“Expectations are dangerous when they are both too high and unformed.”

“Maybe my expectations for honesty are too high.”

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

“I am not dangerous. Only the stories are dangerous. Only the fictions we create, especially when they become expectations.”

“…brotherhood of the firstborn, which can be both a blessing and a curse: the overwhelming attention to the detail of their lives and development. The expectations that run too high: being the bridge between adults and children, one foot in either place and the accompanying hollow lonely feeling of being nowhere.”

“It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him.Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.”