37 Inspiring Expectation Quotes

In the journey of life, expectations often play a pivotal role, shaping our aspirations, influencing our perspectives, and guiding our actions. Whether they stem from personal ambitions, societal pressures, or the gentle nudges of loved ones, expectations can either propel us forward or weigh us down. However, when approached with wisdom and clarity, they can inspire and uplift. In this collection, we've curated 37 inspiring quotes on expectation, each offering a unique lens through which to view and harness the power of anticipating the future. These quotes are more than just words; they're reminders that while expectations can be daunting, they also harbor the potential for profound growth and transformation. Join us as we explore these insights, each one a beacon of encouragement and a nudge to embrace the balance between hope and reality.

1. “Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” - Charlotte Brontë

2. “He wanted to tell her, from the greater perspective he had, that to own only a little talent, like his, was an awful, plaguing thing; that being only a little special meant you expected too much, most of the time, and liked yourself too little. He wanted to assure her that she had missed nothing” - Mary Robison

3. “Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.” - Margaret Mitchell

4. “We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.” - Hunter S. Thompson

5. “When we set out on the path, we always have a fairly clear idea of what we hope to find. Women are generally seeking their Soul Mate, and men looking for Power. Neither party is really interested in learning. They simply want to reach the thing they have set as their goal.” - Paulo Coelho

6. “The expected always happens” - Benjamin Disraeli

7. “I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.” - Kurt Vonnegut

8. “When you bite into a chocolate truffle, you don't want to find oat bran.” - Laura Kalpakian

9. “If you want to give yourself a fair chance to succeed, never expect too much too soon” - Po Bronson

10. “Like magic, she felt him getting nearer, felt it like a pull in the pit of her stomach. It felt like hunger but deeper, heavier. Like the best kind of expectation. Ice cream expectation. Chocolate expectation.” - Sarah Addison Allen

11. “We all remember epochs in our experience when some dear expectation dies, or some new motive is born.” - George Eliot

12. “Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!” - Fulton J. Sheen

13. “Mara, that's the life I want to give you. That's what I'm offering you. I want to fill you life with color and warmth. I want to fill it with light. Give me a chance” - Francine Rivers

14. “Its like reproaching someone who has no ear for music because he's bored at a symphony concert. Is it fair to blame me because you ascribed to me qualities that I hadn't got? I never tried to deceive you by pretending I was anything I wasn't. I was just pretty and gay. You don't ask for a pearl necklace or a sable coat at a booth in a fair; you ask for a tin trumpet and a toy balloon.” - W. Somerset Maugham

15. “It is too late for me to learn your wisdom in this matter. From the time I knew aught, I have lived with a knight and his lady whose love lit and warmed the dark hall on winter's nights. Madam, my example comes not from any book of romance. My grandparents walked and breathed; they kissed and quarreled. This I must have, and I will seek it with the point of my knife in a bad husband's heart if I can find it no other way.” - Roberta Gellis

16. “You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself. (Quoted by C.S.Lewis in Mere Christianity)” - George MacDonald

17. “It is what you don't expect... that most needs looking for.” - Neal Stephenson

18. “We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infintesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.” - Alan Wilson Watts

19. “From time to time I try to imagine this world of which he spoke--a culture in whose mythology words might be that precious, in which words were conceived as vessels for communications from the heart; a society in which words are holy, and the challenge of life is based upon the quest for gentle words, holy words, gentle truths, holy truths.I try to imagine for myself a world in which the words one gives one's children are the shell into which they shall grow, so one chooses one's children are the shell into which they shall grow, so one chooses one's words carefully, like precious gifts, like magnificent gifts, like magnificent inheritances, for they convey an excess of what we have imagined, they bear gifts beyond imagination, they reveal and revisit the wealth of history.How carefully, how slowly, and how lovingly we might step into our expectations of each other in such a world.” - Patricia J. Williams

20. “I had no hope. Yet expectation lived on in me, the last thing she had left behind. What further consummations, mockeries, torments did I still anticipate? I had no idea as I abided in the unshaken belief that the time of cruel wonders was not yet over.” - Stanisław Lem

21. “Positive expectations are the mark of the superior personality.” - Brian Tracy

22. “Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again so is a bicycle repair kit.” - Billy Connolly

23. “What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.” - Chuck Palahniuk

24. “This is a perfectly good picture. And if I didn't know you, I would be impressed and charmed. But I do know you."He thought some more, wondering whether he dared say precisely what he felt, for he knew he could never explain exactly why the idea came to him. "It's the painting of a dutiful daughter," he said eventually, looking at her cautiously to see her reaction. "You want to please. You are always aware of what the person looking at this picture will think of it. Because of that you've missed something important. Does that make sense?"She thought, then nodded. "All right," she said grudgingly and with just a touch of despair in her voice. "You win."Julien grunted. "Have another go, then. I shall come back and come back until you figure it out.""And you'll know?""You'll know. I will merely get the benefit of it.” - Iain Pears

25. “weren’t you alwaysdistracted by expectation, as if every eventannounced a beloved? (Where can you find a placeto keep her, with all the huge strange thoughts inside yougoing and coming and often staying all night.)…” - Rainer Maria Rilke

26. “You know what talent is? The curse of expectation. As a kid you have to deal with that, beat it somehow. If you can write, you think God put you on earth to blow Shakespeare away. Or if you can paint, maybe you think--I did--that God put you on earth to blow your father away.” - Stephen King

27. “Everyone knew that if you divided reality by expectation, you got a happiness quotient. But when you invert the equation - expectation divided by reality - you didn't get the opposite of happiness. What you got, Lewis realized, was hope.” - Jodi Picoult

28. “Peace beginsWhen expectation ends.” - Sri Chinmoy

29. “If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.” - Idries Shah

30. “My needlework teacher suffered from a problem of vision. She recognised things according to expectation and environment. If you were in a particular place, you expected to see particular things. Sheep and hills, sea and fish; if there was an elephant in the supermarket, she'd either not see it at all, or call it Mrs. Jones and talk about fishcakes. But most likely, she's do what most people do when confronted with something they don't understand. Panic.” - Jeanette Winterson

31. “Breath by breath, let go of fear, expectation, anger, regret, cravings, frustration, fatigue. Let go of the need for approval. Let go of old judgments and opinions. Die to all that, and fly free. Soar in the freedom of desirelessness. Let go. Let Be. See through everything and be free, complete, luminous, at home -- at ease.” - Lama Surya Das

32. “Was my life going to go on like this forever, totally uneventful? Alternating between unfulfilled expectations and expected disappointments?” - Eva Heller

33. “Mirrors are liars. They tell us what we expect to see.” - Susanna Fraser

34. “But look behind you, Mary.' She nodded towards the dais. 'One of the musicians seems to be trying to attract your attention.'It was Peter. He was standing on the dais smiling across at me. My delight at seeing him was such that I could not disguise it - did not try to disguise it.” - Jennifer Paynter

35. “We all have a suspicion and hope that we've just been part of something special, something that may eventually change our lives. That no one else knows this makes it seem like we are living with a secret that we would like to share, but can't, sort of like having a superpower that's not come online or being president elect. For the moment, our lives proceed as usual, but within a month, we think, everything will change. It's a frustrating, if exciting, disconnect.” - Rob Lowe

36. “Thinks that it is a poor sort of life that has not known expectation, the pleasure of savoring ahead. So enjoy it while you have it, he tells himself.” - Penelope Lively

37. “Service and gratitude will fuel your relationship; entitlement and expectation will poison it.” - Steve Maraboli