“A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment.”

“The burden of this world is too great for one man to bear, and the world’s sorrow too heavy for one heart to suffer.”

“life's greatest disappointments come from the highest expectations.”

“Life delivers far less disappointment when your expectations are low.”

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

“When we refuse to work with our disappointment, we break the Precepts: rather than experience the disappointment, we resort to anger, greed, gossip, criticism. Yet it's the moment of being that disappointment which is fruitful; and, if we are not willing to do that, at least we should notice that we are not willing. The moment of disappointment in life is an incomparable gift that we receive many times a day if we're alert. This gift is always present in anyone's life, that moment when 'It's not the way I want it!”