What is destructive is impatience, haste, expecting too much too fast.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
Letters are expectation packaged in an envelope.
—Shana Alexander (1925–2005) American Journalist, Editor, Author
Life is largely a matter of expectation.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
Winner expects to win in advance. Life is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
—Indian Proverb
In order to win, you must expect to win.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
—Patricia Neal (1926–2010) American Stage, Movie Actress
The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Your expectations opens or closes the doors of your supply, If you expect grand things, and work honestly for them, they will come to you, your supply will correspond with your expectation.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
We usually get what we anticipate.
—Claude M. Bristol (1891–1951) American Journalist, Self-Help Author
I saw that all beings are fated to happiness: action is not life, but a way of wasting some force, an enervation. Morality is the weakness of the brain.
—Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91) French Poet, Adventurer
High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself.
—Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) Italian-born American Novelist, Writer
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Life … tends to respond to our outlook, to shape itself to meet our expectations.
—Richard DeVos (1926–2018) American Businessman, Philanthropist
Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our father’s have done them or our neighbors do them, and the same is true of a large part than what we suspect of what we think.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
If you paint in your mind a picture of bright & happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that; so it goes on flying anyway.
—Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives.
—Anonymous
Good is not good where better is expected
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
If you don’t see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Real life is, to most men … a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Good is not good, when better is expected.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Even if it is to be, what end do you serve by running to distress?
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
By expectation every day beguiled; dupe of tomorrow even from a child.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car, teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.
—Ben Sweetland
When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.
—Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) English Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Academic
Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life, I find.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.
—Margaret Mitchell (1900–49) American Novelist, Journalist
When you expect things to happen—strangely enough—they do happen.
—J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) American Financier, Philanthropist, Art Collector
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
We could hardly believe that after so many ordeals, after all the trials of modern skepticism, there was still so much left in our souls to destroy.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
The boy who expects every morning to open into a new world finds that today is like yesterday, but he believes tomorrow will be different.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of troubles.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
In our pursuit of the things of this world, we usually prevent enjoyment by expectation; we anticipate our happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures by delightful forethoughts of them; so that when we come to possess them, they do not answer the expectation, nor satisfy the desires which were raised about them, and they vanish into nothing.
—John Tillotson
We tend to live up to our expectations.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright