September 3 2022

79 Expectation Quotes About the Distance Between Eagerness and Discontent

Elias Malassidis Quotes human values and qualities, inspirational

We all want something out of life and based on our mental and psychological make up, shaped through our experience from interacting with the world around us, we have an innate tendency to look forward to a reality of positive outcomes. We make plans about our professional and personal life and base our decisions upon our expectations, hoping that people will behave in a certain way and everything will work out as planned. However, things in life do not always play out as planned and when this happens we feel disappointed, frustrated and angry. The following expectation quotes will tell all about the distance between eagerness and discontent.

We have an inclination towards idealizing events and people to live up to our expectations. Although it is important to aim high and be hopeful in life, the problem starts when we just want something to happen without justification or a valid reason for that expectation.

Expectations impact our thoughts and emotions and have a pervasive influence on our behavior and the way we interact with others, so when they are just wishful thoughts or idealized fantasies they can be toxic, both for us and for the people around us.

The antidote to that is to become more pragmatic, cultivating acceptance and appreciating the things we have instead of lamenting for the things that we don’t. We need to focus on what is within our control and we may influence through our own efforts. If we become more mindful and learn to just let go of our unrealistic expectations then a new path full of wonderful opportunities will unfold in front of us!

Here we have collected for you the most inspirational quotes about having expectations. Share them with friends and loved ones to enlighten them! Use them as captions for your Instagram and social media posts! Ruminate on them to transcend your limitations and enjoy a blissful life!

Best Expectation Quotes

Expectations and Disappointment Quotes
Positive Expectation Quotes
Love Expectation Quotes
Expect The Unexpected Quotes

Expectations and Human Relationships Quotes

Best Expectation Quotes

We have hand-picked for you the best quotes about having expectations and compiled a library of wisdom from some of the world’s greatest thinkers, to access whenever you need guidance and to surround yourself with positive influence and energy!

I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. Charles Dickens
My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus. Stephen W. Hawking

I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep my expectations. Bill Watterson
To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect. Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
We tend to get what we expect. Norman Vincent Peale
I shall doggedly work, wait and expect the minimum. Sylvia Plath

Even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford. Cindy Crawford
The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. Confucius
There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations. Jodi Picoult
If you expect great things of yourself and demand little of others, you’ll keep resentment far away. Confucius

All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation. Francois Fenelon
My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations. Michael J. Fox
We don’t want people to have expectations of us, but then we have expectations of everybody else. Lauryn Hill
Life… It tends to respond to our outlook, to shape itself to meet our expectations. Richard DeVos

Buy what’s deliverable, not what could be. Michael Bloomberg
Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. Margaret Mitchell
Life is largely a matter of expectation. Horace
A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect. Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation. Charlotte Bronte
We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation. Ivan Illich
Loving, hating, having expectations: all these are attachments. Attachment prevents the growth of one’s true being. Laozi
If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome. Michael Jordan
Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. Alice Walker

Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are. Rachel Naomi Remen
If you want to give yourself a fair chance to succeed, never expect too much too soon. Po Bronson
Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations. Earl Nightingale
People who don’t expect justice don’t have to suffer disappointment. Isaac Asimov, The Robots of Dawn
Well done is better than well said. Benjamin Franklin

One always expects something else. Erich Maria Remarque
Just know that your expectations are only thoughts in your head, and keep on doing what you do. Brad Warner

Expectation is the mother of all frustration. Antonio Banderas

Expectations and Disappointment Quotes

When we have expectations, there is always a chance that we might experience disappointment and frustration, especially when our expectations are just idealized and unjustified fantasies, not founded on effort or realistic reasons!

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. Alexander Pope
If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed. Sylvia Plath

Expectation is the mother of all frustration. Antonio Banderas
I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path. Dalai Lama
Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed. Patricia McCormick
The fruit of empty hopes is more bitter than the saddest truth. Angel Wagenstein
If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you. Lisa Kleypas

Peace begins when expectation ends. Sri Chinmoy
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule. Charles Dickens
It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means conform to our wishes. Robert E. Lee
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations. Edward de Bono
How disappointing, when people succumb to what is expected of them. Lauren Groff

Positive Expectation Quotes

A selection of vibey quotes about the importance of having positive expectations that will transform your perspective and shift your thinking towards embracing a mindset conducive to creativity and happiness!

Positive expectations are the mark of the superior personality. Brian Tracy
Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event. Brian Tracy
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn. Henry David Thoreau
High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation. Charles Kettering

Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction. Alan W. Watts
It’s when ordinary people rise above the expectations and seize the opportunity that milestones truly are reached. Mike Huckabee
If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal. Norman Vincent Peale
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow. Orison Swett Marden
High expectations are the key to everything. Sam Walton

Don’t believe in miracles – depend on them. Laurence J. Peter

Love Expectation Quotes

Instead of having a preconceived idea about how things should work into a relationship, overcome your hyped expectations and realize that there is always room for growth!

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Leo Buscaglia
Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time. Paulo Coelho
When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. Donald Miller

To expect to be kissed having bad breath is the secret of a fool. Dejan Stojanovic
To become a true lover, love a tree without any expectations. Debasish Mridha
There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started out with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet which fails so regularly, as love. Erich Fromm

Expect The Unexpected Quotes

Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and you never know when it will go south, but if you are prepared for it you will never be alarmed or overwhelmed and will be more flexible and confident in dealing with the unexpected!

Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting. Haruki Murakami

Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. Samuel Johnson
Most things don’t work out as expected, but what happens instead often turns out to be the good stuff. Judi Dench
You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. Paulo Coelho
The trouble you’re expecting never happens; it’s always something that sneaks up the other way. George R. Stewart
τhe experience of mystery comes not from expecting it but through yielding all your programs, because your programs are based on fear and desire. Drop them and the radiance comes. Joseph Campbell

I, a product of the New Frontier and Great Society, honestly believed that the world pretty much owed me a living–all I had to do was wait around in order to live better than my parents. Anthony Bourdain

Expectations and Human Relationships Quotes

Idealizing others to live up to our expectations means that we set ourselves up for emotional upheaval, disappointment and resentment. Instead, we should try to know and appreciate other people for what they truly are!

You can’t base your life on other people’s expectations. Stevie Wonder
I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine. Bruce Lee
Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you. Princess Diana
He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that. Robert Jordan

Set the standard! Stop expecting others to show you love, acceptance, commitment, & respect when you don’t even show that to yourself. Steve Maraboli
Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. Laura Ingalls Wilder
If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to. Simone de Beauvoir

If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask… with nothing beneath it? Jodi Picoult
It’s probably unfair to expect the world at large, or even most people, to see us for all we are. It is essential, however, that we see ourselves for all we are. Victoria Moran
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be. Stephen R. Covey
Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust. John F. Akers