Expectations

Expectations are, in the case of uncertainty, things that are considered the most likely to happen. An expectation, which is a belief that is centered on the future, may or may not be realistic. A less advantageous result gives rise to the emotion of disappointment. If something happens that is not at all expected it is a surprise. An expectation about the behavior or performance of another person, expressed to that person, may have the nature of a strong request, or an order.

Quotes

• "Yet doth he live!" exclaims th' impatient heir,
  And sighs for sables which he must not wear.
  • Lord Byron, Lara, A Tale (1814), Canto I, Stanza 3.

• I have known him [Micawber] come home to supper with a flood of tears, and a declaration that nothing was now left but a jail; and go to bed making a calculation of the expense of putting bow-windows to the house, "in case anything turned up," which was his favorite expression.
  • Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1849-1850), Chapter XI.

• I suppose, to use our national motto, something will turn up. [Motto of Vraibleusia.]
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Popanilla (1827), Chapter VII.

• He was fash and full of faith that "something would turn up."
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Tancred (1847), Book III, Chapter VI.

• Everything comes if a man will only wait.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Tancred (1847), Book IV, Chapter VIII.

• Also, there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation. People will become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
  • Jesus, Gospel of Luke 21:25-26, NWT

• Since yesterday I have been in Alcalá.
  Erelong the time will come, sweet Preciosa,
  When that dull distance shall no more divide us;
  And I no more shall scale thy wall by night
  To steal a kiss from thee, as I do now.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Spanish Student (1843), Act I, scene 3.

• Oft expectation fails and most oft there
  Where most it promises, and oft it hits
  Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.
  • William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act II, scene 1, line 145.

• There have sat
  The live-long day, with patient expectation,
  To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act I, scene 1, line 45.

• He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act I, scene 1, line 15.

• Promising is the very air o' the time; it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use.
  • William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act V, scene 1, line 24.

• Expectation whirls me round.
  The imaginary relish is so sweet
  That it enchants my sense.
  • William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), Act III, scene 2, line 19.

• 'Tis silence all,
  And pleasing expectation.
  • James Thomson, The Seasons, Spring (1728), line 160.

• Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.
  • Sun Tzu, The Art of War, (6th Century BC).

• Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.
  • Zig Ziglar as quoted in Trigger Events – How To Find Your Next Customer (2007) by Alen Majer, p. 22

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 243-44.

• Serene I fold my hands and wait,
  Nor care for wind or tide nor sea;
  I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
  For lo! my own shall come to me.
  • John Burroughs, Waiting.

• What else remains for me?
  Youth, hope and love;
  To build a new life on a ruined life.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Masque of Pandora, In the Garden, Part VIII.

• Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed.
  • Alexander Pope, letter to Gay (Oct. 6, 1727). Called by Pope and Gay "The Eighth Beatitude." Bishop Heber refers to it as "Swift's Eighth Beatitude." Also called "The Ninth Beatitude".

• 'Tis expectation makes a blessing dear;
  Heaven were not Heaven, if we knew what it were.
  • Sir John Suckling, Against Fruition.

• Although I enter not,
  Yet round about the spot
  Ofttimes I hover;
  And near the sacred gate,
  With longing eyes I wait,
  Expectant of her.
  • William Makepeace Thackeray, Pendennis, At the Church Gate.

• Blessed are those that nought expect,
  For they shall not be disappointed.
  • John Walcot, Ode to Pitt.

• It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.
  • Richard Whately, Apophthegms.

• It's a different way to begin separating out nature and nurture, and to see how different this boy would be. But I have many times been asked if my children have followed me into research — it's something people subconsciously expect. For a clone, the pressure would be even greater. People would expect the clone to be like the original, and put expectations and limitations on them, and that's the reason why I don't like to use that technique. I think people should be wanted as individuals.
  • Ian Wilmut TIME (Monday, July 03, 2006)