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One of the hardest jobs I have is throwing cold water on young person’s dreams. The Simpsons: Lisa Simpson, This Isn’t Your Life, teacher
There are bad times just around the corner,
There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky
And it’s no good whining
About a silver lining
For we know from experience that they won’t roll by. Noel Coward, There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner, song 1953
For he that expects nothing shall not be disappointed, but he that expects much – if he lives and uses that in hand day by day – shall be full to running over. Edgar Cayce
And my communication to him is that he has great expectations. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Jaggers
cf.
I’m here to inform you that he has great expectations. Great Expectations 2012 starring Jeremy Irvine & Helena Bonham Carter & Ralph Fiennes & Robbie Coltrane & Jason Flemyng & Holliday Grainger & Ewen Bremner & Sally Hawkins & David Walliams & Olly Alexander et al, director Mike Newell, Jaggers
Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities. George Boole
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. Late 16th century proverb
He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing I i 15
Promising is the very air o’ th’ time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller for his act. William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens V i 23-24
For now sits Expectation in the air
And hides a sword from hilts upon the point
With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,
Promised to Harry and his followers. William Shakespeare, Henry V II i 8
Great expectations are never fulfilled ... Much can go wrong as the new administration is buffeted by events. Tony Blair, article London Evening Standard 8th January 1993
If you expect nothing from somebody, you are never disappointed. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
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
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
I want to top expectations. I want to blow you away. Quentin Tarantino
Expectations are an evil thing. Skylar Grey
I think that people have expectations of themselves and other people that are based on these fictions that are presented to them as the way human life and relationships could be, in some sort of weird, ideal world, but they never are. So you’re constantly being shown this garbage and you can’t get there. Charlie Kaufman
The great source of pleasure is variety. Uniformity must tire at last, though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect; and, when expectation is disappointed or gratified we want to be again expecting. Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets
Life is largely a matter of expectation. Horace
When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have. Stephen Hawking
‘OK. Some day – we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and …’
‘An’ live off the fatta the lan’,’ Lennie shouted. ‘An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it Tell about that, George.’ John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
In an education system under the greatest financial pressure for a generation, how much should we expect from our teachers, our children and ourselves? School II, BBC 2018
The expectations of life depends upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. Confucius
Exceed your customer’s expectations. If you do, they’ll come back over and over. Give them what they want – and a little more. Sam Walton
A satisfied customer. We should have him stuffed. FAWLTY TOWER [crooked L] Fawlty Towers s2e1: Communication Problems, Basil to Sybil, BBC 1999
That is Torquay, madam. Well may I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically ... ibid. Basil to Mrs Richards
The calamity that comes is never the one we had prepared ourselves for. Mark Twain