Quotes About Expectation

Wasn't that what women always said they wanted to do when they deprecated the addresses of gentlemen they couldn't more intimately go on with? It was what they, no doubt, sincerely fancied they could make of men of whom they couldn't make husbands.

Le cose non sono mai come dovrebbero essere, - osservò il vecchio. - Se aspetti che cambino non combinerai mai nulla.

the company—that at the eleventh hour an old ship with a lower standard of speed had been put on in place of the vessel in which I had taken my passage.  America was roasting, England might very well be stuffy, and a slow passage (which at that season of the year would probably also be a fine one) was a guarantee of ten or twelve days of fresh air. I strolled down

I thought with joy of the morrow

this fashioning of a wife to order.

He's a thin-skinned, morbid, mooning little beggar, with a good deal of imagination and not much perseverance, who will expect a good deal more of life than he will find in it. That's why he won't be happy.

I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.

The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.

this book has begun to grow inside me. I am carrying it around with me everywhere. I walk through the streets big with child and the cops escort me across the street. Women get up to offer me their seats. Nobody pushes me rudely any more. I am pregnant. I waddle awkwardly, my big stomach pressed against the weight of the world.

Somehow the realization that nothing was to be hoped for had a salutary effect upon me. For weeks and months, for years, in fact, all my life I had been looking forward to something happening, some extrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

Everything is endured—disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui—in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable.

I believe everything you tell me, but I know that it will all turn out differently.

Tudo se suporta...a desgraça, humilhação, pobreza, guerra, crime, ennui...em nome da crença de que, de um dia para o outro, algo ocorrerá, um milagre que fará com que a vida se torne tolerável.

Y, por lo general, las cosas salían mal sólo cuando te preocupabas demasiado.

I expected so much, so much of the world and it all fell short.

Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.

I had changed my francs into drachmas on the boat; it seemed like a tremendous wad that I had stuffed into my pocket and I felt that I could meet the bill no matter how exorbitant it might be. I knew we were going to be gypped and I looked forward to it with relish. The only thing that was solidly fixed in my mind about the Greeks was that you couldn't trust them; I would have been disappointed if our guide had turned out to be magnanimous and chivalrous.

She stood there waiting for me to approach, as though absolutely certain that I would take her by the arm and continue strolling down the avenue.

Pour une raison ou pour une autre, l'homme cherche le miracle, et pour l'accomplir, il pataugera dans le sang. Il se gorgera d'une débauche d'idées, il se réduira à n'être qu'une ombre, si, pour une seule seconde de sa vie, il peut fermer les yeux sur la hideur de la réalité. Il endure tout -disgrâce, humiliation, pauvreté, guerre, crime, ennui- croyant que demain quelque chose arrivera, un miracle! qui rendra la vie tolérable.

John, did Peter Owen (publisher) send you a copy of my book about books? If not I shall flay him. You were first on the list. But the English move slowly. They are all constipated, water-logged, worm-ridden, damn them!

all my life I had been looking forward for something happening, some intrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

The name Rebecca excited me. I had always wanted to meet a woman called Rebecca—and not Becky.

Everything that happened to him was of a bad nature. It couldn't be otherwise. He lived in the expectation that things would grow worse, and of course they always did.

I didn't give a fuck whether I found anything or not. The thing is, never to be too anxious. Everything comes in due time.