouble we enjoyed stirring up out there, we were also cut off from the demands and expectations that had driven us crazy. What could be expected of us now that we were stowed away in a loony bin?

  Susanna Kaysen

  Crazy, Cutting, World

  Susanna Kaysen (2013). “Girl, Interrupted”, p.94, Vintage

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• I am my own best friend and my own worst enemy. Before coming here, I was thinking I don't deserve it, that i wouldn't be able to meet your expectations, and that you had probably chosen the wrong candidate. At the same time, my heart was telling me that i was being rewarded because i hadn't given up and had fought to the end

  Paulo Coelho

  Heart, Thinking, Worst Enemy

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