Quotes About Expectations

In the modern world, we often find ourselves in the unnatural position of meeting someone who knows little or nothing about us. That can add a little pressure to the occasion, and it may add more if your mother was prone to saying "You get only one chance to make a good first impression!" You may find yourself scanning the person for feedback so intensively that you start seeing things that aren't there.

Being big and famous doesn't get you more freedom, it gets you less.

Nothing good ever comes of love. What comes of love is always something better. But better can sometimes mean worse, if you're a woman

When I was an adolescent I wanted to be a Jew, a Bolshevik, black, homosexual, a junkie, half-crazy, and--the crowning touch-- a one-armed amputee, but all I became was a literature professor.

Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.

A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. "We're supposed to be celebrating our two-week anniversary tonight." "Uh, news for you, honey - two weeks is no anniversary." "What should I tell him? I don't even want to go." "Tell him you just got a new bra and it's shy around strangers.

The dreams that we have in pregnancy are tainted with the worries and joys of pregnancy and the changing roles of our lives.

Lolly nods. "Though when is the right time for that? I asked her for a new sports bra since I outgrew my last one and she looked at me as if I'd just asked her to buy me a pony.

Who are you? Just because you break hearts doesn't make you a heartbreaker. Just because you get straight A's doesn't make you a success. Just because you have a college consultant doesn't make you college bound. Just because you fail to act doesn't make you cowardly. Just because you need help, doesn't make you weak. Just because the world sees you as something or as nothing doesn't mean anything at all.

Too many folk, women and men, love the person they wish to be, as if by loving that person, or being loved by that person, they could attain the importance they long for.

You're not who he expected you to be; that doesn't mean you aren't somebody. Nor are you perfect. Stop using every mistake you make as an excuse to fail completely.

I wondered if there was any way to live amongst other people and refuse to be harnessed by their expectations and dependencies.

much discomfort was based on human expectations. As a man, I expected to be warm and dry when I chose to be. Animals did not harbor any such beliefs. So it was raining. That part of me that was wolf could accept that. Rain meant being cold and wet. Once I acknowledged that and stopped comparing it to what I wished it to be, the conditions were far more tolerable.

We were speaking of people living their dreams, and I said that few do, and even fewer enjoy the experience. For too many, when they get their dream, they discover it is not what they wanted. Or the dream is bigger than their abilities, and all ends in bitterness.

I wasn't being fair to expect those things of him. But life wasn't fair. Life does not wait for any of us to grow up.

You earn your future, Malta Vestrit." The bead-maker cocked her head at her. "What does tomorrow owe you?" "Tomorrow owes me?" Malta repeated in confusion. "Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that." Amber looked out to sea again. "And no less. Sometimes folk wish tomorrow did not pay them off so completely.

There was a danger in asking too much of a child, but the danger of asking too little was almost equal.

For too many, when they get their dream, they discover it is not what they wanted. Or the dream is bigger than their abilities, and all ends in bitterness.

My grandfather used to say, "Start out dealing with a man the way you intend to go on dealing with him." I think the same may be true of dragons.

I hate irony. It is a manacle that ties our dreams to our fears.

As we shouldered our packs and set off, I reflected bitterly that I had walked away from people I had known and cared about to avoid the very situation I was now in with comparative strangers. I wondered if there was any way to live amongst people and refuse to be harnessed by their expectations

But this I do know of men, both young and old. When they are in groups, they are likelier to sink to the lowest acceptable behavior rather than rise to the highest possible standards.