Quotes About Expectations

Sometimes when they all talk I feel like shouting, 'so your life went wrong—why assume mine will? Maybe it'll work for me!' But this would only invite a pitying smile, and a 'she'll learn' comment. You can't win with them. You can't even compete.

There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.

She says a wedding is one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth.

It seems to me if I were young and in love I should never deem a man of ordinary caliber worthy of my devotion.

And the ladies, selecting with dainty and discriminating fingers and a little greedily, all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better.

It seemed to be a law of society that hair must be parted and brushed.

If I were young and in love with a man, said Mademoiselle, turning on the stool and pressing her wiry hands between her knees as she looked down at Edna, who sat on the floor holding the letter, it seems to me he would have to be some grand esprit; a man with lofty aims and ability to reach them; one who stood high enough to attract the notice of his fellow-men. It seems to me if I were young and in love I should never deem a man of ordinary caliber worthy of my devotion.

I wanted to live in a clean, renovated Victorian house full of books, not a rough-hewn, unfinished industrial loft. I wanted to raise bright, good kids, to write bright, good novels in a quiet study, to cook wholesome meals and listen to Bach. He wanted to play loud amplified music, sleep late, drink tequila, and travel. It seemed to me that we didn't want to be the people we'd married each other for.

Love!' said the princess. She stamped her foot. 'Why must everyone always speak of love?

and how positively full and brimming-to-burst with words I am. This is what Mrs. Bullwhyte would call one of my extended flights of fancy. She said that I am terribly prone to them and often told me that I should rein myself in or the world was bound to disappoint me.

They lived happily ever after. It said so. In the book. They were the last words on the page. Happily ever after. Despereaux was sure that he had read exactly those words time and time again. Lying on the floor with the drum beating and the mice shouting... Despereaux had a sudden, chilling thought: Had some other mouse eaten the words that spoke the truth? Did the knight and the fair maiden really not live happily ever after?

Normalcy is an illusion, of course," said William Spiver. "There is no normal.

You have too high an opinion of the high command

You learn to ride on the path and keep your eyes open so you can see what is there, not what you wish were there.... And then after all you might discover that what is there is what you wished for all along.

How can it be men would put up with such an arrangement?' 'Why do some people demand it of women but not of men? It is just another way of doing things. As my father would have said, folk will have their customs according to their nature and their surroundings.

There's an old saying: 'be careful what you wish for; you might get it.'" "Oh, gods." A quaver shook Ilya's voice. "The bargains we make with the gods never fall out as we think they will.

what do I deserve? Sylvia contests. Why is the woman always expected to give up on life? She's a writer, not a teacher. She can; she does. She is the arrow, not him, nor him, nor him, these men who would have her be charming and quiet, reciting the names of insects in Latin, stirring something at a stove.

He was a stranger here too; he noticed his accent had softened and his expectations of people had hardened.

Never make financial decisions based on what you assume you'll be earning in the future.

Why must the woman apologize for not having a baby just because she happened to get pregnant? It's as if we think motherhood is the default setting for a woman's life from first period to menopause, and she needs a note from God not to say yes to every zygote that knocks on her door.

We don't like the idea that a man might be severely constrained for life by a single ejaculation. He has places to go and things to do. That a woman's life may be stunted by unwanted childbearing is not so troubling. Childbearing, after all, is what women are for.

don't think women have the right to a self. They are supposed to live for others. Qualities that are seen as normal and desirable in men—ambition, confidence, outspokenness—are perceived as selfish and aggressive in women, especially when they have children.

Our society encourages women to place a very high value on maternity as an essential part of female identity, both a high moral calling and the deepest source of satisfaction on earth. It's not easy to redefine motherhood as handing your baby over to a stranger.

At the Post, we received a lot of unpleasant phone calls, many readers expressing the sentiment that they imagined we were all popping champagne corks to celebrate the result we had wanted from the beginning—in short, the "I-hope-you're-satisfied" school of thought.