1999
Quotes about expectation page 2
1978
Unknown author
“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
As quoted in Trigger Events – How To Find Your Next Customer (2007) by Alen Majer, p. 22
“Keep your expectations tiny you'll go through life not so whiney.”
Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist
“Oh, did you expect me to play fair?" Cupid laughed. "I am the god of love. I am never fair.”
Rick Riordan book The House of Hades
Source: The House of Hades
“I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.”
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) Founding Father of the United States
“We all give up great expectations along the way.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game
Source: The Angel's Game
Carol Gilligan (1936) American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist
Source: In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development
“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.”
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author
As quoted in "The Science of Second-Guessing", The New York Times (12 December 2004)
Unsourced variant: "When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have."
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Source: A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety
Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Source: The Prophecy Answer Book
“Expectation is the root of all heartache.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
The Crisis No. IV.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
“Just keep your conscious mind busy with expectation of the best.”
Joseph Murphy The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Source: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey
Source: The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer To The Heart Of God
“Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.”
Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus
Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.
Book III, line 425
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
Source: Heroides
Context: Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Source: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists
Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists#t-1300116 We should all be feminists
“Expectations destroy our peace of mind. They are future disappointments, planned out in advance.”
Elizabeth George (1949) American woman mystery and thriller writer
Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Variant: Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 164
Context: Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it. A strength which becomes clearer and stronger through its experience of such obstacles is the only strength that can conquer them. Resistance is only a waste of strength.
“That's the thing about lessons, you always learn them when you don't expect them or want them.”
Cecelia Ahern book If You Could See Me Now
Source: If You Could See Me Now
“Whoever submits himself to a super-discipline can expect great triumphs.”
Samael Aun Weor (1917–1977) Colombian writer
“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”
Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead
Source: The Fountainhead
Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
“Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Context: Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power. Men wrongly complain of Experience; with great abuse they accuse her of leading them astray but they set Experience aside, turning from it with complaints as to our ignorance causing us to be carried away by vain and foolish desires to promise ourselves, in her name, things that are not in her power; saying that she is fallacious. Men are unjust in complaining of innocent Experience, constantly accusing her of error and of false evidence.
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: Through the Zombie Glass
Rainer Maria Rilke book Duino Elegies
First Elegy (as translated by Stephen Mitchell)
Source: Duino Elegies (1922)
Context: Yes—the springtimes needed you. Often a star
was waiting for you to notice it. A wave rolled toward you
out of the distant past, or as you walked
under an open window, a violin
yielded itself to your hearing. All this was mission.
But could you accomplish it? Weren't you always
distracted by expectation, as if every event
announced a beloved? (Where can you find a place
to keep her, with all the huge strange thoughts inside you
going and coming and often staying all night.)
“no expectations, no disappointments!”
Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author
Sleeping with Strangers
Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym
Source: The Devil and Miss Prym [O Demônio e a srta Prym] (2000), p. x; this has also been misquoted as "A moment is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny."
Context: When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.
“I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.”
Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer
Source: Tropic of Cancer
“Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“Never expect God to do for you what you don't do to others.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
“Sometimes the key to happiness is just expecting a little bit less”
Jodi Picoult (1966) Author
Source: Between the Lines
Douglas Adams The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Source: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), Ch. 4
“How can we expect something positive to come from all the negative that we put into this world?”
Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada
speech at Florida International University, "Live, Art and Spirituality" (October 14, 2006)
2007, 2008
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973) Tamil politician and social reformer
Quote in Life History Of E.V.Ramasamy, Priyar Center http://www.periyarcentre.in/abtperiyar.html <br class="br">Reform
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Statement on Cuban policy (December 2014)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher
Lectures of 1946 - 1947, as quoted in Ludwig Wittgenstein : A Memoir (1966) by Norman Malcolm, p. 43
1930s-1951
Jules Verne book Around the World in Eighty Days
Qu'un Anglais comme lui fît le tour du monde un sac à la main, passe encore; mais une femme ne pouvait entreprendre une pareille traversée dans ces conditions.
Source: Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), Ch. XX: In Which Fix Comes Face to Face with Phileas Fogg
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1900s, Inaugural Address (1905)
“Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top
They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop”
Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter
Last Call
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer
Martin Scorsese http://www.flixster.com/actor/leonardo-di-caprio/leonardo-dicaprio-quotes <br class="br">About
Dick Gregory (1932–2017) American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur
Dick Gregory's Political Primer (Harper & Row, 1972), p. 262.
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to Alfred Galpin (27 May 1918), published in Letters to Alfred Galpin edited by S. T. Joshi, p. 18
Non-Fiction, Letters
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor
"Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World" in Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator
From Interview to the author , in Osamu Tezuka, Jumping ; quoted in AA.VV., Osamu Tezuka: A Manga Biography , vol. 4, translated by Marta Fogato, Coconino Press, Bologna, 2001, p. 178. ISBN 8888063188
“Unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments.”
Neil Strauss book The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships
The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships (2015)
Golda Meir (1898–1978) former prime minister of Israel
Speech to the Knesset, reported in Ner (October 1961)
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics
Drafts on the history of the Church (Section 3). Yahuda Ms. 15.3, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel. 2006 Online Version at Newton Project http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00220