Quotes about disappointment
page 7

Michelle Obama photo

“I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

Campaign rally, Madison, Wisconsin, CSPAN: Campaign 2008 (18 February 2008)
2000s
Context: What we've learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something — for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.

John F. Kennedy photo

“We have a long way to go. Many weeks and months and years of long, tedious work lie ahead. There will be setbacks and frustrations and disappointments. There will be, as there always are, pressures in this country to do less in this area as in so many others, and temptations to do something else that is perhaps easier. But this research here must go on. This space effort must go on. The conquest of space must and will go ahead. That much we know. That much we can say with confidence and conviction.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, President John F. Kennedy's last formal speech and public words
Context: I think the United States should be a leader. A country as rich and powerful as this which bears so many burdens and responsibilities, which has so many opportunities, should be second to none. And in December, while I do not regard our mastery of space as anywhere near complete, while I recognize that there are still areas where we are behind — at least in one area, the size of the booster — this year I hope the United States will be ahead. And I am for it. We have a long way to go. Many weeks and months and years of long, tedious work lie ahead. There will be setbacks and frustrations and disappointments. There will be, as there always are, pressures in this country to do less in this area as in so many others, and temptations to do something else that is perhaps easier. But this research here must go on. This space effort must go on. The conquest of space must and will go ahead. That much we know. That much we can say with confidence and conviction.

E.M. Forster photo

“I never expect anything to happen now, and so I am never disappointed. You would be surprised to know what my great events are. Going to the theatre yesterday, talking to you now — I don't suppose I shall ever meet anything greater.”

Source: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), Ch. 8
Context: I never expect anything to happen now, and so I am never disappointed. You would be surprised to know what my great events are. Going to the theatre yesterday, talking to you now — I don't suppose I shall ever meet anything greater. I seem fated to pass through the world without colliding with it or moving it — and I'm sure I can't tell you whether the fate's good or evil. I don't die — I don't fall in love. And if other people die or fall in love they always do it when I'm just not there. You are quite right; life to me is just a spectacle, which — thank God, and thank Italy, and thank you — is now more beautiful and heartening than it has ever been before.

Samuel Beckett photo
Bill Bailey photo

“I'm English, and as such I crave disappointment. I actively seek it out.”

Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author

Part Troll (2004)

“Feelings, even the best of them, turn to negativity - disappointment, anger, discontent, resentment, jealousy, guilt, etc. A good feeling starts off being elevating, exciting, like taking a drug substance, alcohol or having sex. But what goes up must come down and feelings are no exception. So in a couple of hours or days the down side starts and you perhaps wonder why you feel moody, depressed, suicidal or just plain unhappy.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Love is not a feeling ~ The Article (1995)
Context: Feelings, even the best of them, turn to negativity - disappointment, anger, discontent, resentment, jealousy, guilt, etc. A good feeling starts off being elevating, exciting, like taking a drug substance, alcohol or having sex. But what goes up must come down and feelings are no exception. So in a couple of hours or days the down side starts and you perhaps wonder why you feel moody, depressed, suicidal or just plain unhappy. You're paying the piper for yesterday's music. And between the upside and the downside is the no-man's and no-woman's land of boredom, indifference, inertia, weariness and pointlessness.

Scott Adams photo

“I wake up every morning disappointed that I have to wear pants and walk. Imagination has a way of breeding disappointment.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Context: Years later, when "Dilbert" was in thousands of newspapers, people often asked me if I ever imagined being so lucky. I usually said no, because that's the answer people expected. The truth is that I imagined every bit of good fortune that has come my way. But in my imagination I also invented a belt that would allow me to fly and had special permission from Congress to urinate like a bird wherever I wanted. I wake up every morning disappointed that I have to wear pants and walk. Imagination has a way of breeding disappointment.

Ingmar Bergman photo

“I was incredibly excited. Because my father was a clergyman we never got our presents on Christmas Eve, like other Swedish children do. We got them on Christmas Day… Well, you can imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be my older brother — he's four years older than myself — who got the projector — and I was given a teddy bear. It was one of my life's bitterest disappointments. After all, my brother wasn't a scrap interested in cinematography. But both of us had masses of lead soldiers. So on Boxing Day I bought the projector off him for half my army and he beat me hollow in every war ever afterwars. But I'd got the projector, anyway.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

Stig Bjorkman interview <!-- pages 6-7 -->
Bergman on Bergman (1970)
Context: In our family we had a well-to-do aunt who always gave us magnificent Christmas presents. She was so much part of the family that we even included her in our prayers at bedtime... I suppose I must have been nine or ten years old at the time. Suddenly Aunt Anna's Christmas presents were lying there too, and among them a parcel with 'Forsner's on it. So of course I instantly knew it contained a projector. For a couple of years I'd been consumed with a passionate longing to own one, but had been considered too small for such a present... I was incredibly excited. Because my father was a clergyman we never got our presents on Christmas Eve, like other Swedish children do. We got them on Christmas Day... Well, you can imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be my older brother — he's four years older than myself — who got the projector — and I was given a teddy bear. It was one of my life's bitterest disappointments. After all, my brother wasn't a scrap interested in cinematography. But both of us had masses of lead soldiers. So on Boxing Day I bought the projector off him for half my army and he beat me hollow in every war ever afterwars. But I'd got the projector, anyway.

Frederick Douglass photo

“God reigns in eternity, and that, whatever delays, disappointments, and discouragements may come, truth, justice, liberty, and humanity will ultimately prevail”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

1890s, Address to the Bethel Literary and Historical Association in Washington
Context: I have no doubt whatever of the future. I know there are times in the history of all reforms, when the future looks dark... I, for one, have gone through all this. I have had fifty years of it, and yet I have not lost either heart or hope... I have seen dark hours in my life, and I have seen the darkness gradually disappearing, and the light gradually increasing. One by one, I have seen obstacles removed, errors corrected, prejudices softened, proscriptions relinquished, and my people advancing in all the elements that make up the sum of general welfare. And I remember that God reigns in eternity, and that, whatever delays, disappointments, and discouragements may come, truth, justice, liberty, and humanity will ultimately prevail.

Ridley Scott photo

“The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level.”

Ridley Scott (1937) English film director and film producer

Esquire interview (2012)
Context: I do despair. That's a heavy word, but picking up a newspaper every day, how can you not despair at what's happening in the world, and how we're represented as human beings? The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level. And the biggest source of evil is of course religion. … Can you think of a good one? A just and kind and tolerant religion? … Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshipping the same god.

Bill Bailey photo
James Joyce photo

“But there was no harshness in the eyes which, looking at the world from under their tawny eyebrows, gave the impression of a man ever alert to greet a redeeming instinct in others but often disappointed. He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glances.”

"A Painful Case"
Dubliners (1914)
Context: But there was no harshness in the eyes which, looking at the world from under their tawny eyebrows, gave the impression of a man ever alert to greet a redeeming instinct in others but often disappointed. He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glances. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a predicate in the past tense.

Robert H. Jackson photo

“These people were the first to master a new type of late twentieth-century life, they thrived on the rapid turnover of acquaintances, the lack of involvement with others, and the total self-sufficiency of lives which, needing nothing, were never disappointed”

Source: High-Rise (1975), Ch. 3
Context: A new social type was being created by the apartment building, a cool, unemotional personality impervious to the psychological pressures of high-rise life, with minimal needs for privacy, who thrived like an advanced species of machine in the neutral atmosphere... [They] were people who were content with their lives in the high-rise, who felt no personal objection to an impersonal steel and concrete landscape, no qualms about the invasion of their privacy by government agencies and data-processing organizations, and if anything welcomed these invisible intrusions, using them for their own purposes. These people were the first to master a new type of late twentieth-century life, they thrived on the rapid turnover of acquaintances, the lack of involvement with others, and the total self-sufficiency of lives which, needing nothing, were never disappointed.

Reza Pahlavi photo
Pelé photo
Tavleen Singh photo
Charles Stross photo

“I’m disappointed in you, Mo: How could you imagine that the militarization of the police might be seen as a huge potential growth market by defense contractors?”

“How indeed.”
Source: The Laundry Files, The Annihilation Score (2015), Chapter 14, “Infected” (p. 284)

Aron Ra photo
Benjamin Creme photo
James McNeill Whistler photo

“One cannot continually disappoint a Continent.”

James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) American-born, British-based artist

Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

Jonah Goldberg photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo
Imran Khan photo

“It (standing by Kashmiris) is jihad. We are doing it because we want Allah to be happy with us, it is a struggle and do not lose heart when the time is not good. Do not be disappointed as the Kashmiris are looking towards you, Kashmiris would win if the Pakistani people stood by their side.”

Imran Khan (1952) Prime Minister of Pakistan

On his return from the United States on Sep 29, 2019. As quoted in Supporting Kashmiris is doing ‘jihad’, says Pakistan PM Imran Khan https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supporting-kashmiris-is-doing-jihad-says-pakistan-pm-imran-khan/article29555561.ece# (September 30, 2019), The Hindu.

Alexandra Kollontai photo

“I am still far from being the type of the positively new women who take their experience as females with a relative lightness and, one could say, with an enviable superficiality, whose feelings and mental energies are directed upon all other things in life but sentimental love feelings. After all I still belong to the generation of women who grew up at a turning point in history. Love with its many disappointments, with its tragedies and eternal demands for perfect happiness still played a very great role in my life. An all-too-great role! It was an expenditure of precious time and energy, fruitless and, in the final analysis, utterly worthless. We, the women of the past generation, did not yet understand how to be free. The whole thing was an absolutely incredible squandering of our mental energy, a diminution of our labor power which was dissipated in barren emotional experiences. It is certainly true that we, myself as well as many other activists, militants and working women contemporaries, were able to understand that love was not the main goal of our life and that we knew how to place work at its center. Nevertheless we would have been able to create and achieve much more had our energies not been fragmentized in the eternal struggle with our egos and with our feelings for another. It was, in fact, an eternal defensive war against the intervention of the male into our ego, a struggle revolving around the problem-complex: work or marriage and love? We, the older generation, did not yet understand, as most men do and as young women are learning today, that work and the longing for love can be harmoniously combined so that work remains as the main goal of existence. Our mistake was that each time we succumbed to the belief that we had finally found the one and only in the man we loved, the person with whom we believed we could blend our soul, one who was ready fully to recognize us as a spiritual-physical force. But over and over again things turned out differently, since the man always tried to impose his ego upon us and adapt us fully to his purposes. Thus despite everything the inevitable inner rebellion ensued, over and over again since love became a fetter. We felt enslaved and tried to loosen the love-bond. And after the eternally recurring struggle with the beloved man, we finally tore ourselves away and rushed toward freedom. Thereupon we were again alone, unhappy, lonesome, but free–free to pursue our beloved, chosen ideal …work. Fortunately young people, the present generation, no longer have to go through this kind of struggle which is absolutely unnecessary to human society. Their abilities, their work-energy will be reserved for their creative activity. Thus the existence of barriers will become a spur.”

Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) Soviet diplomat

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV photo
William Frederick Halsey, Jr. photo

“Missing the Battle of Midway has been the greatest disappointment of my career, but I am going back to the Pacific where I intend personally to have a crack at those yellow bellied sons of bitches and their carriers.”

William Frederick Halsey, Jr. (1882–1959) United States admiral

Speech at the Naval Academy, as quoted in James C. Bradford, Quarterdeck and Bridge: Two Centuries of American Naval Leaders (1997), p. 350.

Tryon Edwards photo

“Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. – In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind?”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?
Misattributed to Tryon Edwards by a number of websites, thinkexist.com and quoteland.com among others. This quote does appear on p. 23 of Edwards' compilation, A Dictionary of Thoughts; however, it is clearly identified there as a quote by Hugh Blair, the Scottish author and preacher.
A genuine Tryon Edwards quote on the subject of anxiety appears above in the Sourced section ( from p. 22 of A Dictionary of Thoughts. )
Misattributed

Sandra Fluke photo
Sandra Fluke photo
Hugh Blair photo

“Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. – In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind?”

Hugh Blair (1718–1800) British philosopher

Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?
Quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern, https://books.google.com/books?id=zlMxAAAAIAAJ ed. Tryon Edwards, F. B. Dickerson Company (1908), p. 23.

Alessandro Del Piero photo

“Del Piero is a champion with extraordinary technical ability and wonderful characteristics. When he is selected he never disappoints. He is an example to us all.”

Alessandro Del Piero (1974) Italian former professional footballer

"He has great skills and intuitions that few other players have". "He is a captain in the real sense of the word".
Marcello Lippi, SoccerItalia.net http://www.socceritalia.net/applications/NewsManager/inc_newsmanager.asp?ItemID=3400&pcid=12&cid=41&archive=yes, JuventusFootball http://web.archive.org/20020312015446/www.geocities.com/juventusfootball/news/archived01/102401.htm

Eudora Welty photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo

“If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true, that it is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is well done.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote of Vincent's letter to Theo, from Amsterdam, 3 April 1878; a cited in The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to his Brother, 1872-1886 (1927) Constable & Co
As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 483
1870s
Variant: Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

Donald J. Trump photo

“It would be really disappointing — not really — but it would depend on what’s inside the magazine. I don’t think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

On 7 March 2006 during an appearance on the daytime talk show The View while discussing the possibility of Ivanka Trump’s posing for Playboy magazine. As quoted in Did Donald Trump Say He’d Like to Date His Daughter? https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-date-daughter/ by Dan Evon, 10 July 2015, Snopes, and quoted with video clip in * 2016-10-10
Adam Withnall
Donald Trump's unsettling record of comments about his daughter Ivanka
The Independent
UK
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-ivanka-trump-creepiest-most-unsettling-comments-a-roundup-a7353876.html
2000s

Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo

“Spending is an opiate to many people, a balm to disappointments, frustrations, emptiness. If the individual transforms that inner distress, there is less need for drugs and distractions.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Ten, The Transformation of Values and Vocation

Alastair Reynolds photo
Colin Powell photo

“Always do your very best. Even when no one else is looking, you always are. Don't disappoint yourself.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Source: It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership (2012), p. 36

Noah Levine photo

“…I act like a hopeful person, but I think that hope is based on having zero expectations. I’ve never expected anything out of life, so I’ve never been disappointed…”

Jia Tolentino (1988) American writer and editor

On whether she considers herself hopeful in “Jia Tolentino: What It’s Like Being the Most Talked About Millennial Writer” https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/11896/jia-tolentino-trick-mirror-book-interview-new-yorker-staff-writer-2019 in AnOther (2019 Sep 15)

Emil M. Cioran photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“To all of my wonderful supporters, I know you are disappointed, but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is just beginning”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

via a Twitter video (2;28) https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1347339437617815552 posted January 7, 2020
2020s, 2021, January 2021

Prabowo Subianto photo

“We must not lose. If we lose, this country could go extinct. Because the Indonesian elites are always disappointing, always failing to carry out the mandate given by the Indonesian people. If the same system is continued, Indonesia will become weak. Indonesia will become even poorer, even more helpless and could even go extinct.”

Prabowo Subianto (1951) Indonesian general and politician

Indonesia could go 'extinct' if I lose election: Prabowo https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/12/18/indonesia-could-go-extinct-if-i-lose-election-prabowo.html The Jakarta Post (December 18, 2018)

Tom Crean (basketball coach) photo
David Lloyd George photo

“If it is not reserved for me to lead the people for whom I have fought all my life to the promised land, I shall feel a pang of disappointment.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to Frances Stevenson (22 January 1929), quoted in My Darling Pussy: The Letters of Lloyd George and Frances Stevenson, 1913–41, ed. A. J. P. Taylor (1975), p. 114
Leader of the Liberal Party

Eddie Mair photo

“I've been waiting to be arrested all day. I'm disappointed!”

Eddie Mair (1965) Scottish broadcaster

[Mair replies] "We're all with you on that one."
Reporter waiting to be arrested on cycle-path (a woman jogger had been arrested and cautioned earlier that week)[citation needed]
From PM and Broadcasting House

Uriah Shelton photo

“You never want to disappoint a fan.”

Uriah Shelton (1997) American actor and singer

Exclusive: Uriah Shelton Gives a Detailed Explanation of His Fight With Rowan Blanchard https://web.archive.org/web/20170506004414/http://www.m-magazine.com/posts/uriah-shelton-rowan-blanchard-girl-meets-world-fight-explanation-131691 (May 6, 2017)

Prevale photo

“An intense sentimental disappointment causes a character change, in which fear takes on a fundamental role.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Un'intensa delusione sentimentale provoca un cambiamento caratteriale, dove la paura assume un ruolo fondamentale.
Source: prevale.net

Éric Zemmour photo

“I still can't go of course. But if I didn't go, I would disappoint a lot of people. One would consider it desertion. As betrayal. And that also counts in my decision-making. I will choose the moment myself. And it will be there soon.”

Éric Zemmour (1958) French essayist

Source: Eric Zemmour: "If I don't run, it will be seen as desertion, as treason" https://palnws.be/2021/09/eric-zemmour-als-ik-me-geen-kandidaat-zou-stellen-zal-het-worden-gezien-als-desertie-als-verraad/ Éric Zemmour on his potential Presidential candidacy.

Milan Stipić photo
Alfred Austin photo
John Wong Soo Kau photo

“We are bound to encounter many failures, difficulties, pains, trials, temptations and disappointments. Whatever it is, we are called to be courageous, striving continuously because Jesus is with us always. He will never abandon us.”

John Wong Soo Kau (1968) Malaysian Archbishop

Archbishop John: True Happiness Is in Serving and Giving, Not Wealth https://www.borneotoday.net/archbishop-john-true-happiness-is-in-serving-and-giving-not-wealth/ (2018)

Jean Ingelow photo
Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach photo
Teal Swan photo
Neale Donald Walsch photo
Prevale photo

“There are a few people at our side who, despite the intensity of a feeling, manage to have lucidity. People who help us to move forward, giving us the strength we need to close doors that have remained open, doors that for too long have continued to let in expectations and hopes, fears and disappointments. These people can be called true friends.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Ci sono alcune persone al nostro fianco che, nonostante l'intensità di un sentimento, riescono ad avere lucidità. Persone che ci aiutano ad andare avanti, dandoci la forza di cui abbiamo bisogno per chiudere porte che sono rimaste aperte, porte che per troppo tempo hanno continuato a far entrare aspettative e speranze, paure e delusioni. Queste persone possono essere chiamate vere amiche.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“A strong disappointment is always one of the main reasons for the interruption of an important relationship.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Una forte delusione è sempre uno dei principali motivi dell'interruzione di un'importante relazione.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Life communicates in a strange way: it does so through signals and codes. You think you already know them all, but you don't. Each person who enters your life teaches you a new word: affection, friendship, trust, competition, success, love, pleasure, respect, longing, loneliness, courage, betrayal, disappointment…. My favourite words have always been love, pleasure, respect and trust; the last one I learnt was courage.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La vita comunica in modo strano: lo fa attraverso segnali e codici. Pensate di conoscerli già tutti, ma non è così. Ogni persona che entra nella vostra vita vi insegna una nuova parola: affetto, amicizia, fiducia, competizione, successo, amore, piacere, rispetto, desiderio, solitudine, coraggio, tradimento, delusione... . Le mie parole preferite sono sempre state amore, piacere, rispetto e fiducia; l'ultima che ho imparato è stata coraggio.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Everything that has disappointed will no longer deceive.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Tutto ciò che ha deluso non ingannerà più.
Source: prevale.net