Expectations Quotes

“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, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“[J]ust the sight of this book, even though it was of no authority, made me wonder how it happened that so many different men – and learned men among them – have been and are so inclined to express both in speaking and in their treatises and writings so many wicked insults about women and their behaviour. Not only one or two ... but, more generally, from the treatises of all philosophers and poets and from all the orators – it would take too long to mention their names – it seems that they all speak from one and the same mouth. Thinking deeply about these matters, I began to examine my character and conduct as a natural woman and, similarly, I considered other women whose company I frequently kept, princesses, great ladies, women of the middle and lower classes, who had graciously told me of their most private and intimate thoughts, hoping that I could judge impartially and in good conscience whether the testimony of so many notable men could be true. To the best of my knowledge, no matter how long I confronted or dissected the problem, I could not see or realise how their claims could be true when compared to the natural behaviour and character of women.”
― Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies

“I believe we must do things in our lives for the right reasons, because we enjoy doing them, with no expectation of getting something back in return. Otherwise, we are constantly being disappointed." She moved her turquoise bracelet back and forth on her wrist. "So I had two sons, John and Richard, because I wanted to, not because I thought they would rescue me in old age. I got out of all social organizations and clubs in my fifties so I could spend time with my grandchildren, not because they would give something back to Jack and me later on, but because that was what I wanted to do--and I have loved doing it. Believe me, these have been selfish decisions.”
― Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“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, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

“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, Graveminder

“Meanwhile she's coldly interrogating me with her eyes. She's definitely in charge of this house and this moment. This must be Chloe.

She escorts me to a table full of people and presents me. She introduces them briefly. This one's from Morocco, that one from Italy, he's Persian--I'm not exactly sure what that means--this one's from "the UK." They're all in their twenties, poised and dismissive. They don't know or care who I'm supposed to be at home or where I went to school. They're measuring something else I can't see and don't understand.

They nod and turn back to each other. They seem to be waiting for a cue from Chloe to release them from having to feign interest. She introduces herself at substantially more length. Her father is Chinese and her mother is Swiss; she grew up in Hong Kong and "in Europe."

I grew up in Michigan and in Michigan. But she didn't ask.”
― Kenneth Cain, Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures) : True Stories from a War Zone

“Press conference [on the movie Carrington] yielded the usual crop of daftness. I've been asked if I related personally to Carrington's tortured relationship with sex and replied that no, not really, I'd had a very pleasant time since I was fifteen. This elicited very disapproving copy from the Brits ... No wonder people think we don't have sex in England.”
― Emma Thompson, The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film

“When viewed on a global scale, the high standards that Japan demanded of its women were off the charts. How much was required from women as default! Attractiveness, chastity, youth, a calm disposition, a prestigious job, a range of hobbies, a winning smile, stylishness, a likeable aura, consideration of others… and then, of course, popularity with other women. Eriko sometimes felt as if the perception that a woman was nothing if other women didn’t love her grew stronger each year.
These days, TV series and films about female friendship outperformed those centering love stories. Everyone flaunted their female friendships on social media. Open up any women’s magazine and there would be articles about the power of women supporting other women. Even at companies like hers, they were constantly doing market research oriented towards girls’ get-togethers, girls’ nights in and so on.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“You tell them they are free,
and then you tie the knot.”
― MissFit Writes, I Did Not Survive. I Just Refused To Stop.

“What do you do?

As if existence
requires a résumé.”
― MissFit Writes, I Did Not Survive. I Just Refused To Stop.

“What do you do?
As if existence
requires a résumé.”
― MissFit Writes, I Did Not Survive. I Just Refused To Stop.

“When you see something from afar, you develop a fantasy. But when you see it up close, 9 times out of 10, you wish you hadn't.”
― Brandon Boyce

“Ride the vicissitudes,
the circles and cycles of choice, chance,
and circumstance,
each in their own time,
all in time;
and
let go
let go
let go all expectation.”
― Shellen Lubin

“She simply decided that at seven, she would stop. Whatever she was doing, whatever she thought she should be doing, whatever she had convinced herself she ought to be doing — she would stop.”
― Belinda Kelderhouse, 21st Century Intolerant: A collection of short stories about the struggles of modern life, from the trivial to the terrifying.

“One broken mug, and the internet had tried to turn her into a business.”
― Belinda Kelderhouse, 21st Century Intolerant: A collection of short stories about the struggles of modern life, from the trivial to the terrifying.

“A lover should beg. This was maybe the most important qualification: that the man should be willing to make himself pathetic. That he should grovel at the feet of the woman's excellence.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“Sometimes we end up becoming what we condemned all our lives.”
― Sakoon Singh, Fourteen Springs of Separation

“Familiarity obscures surprises”
― Israel O. Olaniran

“Expectations make one weak.
It tells you what you seek, but deep down when you look within, you know that when you keep doing the work and give it your all, eventually Everything comes a full circle, you understand that HE doesn't give you what you think you deserve, HE first burns your Karma and lets you see what You most desire never truly desired or fit you, because perhaps, your desires are never limited. He then opens your eyes to your self where you know that You are Whole within, that Materially very little is more than enough and Spiritually even a whole universe of Love is not enough, because Love is boundless, His Love is boundless and you keep searching for that, everywhere you go because you learn the simple truth that Love multiplies and what you give is essentially what resides and binds your core, you understand Life is Simple and the Simplest of All Truth is Contentment, being Content in Knowing that what has fallen in your plate whether it's a huge portion of palatable ecstasy or a small portion of simplest necessities, they all Make Life and even when they take Turns in the Crossroads of Time, you stay composed in Knowing He is Always the Controller, and He wouldn't throw at your way, what you cannot handle. You'll See Fire and walk though it holding His Hand. You'll see thorns, you'll find pebbles and yet smiles will fill your heart and your path will resign.
You have to die countless times to Live in Him.
The tests will tear you apart, your dreams will burn right in front of your eyes and then you will understand the simple truth, all of this is an Illusion and the Truth is One Simple Acknowledgement, of Him. Of His Will. Of His Design.
You came here to learn and Happiness or Success cannot teach you well enough, Pain builds you, Failure sharpens you.
He will teach you, quite literally to turn your Pain into Power and then finally show you the Fallacy of Power, and gift you with the Finest Blessings of Humility, of Kindness, of Grace.
And when your Tamas and Rajas would slowly walk you to your Sattva, you'll be visited by the docile sister of Envy & Greed, Expectation. Expectations in questioning why can't I have what the other person has, don't I deserve it, why did I not get what I sought the most, why did I not receive even after giving so much - all these questions would literally burn your soul and teach you of your self much more than you'd imagine. Forgetting the Cycles of Karma, Forgetting the Transience of Human Happiness or Success. Forgetting the Simple Truth, to Give is not conditioned upon receiving. And when your Heart and Mind would find their Chaos turning your Soul into a Battlefield, HE will gently let you know That HE Is Enough. HE always is.
And Above All, He will paint calm in your Mind and hope in your Heart by telling you, Expectations weaken you.
Because While Expectations are from this Illusionary Transient World, Hope is from your Own Karma and above all of Him, from Him.
It whispers the simplest of all Understandings, Leave It All To Him. HE Knows, HE Always Does.

Love & Light, always
- Debatrayee”
― Debatrayee Banerjee

“Lowering expectations might spare your feelings, but it also limits your results.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, If This Won't Get You Thinking, Nothing Will

“Never stop trying, even when it always slip”
― Israel O. Olaniran

“The most difficult person to please is not the one who wants too much, but the one who does not know what they want.”
― Shon Mehta, The Uncharted Mind

“Reality is sovereign. It is under no obligation to conform to your expectations.”
― Omar Delawar

“Expectation is a mirror. Reality is a hammer.”
― Omar Delawar

“Someone remarks somewhere that 'A man works one-half of his life in order that he may rest the other.' I wonder if those who are successful ever appreciate their rest when they get it! I wonder if it comes up to their expectations! If the goal towards which they have been looking almost since they began to exist is worth the trouble and energy spent on it! Ah, I am afraid they very rarely find it so! They have become so immured in their busy lives that it is difficult to grow accustomed to any other. Unless one is brought up to it, the Dolce far niente is not an existence we enjoy.”
― Jenny Wren, Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl

“When we at last reach
Paradise, it is smaller, and dirtier
Than we expect”
― Kevin Young, For the Confederate Dead

“expectancies, fears, yearnings—

hardly bits of colored glass
revolving in a kaleidoscope:
mist rising from a hot spring

along a river”
― Arthur Sze, Sight Lines

“What did not surprise enough:
my daily expectation that anything would continue,
and then that so much did continue, when so much did not.”
― Jane Hirshfield, Ledger: Poems

“Death: an interruption not passing,
weighing
one hundred and fifty-eight pounds,
carried on cut plywood with yellow straps.

Birth: an interruption between
two windows,
trying to think of any joke, any tune, that is new.

Between them:
this navigation by echolocation and lidar,
the weathers of avalanche, earthquake, tsunami,
firestorm, drought;
a moment that sets down—gently, sleepily—its half-read novel
on a bedside table whose side turned toward the wall stays unpainted,
confident the story will be there again come morning.”
― Jane Hirshfield, Ledger: Poems

“People you love become part of you — not just metaphorically, but physically. You absorb people into your internal model of the world. Your brain refashions itself around the expectation of their presence. After the breakup with a lover, the death of a friend, or the loss of a parent, the sudden absence represents a major departure from homeostasis. As Kahlil Gibran put it in The Prophet, “And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

In this way, your brain is like the negative image of everyone you’ve come in contact with. Your lovers, friends, and parents fill in their expected shapes. Just like feeling the waves after you’ve departed the boat, or craving the drug when it’s absent, so your brain calls for the people in your life to be there. When someone moves away, rejects you, or dies, your brain struggles with its thwarted expectations. Slowly, through time, it has to readjust to a world without that person.”
― David Eagleman