35 Anticipation Quotes To Inspire

In every corner of our lives, anticipation plays a vital role in igniting passion, driving motivation, and sparking curiosity. Whether we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a loved one, the realization of a long-held dream, or the simply the turn of a new season, anticipation infuses our daily experience with excitement and purpose. To celebrate the profound impact that anticipation has on our journeys, we have gathered a thoughtfully curated collection of the top 35 anticipation quotes. May these words inspire you to embrace the moments of waiting with hope, enthusiasm, and a renewed sense of wonder.

1. “Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.” - A. A. Milne

2. “It is said there are flowers that bloom only once in a hundred years. Why should there not be some that bloom once in a thousand, in ten thousand years? Perhaps we never know about them simply because this "once in a thousand years" has come today.” - Zamyatin

3. “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting” - Andy Warhol

4. “Anticipating pain was like enduring it twice. Why not anticipate pleasure instead?” - Robin Hobb

5. “Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.” - Dr. Seuss

6. “Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life. Work's important, family's important, but without excitement, you have nothing. You're cheating yourself if you refuse to enjoy what's coming.” - Nicholas Sparks

7. “Some part of me can't wait to see what life's going to come up with next! Anticipation without the usual anxiety. And underneath it all is the feeling that we both belong here, just as we are, right now.” - Alexander Shulgin

8. “..that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself” - Jane Austen

9. “Her fingertips reached to trace the damage, but he grasped her hand with his own. He leaned down, far enough that the dark ends of his hair brushed feather-light against her face, caught in her lashes.” - Kelly Creagh

10. “Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.” - Khaled Hosseini

11. “Remember the botched brothel-visit in L’Education sentimentale and remember its lesson. Do not participate: happiness lies in the imagination, not the act. Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.” - Julian Barnes

12. “The pleasure isn't in doing the thing, the pleasure is in planning it.” - John Green

13. “Anticipation is sometimes more exciting than actual events.” - Ana Monnar

14. “It was an image Melody would never forget. Or was it the emotions the image conjured - hope, excitement, and fear of the unknown, all three tightly braided together, creating a fourth emotion that was impossible to define. She was getting a second chance at happiness and it tickled like swallowing fifty fuzzy caterpillars.” - Lisi Harrison

15. “Clouds out of control decoct anticipation. What use can any of us have for two moons? The miracle of order has run out and I am left in an unmiraculous city where anything may happen.” - Samuel R. Delany

16. “Whereas during those months of separation time had never gone quickly enough for their liking and they were wanting to speed its flight, now that they were in sight of the town they would have liked to slow it down and hold each moment in suspense, once the breaks went on and the train was entering the station. For the sensation, confused perhaps, but none the less poingant for that, of all those days and weeks and months of life lost to their love made them vaguely feel they were entitled to some compensation; this present hour of joy should run at half the speed of those long hours of waiting.” - Albert Camus

17. “...anticipation of happiness can sometimes be as gratifying as its consummation.” - Gaynor Arnold

18. “Suddenly, I was just sure he was going to kiss me. He was there, I could feel his breath, the ground solid beneath us. But then something crossed his face, a thought, a hesitation, and he shifted slightly. Not now. Not yet. It was something I'd done so often - weighing what I could afford to risk, right at that moment - that I recognized it instantly. It was like looking in a mirror.” - Sarah Dessen

19. “It is never ridicule, but a compliment, that knocks a philosopher off his feet. He is already positioned for every possible counter-attack, counter-argument, and retort...only to find a big bear hug coming his way.” - Criss Jami

20. “He ran his finger along my jawline and down my neck. "The wait will be fun, but it's not going to be easy.” - Amy Plum

21. “When I think something nice is going to happen I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation; and then the first thing I realize I drop down to earth with a thud. But really, Marilla, the flying part is glorious as long as it lasts...it's like soaring through a sunset. I think it almost pays for the thud.” - L.M. Montgomery

22. “The days passed in a dream. I pictured our reunion again and again, played it out in my mind over and over until I’d almost worn a groove in my thoughts, so deep that it seemed the only thing I could think of was our reunion. Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hope’s finest expression. In hope’s loss, however, is the greatest despair.” - Steven L. Peck

23. “Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge.” - Eliezer Yudkowsky

24. “I love clean sheets. It's the simultaneous reminiscence of how they got dirtied to begin with, and hopeful anticipation of what stories they will live to tell next time you are standing fatefully in front of the washing machine.” - Kristie LeVangie

25. “At night the cries of cats making love or fighting, their caterwauling in the dark, told us that the world was pure emotion, flung back and forth among its creatures, the agony of the one-eyed Siamese no different from that of the Lisbon girls, and even the trees plunged in feeling.” - Jeffrey Eugenides

26. “Ah! when will this long weary day have end, And lende me leave to come unto my love?- Epithalamion” - Edmund Spenser

27. “Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.” - Honoré de Balzac

28. “I never assume anything. I anticipate the possibilities and allow my imagination to create the future.” - Lionel Suggs

29. “I've never met a woman with divine sweetness in her eyes, or a delicacy in her smile that was so glorious, that it made my heart ascend to grace.” - Lionel Suggs

30. “You ask how it is possible to be your own father and son. You should seek answers, although it is better to anticipate some, to be the light and dream.” - Dejan Stojanovic

31. “...the way a man might hesitate before he kissed a woman, to gauge her reaction, to see how he would be received. Perhaps he would hesitate to prolong the moment, that ideal moment of anticipation, sometimes better than kiss itself.” - Stephenie Meyer

32. “When the wave, equally suddenly, retreated, it left a void which resembled that of the morning, yet had a character of its own, because though the pattern was repeated it was in reverse order: the scattered schoolchildren who passed my window now were on their way home and there was something unrestrained and boisterous about them, whereas when they had walked past on their way to school in the morning they still bore the silent imprint of sleep and the innate wariness we feel toward things that have not yet begun.” - Karl Ove Knausgård

33. “After she's gone, another brief lull sets in. This one is probably the last. But what good is a lull? It's only a breathing spell in which to get more frightened. Because anticipatory fear is always twice as strong as present fear. Anticipatory fear has both fears in it at once - the anticipatory one and the one that comes simultaneously with the dread happening itself. Present fear only has the one, because by that time anticipation is over.("New York Blues")” - Cornell Woolrich

34. “We need the sweet pain of anticipation to tell us we are really alive.” - Albert Camus

35. “I wait for this rare and fleeting event because I can't think of anything else worth waiting for.” - Peter Davis