Quotes About Expectation

For one thing, she hadn't exactly chosen a field; although she has since childhood imagined picking up her Oscar, the category has never been determined. There was some thought that by the time she grew up they would give out Oscars for Best Novel (and that by then she would have written one), or that maybe she would just get some kind of honorary Oscar for her distinctive life observations made in everyday conversations, or the occasional letter.

Yes—what the American public always wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.

It's just a part of our nature to hope.

I knew you were behind the tapestry," he said. "I also knew the railing was about to give way. I was waiting for you, waiting for your fall." Waiting all my life for you, he added silently, waiting all my life for you to fall in love with me.

I find myself in the unusual position of accepting an invitation before it has been extended.

All the way up the river she's been holding back somehow, waiting. Now you'll both have to wait. I'm not going to disappoint her, Kit. When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.

She could only wait. But she was not idle while she waited, because she was holding herself in readiness for whatever it was that she would have to do. She was trying not to be frightened in her mind, and she found that that sort of waiting and thinking really keep a person quite busy.

Please inform His Excellency that his use of the word soon is inaccurate," she said coldly. "It means in a timely manner, which, in my case, obviously no longer applies.

She remembers reaching into her schoolbag for the letter the way you reach for a second piece of cake if it remains on the table long enough. You do it without thinking, even though you've been thinking of nothing else.

So maybe you were that guy that I always talked about. And maybe just maybe everyday I secretly hoped you would figure it out.

It was foolish to indulge in elaborate preconceptions: anticipation was a featherweight, doomed to compete with the inevitable, convincing bulk of reality. The trouble was that one had to face reality without knowing beforehand precisely what it was to be. One had somehow to discover and tread the hard, between the sloughs of fearing the worst and hoping for the best.

I know that. I've read it before,' 'Is that so? What is it like to read a novel when you know what's going to happen?' 'Once you know the story, you can notice other things.

Siamo abituati a pensare che lo shock coincida con la scoperta di qualcosa che non ci aspettavamo, mentre spesso coincide con il venire a galla di certe nostre paure profonde.

do not like the people who read fifteen books by a man who has written three worth reading.' 'But if one enjoys reading, one must be resigned to many disappointments.' 'Disappointments – certainly. But if you read a book and are disappointed, it is because you intended to be pleased.

The woman whose behavior indicates that she will make a scene if she is told the truth asks to be deceived.

in life, as in mutual funds, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

It is hard to be warmed by starlight, when you want the sun.

Like all good mothers, she always knew the worst was going to happen and was disappointed and relieved when it finally did.

For years I'd waited for someone to love me: that was the permission I needed to fall in love myself, as though I were a pin sunk deep in a purse, waiting for a magnet to prove me metal. When that did not happen, I'd thought of myself as unlovable . ...It was this I'd waited for all my life: a love that would make me useful, a love that would occupy all my time.

said. "I'm just not ready yet." It would take something other than my daily nagging. So one night, a night I knew would be

Do you think wishful thinking is a psychiatric condition?

More was expected of her, her usual engagement replete with queries and analysis and a kind of domestication of the topic so that it became like a furry pet with a life of its own, all of which he had come to depend on. The way a cat depends on your petting when it puts. The purring forces you to keep petting. Even after you're tired. Even after you want to move on. Veblen has been detained countless hours in neighborhood walks, not sure when to break away, by purring cats.

all this pain. all this crying. it wasn't that she hadn't expected it. she just underestimated it. it felt like a heavy, dark blanket that had been pulled across all of them. she hadn't know that it would make it difficult to breathe. she hadn't guess that it would seem so enveloping. and so total, and so permanent.

It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?