56 Quotes About Managing Expectations

In a world constantly buzzing with anticipation and ambition, managing expectations has become an art form crucial for maintaining balance and peace of mind. Whether in personal relationships, professional endeavors, or the pursuit of personal goals, the way we handle expectations can significantly influence our experiences and outcomes. The wisdom distilled through the ages offers valuable insights into managing these expectations, providing us with a roadmap to navigate life's uncertainties. In this collection, we bring you 56 thought-provoking quotes that capture the essence of setting, adjusting, and understanding expectations, offering guidance and inspiration for those striving to find harmony in a world of unpredictability. Dive in and explore timeless wisdom that could reshape your approach to life's challenges.

1. “I have often noticed that we are inclined to endow our friends with the stability of type that literary characters acquire in the reader's mind. [...] Whatever evolution this or that popular character has gone through between the book covers, his fate is fixed in our minds, and, similarly, we expect our friends to follow this or that logical and conventional pattern we have fixed for them. Thus X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second-rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances can Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less often we see a particular person, the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous but unethical. We could prefer not to have known at all our neighbor, the retired hot-dog stand operator, if it turns out he has just produced the greatest book of poetry his age has seen.” - Vladimir Nabokov

2. “My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus."[The Science of Second-Guessing (New York Times Magazine Interview, December 12, 2004)]” - Stephen W. Hawking

3. “Many things have been written and will be written for dream. Dreams are nothing but our unclear expectations.” - Santosh Kalwar

4. “Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.” - Samuel Johnson

5. “Would you like to know your future?If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence -- a surprise.” - Vera Nazarian

6. “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.” - C.S. Lewis

7. “When we pick up the newspaper at breakfast, we expect - we even demand - that it brings us momentous events since the night before...We expect our two-week vacations to be romantic, exotic, cheap, and effortless..We expect anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. We expect to be inspired by mediocre appeals for excellence, to be made literate by illiterate appeals for literacy...to go to 'a church of our choice' and yet feel its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be God. Never have people been more the masters of their environment. Yet never has a people felt more deceived and disappointed. For never has a people expected so much more than the world could offer.” - Daniel Boorstin

8. “It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means conform to our wishes.” - Robert E. Lee

9. “I, a product of the New Frontier and Great Society, honestly believed that the world pretty much owed me a living--all I had to do was wait around in order to live better than my parents.” - Anthony Bourdain

10. “What I have since realized is that if people expect you to be brave, sometimes you pretend that you are, even when you are frightened down to your very bones. ” - Sharon Creech

11. “We're wired to expect the world to be brighter and more meaningful and more obviously interesting than it actually is. And when we realize that it isn't, we start looking around for the real world.” - Lev Grossman

12. “It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.” - Fulton J. Sheen

13. “Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people.” - Brenda Ueland

14. “When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” - Paulo Coelho

15. “What's the first sign of a lurking, hidden expectation you didn't know you had? Pain! People don't do what we want, things don't happen quickly enough, the weather doesn't cooperate, our bodies don't cooperate. Why are these moments so painful? Because our minds are focused on a static, unchanging, me-centric picture while the dynamic unfolding of a broader life continues around us. There is nothing wrong with expectations per se, as it's appropriate to set goals and work, properly, towards their fruition. But the instant we feel pain over life not going "my way," our expectations have clearly taken an improper turn. Any moment you feel resistance or pain, look for -- and then let go of -- the hidden expectation. Practice giving yourself over to what "you" don't want. Let the line at the store be long. Let the other person interrupt you. Let the nervousness make you shake. Be where your body is, not where your mind is trying to take you.” - Guy Finley

16. “The secret self knows the anguish of our attachments and assures us that letting go of what we think we must have to be happy is the same as letting go of our unhappiness.” - Guy Finley

17. “...You don't always get what you expect. I wish someone, sometime when I was growing up, would have told me what expectations would get me. ... Our parents, schools, everyone tells us things will be a certain way when we're adults and if they're not that way, we should make them be; or at least pretend. But after a certain point that just doesn't work.” - Chris Crutcher

18. “I'd proven to the world that maturity, experience, dedication, and ingenuity can make up for a little senescence. Muscle tightening is not the only thing that happens to our bodies over time. We gain knowledge, focus, and understanding, and those things can help us win.” - Dara Torres

19. “I am afraid I shall disappoint people's expectations dreadfully.” - Jude Morgan

20. “No expectations mean there is no risk of disappointment.” - Jude Morgan

21. “One recipe for happiness is to have to sense of entitlement.' To this she added a star and noted at the bottom of the page: 'This is not a lesson I have ever been in a position to learn.” - Alan Bennett

22. “I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than fatally disappointed.” - Julia Glass

23. “It's okay. You're going to save me, Miss Maylene." The girl gave her a genuine look of happiness. "I know it. I knew if I found you everything would be okay.” - Melissa Marr

24. “I've always liked rooms where the party hasn't started yet...I love the feeling that anything could happen. After the party, when anything already has happened, there's usually the inevitable fact to face that anything wasn't all you'd hoped it to be.” - Jillian Lauren

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

26. “Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.” - Brandon Sanderson

27. “...“Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them,” exclaimed Anne. “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.”...” - L.M. Montgomery

28. “Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed.” - Patricia McCormick

29. “She sang, as requested. There was much about love in the ballad: faithful love that refused to abandon its object; love that disaster could not shake; love that, in calamity, waxed fonder, in poverty clung closer. The words were set to a fine old air -- in themselves they were simple and sweet: perhaps, when read, they wanted force; when well sung, they wanted nothing. Shirley sang them well: she breathed into the feeling, softness, she poured round the passion, force: her voice was fine that evening; its expression dramatic: she impressed all, and charmed one.On leaving the instrument, she went to the fire, and sat down on a seat -- semi-stool, semi-cushion: the ladies were round her -- none of them spoke. The Misses Sympson and the Misses Nunnely looked upon her, as quiet poultry might look on an egret, an ibis, or any other strange fowl. What made her sing so? They never sang so. Was it proper to sing with such expression, with such originality -- so unlike a school girl? Decidedly not: it was strange, it was unusual. What was strange must be wrong; what was unusual must be improper. Shirley was judged.” - Charlotte Brontë

30. “Expectations are dangerous when they are both too high and unformed.” - Lionel Shriver

31. “She was heavier than he expected - women always are.” - Sylvia Townsend Warner

32. “Eccentricity may be diverting, Mama, but it is out of place in a wife: certainly in my wife!” - Georgette Heyer

33. “Today, I feel stronger, learning to live within the natural cycles of a day and to not expect too much of myself. As women, we hold the moon in our bellies. It is too much to ask to operate on full-moon energy three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I am in a crescent phase.” - Terry Tempest Williams

34. “You are your own worst enemy. If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you.” - Lisa Kleypas

35. “When people starts to enjoy a writer's pen, he becomes a legend even if his stories are neither long nor publicly surrounded by expectations.” - A. Saleh

36. “Maybe my expectations for honesty are too high.” - Kelley Armstrong

37. “You see what you expect to see, Severus.” - J.K. Rowling

38. “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” - Mark Twain

39. “Madeline knew how that was. So many people had ideas of what you should and shouldn't do, but in the end you had to decide for yourself.” - Ellen Airgood

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

41. “It's easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.” - George Eliot

42. “To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect” - Jane Austen

43. “A successful person expects a clapping hand, an ailing person expects an open hand.” - Anthony Liccione

44. “When it comes to current attitudes about surgery, the practice of dismissing the cultural context and rationalizing it as individual betterment "flattens the terrain of power relations." In other words, we can talk about doing it for us until our high-end lipstick flakes off, but we should also keep in mind that we probably wouldn't even be thinking about what life would be like with a new nose or perkier breasts or shapelier inner thighs if it weren't for a long-standing cultural ideal that rewards those who adhere to it with power that often doesn't speak its name, but is instantly recognizable to those who don't have it.” - Andi Zeisler

45. “Phoebe doesn't quite believe in fate the way I do. She says you have to chase your destiny, and she always expects life to be like a romantic comedy: all you have to do is dress the part of the heroine, and pretty soon you'll be kissing some hottie while fountains spew and music swells in the background.” - Lauren Morrill

46. “We need to have far less confidence in what man can do and far moreconfidence in what God can do for every believing soul. He longs to haveyou reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great thingsfrom Him. He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as inspiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact andskill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will begiven you.” - Ellen G. White

47. “When our hopes for performance are not completely met, realistic optimism involves accepting what cannot now be changed, rather than condemning or second-guessing ourselves. Focusing on the successful aspects of performance (even when the success is modest) promotes positive affect, reduces self-doubt, and helps to maintain motivation (e.g., McFarland & Ross, 1982).... Nevertheless, realistic optimism does not include or imply expectations that things will improve on their own. Wishful thinking of this sort typically has no reliable supporting evidence. Instead, the opportunity-seeking component of realistic optimism motivates efforts to improve future performances on the basis of what has been learned from past performances.” - Sandra L. Schneider

48. “To expect to be kissed having bad breath is the secret of a fool.” - Dejan Stojanovic

49. “It's no use going the extra mile if people don't expect it. You will never get extra credit for it. Just invest it on something else.” - Sartika Kurniali

50. “You get what you expect and you deserve what you tolerate.” - Mark Graban

51. “Was it too much to ask that she find someone who wanted the same things in life as she did--a home, someone to lean on when the not-so-perfect times came crashing down?” - Christie Craig

52. “none of my art is based on how others think i should have done it.” - Darnell Lamont Walker

53. “Yet how bored they both looked, and how wearily Ethel regarded Jim sometimes, as if she wondered why she had trained the vines of her affection on such a wind-shaken poplar.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

54. “Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.” - V.S. Naipaul

55. “Farid, you are keeping a hawk; don't expect her to lay eggs like a chicken.” - Michael Gruber

56. “It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.” - Thucydides