Quotes about disappointment
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“I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.”

Richard Russo (1949) American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter

“Pleasing things: finding a large number of tales that one has not read before. Or acquiring the second volume of a tale whose first volume one has enjoyed. But often it is a disappointment.”

Sei Shonagon book The Pillow Book

Source: The Pillow Book

Reading

“So many dreams, so many disappointments, so many promises. And in the end, they all just vanish.”

Haruki Murakami book Pinball, 1973

Source: Pinball, 1973

Dreams

“Expectations should not always be taken as reality; because you never know when you will be disappointed.”

Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist

Reality

“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Dreams, Way, Success, Motivational

“Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too.”

Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic

Men, Hate, Selfishness

“Change is inevitable, though," he replied. "As is disappointment. Best to get used to it now.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

Change

“Me? I had no dreams. No longings. Dreams only set you up for disappointment. Plus, you had to have a life to have dreams of a better life.”

Julie Anne Peters Luna

Source: Luna

Life, Dreams

“When you go through a disappointment, when you go through a loss, don’t stop on that page. Keep moving forward. There’s another chapter in front of you, but you have to be willing to walk into it.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life

Loss

“One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

“Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Way, For Friend

“Those who hope, by retiring from the world, to earn a holiday from human frailty, in themselves and others, are usually disappointed.”

Iris Murdoch book The Bell

Source: The Bell

World, Hope, Holiday

“It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Source: Foundation

Feeling, Nature

“The best relationships were the ones where both sides went out of their way to make sure the other wasn't disappointed.”

Jodi Picoult book The Tenth Circle

Source: The Tenth Circle

Way

“There is an unfair responsibility that comes with being an only child - you grow up knowing you aren't allowed to disappoint, you're not even allowed to die.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

“He also didn't mind Piper's using him for a pillow. She had a cute way of breathing when she slept - inhaling through the nose, exhaling with a little puff through the mouth. He was also disappointed when she woke up.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Way

“I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Hope

“I can't believe he didn't have the dignity and presence of mind just to get drunk and pass out in some gutter," said Jace. "I must say, I'm disappointed in the little fellow.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“Buried beneath disappointment and fear, anger and pride, I just might find it in my heart to forgive.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Heart of the Matter

Fear, Forgiveness, Heart, Anger

“You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die (1998)

God

“After the pain of this disappointment her heart once more stood empty, and the succession of identical days began again.”

Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary

Source: Madame Bovary

Pain, Success, Heart

“He could bear the dying, but not the disappointment.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: Erak's Ransom

“We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Love, Reality

“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.”

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) English composer, conductor, and pianist

Love, Pain, Beauty, Music

“Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Variant: Don't expect much, and you won't be disappointed.
Source: The Wizard Heir

“I'd lost count of the disappointments.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Love God and He will enable you to love others even when they disappoint you.”

Francine Rivers (1947) American writer

Source: And the Shofar Blew

Love, God

“If while alive you hurt or disappoint people you love, there's no use continuing such behavior when you're dead.”

Anthony Swofford book Jarhead

Source: Jarhead

Love, People, Behavior, Hurt

“All the way up the river she's been holding back somehow, waiting. Now you'll both have to wait. I'm not going to disappoint her, Kit. When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.”

Elizabeth George Speare book The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Source: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Way, Waiting

“It's disappointing to know that someone can see right through you.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“You look disappointed to see me, Zach," Macey teased. "Don't you like my jacket?”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“The platform underneath the balloon fell on her as she was trying to escape," she explained. "She was crushed."
"I'd have been disappointed too.”

Anthony Horowitz book Scorpia

Source: Scorpia

“I'd never been a big fan of disappointment.”

Michelle Rowen (1971) Canadian writer

Source: Primal

“Myrnin was silent for a beat, and then he said, "Bob would be very disappointed in you.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Black Dawn

“Everyone has their first date and the object is to hide your flaws. And then you're in a relationship, and it's all about hiding your disappointment. And then, once you're married, it's about hiding your sins.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“Shame resilience is the ability to say, “This hurts. This is disappointing, maybe even devastating. But success and recognition and approval are not the values that drive me. My value is courage and I was just courageous. You can move on, shame.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Courage, Success, Hurt

“I find I very rarely live up to my words. And since you know me primarily through my words, there are oh so many ways I can disappoint.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Way

“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Variant: You have passed through the two hardest tests on the spiritual road: the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter.
Source: Veronika Decides to Die

Courage, Waiting, Patience, Courageous

“Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book.”

Anita Desai (1937) Indian novelist

Books, Hope, Feeling, Motivation

“Can I ask you a question?" "I'd be disappointed if you didn't." "How many of those suits do you have? Do you like, send them to the laundry, or throw them out and put on a new one when it gets all gamey?" - Bobby talking to Saint Dane, RR”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

Question

“I tell you this as a cautionary tale: beware of getting what you want. It's bound to disappoint you.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

“We tend to think, 'Life should be fair because God is fair.' But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life- by expecting constant good health for example- then I set myself up for crashing disappointment.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

Life, God, Health, Thinking

“He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Source: Doctor Zhivago

Life, Women, Men, God

“If you have read 6,000 books in your lifetime, or even 600, it's probably because at some level you find 'reality' a bit of a disappointment.”

Joe Queenan (1950) American writer

Source: One for the Books

Books, Reality, Reading

“From a distance, it makes perfect sense that the people and the things you think will save you are the very ones that have the power to disappoint you most bitterly, but up close it can hit you as a bewildering surprise.”

Tom Perrotta (1961) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: Joe College

People, Thinking, Sense, Perfection

“It's kind of silly to feel so disappointed about something you only just realized you wanted, isn't it?”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Feeling

“When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God, Friendship, Question, Suffering

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper (2004)

People, World, Solitude

“Sometimes when family members least deserve love, they need it most. Love is not appropriately expressed in threats, accusations, expressions of disappointment, or retaliation. Real love takes time, patience, help, and continuing performances.”

Marvin J. Ashton (1915–1994) Apostle of the LDS Church

Love, Family, Time, Help

“Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Letter, written in collaboration with John Gay, to William Fortescue (23 September 1725).
A similar remark was made in a letter to John Gay (16 October 1727): "I have many years magnify'd in my own mind, and repeated to you a ninth Beatitude, added to the eight in the Scripture: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."
Variant: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Context: "Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" was the ninth Beatitude which a man of wit (who, like a man of wit, was a long time in gaol) added to the eighth.

“Anger is really disappointed hope.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Hope, Anger

“Tom has a theory that homosexuals and single women in their thirties have natural bonding: both being accustomed to disappointing their parents and being treated as freaks by society.”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Women, Nature, Parent

“most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Wilson Lewis, Epilogue, p. 262-263
Variant: But most of all, I learned that it’s possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there’s been a lifetime of disappointment between them.
Source: 2000s, The Wedding (2003)
Context: The events of the past year have taught me much about myself, and a few universal truths. I learned, for instance, that while wounds can be inflicted easily upon those we love, it's often much more difficult to heal them. Yet the process of healing those wounds provided the richest experience of my life, leading me to believe that while I've often overestimated what I could accomplish in a day, I had underestimated what I could do in a year. But most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.

Love, People, Learning

“Living in your dreams meant bitter disappointment when you woke up.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Dreams