Expectations quotes
1.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside expectations — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"There have been occasions in my later life (I suppose as in most lives) when I have felt for a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and romance, to shut me out from anything save dull endurance any more. Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank, as when my way in life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly-entered road of apprenticeship to Joe."
"We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me."
"No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself."
"I did what I came here to do. What I've done I've done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can't expect much more from life."
"Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise."
"Today, there's an expectation that you get to know public people. In the past, it was much more what you did and how you presented yourself."
"Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to."
"Frustration is a function of our expectations."
"Art is the concrete artifact of faith and expectation, the realization of a world that would otherwise be little more than a veil of pointless consciousness stretched over a gulf of mystery."
"He who awaits much can expect little."
"The person who dumps garbage into your mind will do you considerably more harm than the person who dumps garbage on your floor, because each load of mind garbage negatively impacts your possibilities and lowers your expectations."
"When I needed to overcome the low expectations of others or the bias that would be expressed in one circumstance or another, I'd keep on keeping on. And I climb over the obstacle, go around it, dig under it, fly over it. That's what kept me going. Otherwise I would have never been an astrophysicist."
"Do the work. Out-work. Out-think. Out-sell your expectations. There are no shortcuts."
"We are No. 1 worldwide by quite a margin on the client side and expanding, according to IDC and others, every single quarter. Our expectation is that the industry will consolidate and that more of our competitors will exit."
"The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our action."
"Between the villages of Aubiere and Romagnat in the ancient Province of Auvergne there is an old road that comes suddenly over the top of a high hill. To stand south of this ridge looking up at the highway flowing over the skyline is to receive one of those irrefutable impressions from landscape which requires more than a philosopher to explain. In this case it is undoubtedly, for some reason, one of exalted expectation."
"Other people are not here to fulfill our needs or meet our expectations, nor will they always treat us well. Failure to accept this will generate feelings of anger and resentment. Peace of mind comes with taking people as they are and emphasizing the positive."
"Holidays in general breed unrealistic expectations. The minute you start wondering, 'is it going to be wonderful enough?,' it never will be."
"Value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing."
"The Universe is abundant with everything that you want. It's not testing you. It's benevolently providing for you. But you are the orchestrater. You are the definer, and you do it through your joyous anticipation. If there is an emotion that you are wanting to foster, that would serve you very, very well, it is positive expectation. It is excited anticipation."
