Expectations do not always hurt, but when our expectations don’t meet with reality, it hurts.
Expectations are good as long as they are realistic. However, when you expect the unexpected and that doesn’t happen you downcast yourself.
The best thing you can do is to learn when to have expectation and when not from the successful people.
In this article, I’ve shared more than 100 expectation hurts quotes with images that will tell you the reality of expectations and life and motivate you to focus on the present time and have only realistic expectation.
Table of Contents
Expectation Hurts Quotes with Images
1. “Rejection doesn’t hurt, expectation does. Lying doesn’t kill; denial does. Forgetting doesn’t heal, forgiveness does.”
2. “A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment.” –Douglas Adams
3. Expectations are not always painful; expecting from the wrong people is what hurts the most; expecting from the person who doesn’t care about you that’s painful.
4. “Today, expect something good to happen to you no matter what occurred yesterday. Realize the past no longer holds you captive. It can only continue to hurt you if you hold on to it. Let the past go. A simply abundant world awaits.” ― Sarah Breathnach
5. “I know not anything more pleasant or more instructive than to compare the experience with expectation or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.” –Johnson Quotes
6. “The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.” –Theodore Rubin
7. When you place an expectation on yourself, it means you have laid out an expected reality in your mind, which is expected to be achieved in a set amount of time. Attaining a certain goal or fulfilling a self-set expectation requires you to behave and act in accordance with that which helps you fulfill the expectation. But, when the reality of your own behavior falls short of your standards, your expectations will not match the reality of the world. Then, you become upset and drown yourself in self-loathing, shame, and guilt. (Why do expectations hurt, and how can we deal with them?)
8. A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. –Douglas Adams
9. “Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.” -Brandon Sanderson
10. “That was the thing about the world: it wasn’t that things were harder than you thought they were going to be; it was that they were hard in ways that you didn’t expect.” –Lev Grossman
11. “To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To give. That takes courage because we don’t want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.” –Madonna
12. “Expectation is a powerful attractive force. When you tend to idealize people and can be disappointed when reality fails to fulfill your expectations, then you get hurt.”
13. “Don’t let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions.” -Roy T. Bennett
14. “Whatever happens in the world is real; what one thinks should have happened is projection. We suffer more from our fictitious illusion and expectations of reality.” –Jacque Fresco
15. When you expect something from others, you feel like whatever you expect should happen. But the person you are expecting from does not know what your expectations are, and they will behave in the same way they do with you every day. Finally, this hurts you and may move you into depression.
16. Be it a relationship, you expect her to do things you like, you expect her to gift you something on your birthday, you expect a lot of things, and when that doesn’t happen, you get hurt, you feel.
17. The expectation that goes unsatisfied is always painful!! One big reason is that you are dependent(be it a person or a thing). The dependency will ultimately tend to build more expectations.
18. “Expectations are always painful because expectations lead to disappointment when the expected thing doesn’t happen.”
19. “When the all too human performance of other people falls short of our own expectations, as will inevitably happen from time to time, we’ll feel bitter and self-righteous.”
20. I did what I came here to do. What I’ve done, I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life.” –Bruce Lee
One-Liner Expectations Always Hurt Quotes
21. “Expectations are not what hurts; it is the unfulfilled expectations that hurt most of us.” – Anonymous
22. “Expectation is the mother of all frustration.” -Antonio Banderas
23. “Anger always comes from frustrated expectations” -Elliott Larson
24. “Expect much from yourself and little from others, and you will avoid incurring resentments.” –Confucius
25. “Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” Charlotte Bronte
26. “Expectations are premeditated resentments.” – Anonymous
27. “Expectations in themselves do not hurt, but failing in meeting the expectations always hurts.”
28. “Less expectation, less hurt.” – Anonymous
29. “Unhappiness lies in that gap between our talents and our expectations.” -Sebastian Horsley
30. “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” ― Donald Miller
31. “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
32. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” –Michael Jordan
33. “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” -William Shakespeare
34. “The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.” –Theodore Rubin
35. “Expectation is the mother of disappointment.” -G.K. Chesterton
36. “When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.” – Ryan Reynolds
37. “The secret to happiness is low expectations.” – Barry Schwartz
38. “It’s not the world that’s disappointing, it’s your expectations.” – Unknown
39. “Sometimes we create our own heartbreaks through expectation.” – Unknown
40. “I wasn’t disappointed. My expectations had been met.”― John Green
Expect Less Hurt Less Quotes
41. “Set the standard! Stop expecting others to show you love, acceptance, commitment, & respect when you don’t even show that to yourself.” ― Steve Maraboli
42. “You are your own worst enemy. 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
43. “My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.”― Stephen W. Hawking
44. “Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed.”― Patricia McCormick
45. “There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations”― Jodi Picoult
46. “I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep my expectations.”― Bill Watterson
47. “Expectations are dangerous when they are both too high and unformed.”― Lionel Shriver
48. “Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed.”― L. M. Montgomery
49. “Life was easier when you stopped caring when you stopped expecting things to get better.”― Cora Carmack
50. “I shall doggedly work, wait, and expect the minimum.”― Sylvia Plath
51. “Expect more, get less and feel sadness Or expect less, get more and feel happiness”― Vijay Dhameliya
52. “Lower your expectations, and you’ll suffer less.” – Martha Beck
53. “The best things in life are unexpected because there were no expectations.” – Eli Khamarov
54. “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” – Alexander Pope
55. “The best way to avoid disappointment is not to expect anything from anyone but yourself.” – Unknown
56. “That was the thing about the world: it wasn’t that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn’t expect.” – Lev Grossman
57. “The secret to happiness is having low expectations.” – Warren Buffett
58. “The primary limitation in life is our low expectations for ourselves and others. When we expect minimum results, that’s usually what we get.” – John C. Maxwell
59. There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations. – Jodi Picoult
60. “Don’t blame people for disappointing you. Blame yourself for expecting too much from them.” -Unknown
Relationship Expectation Hurts Quotes
61. “Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.” –Paulo Coelho
62. “We love to expect, and when the expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.” –Johnson Quotes
63. “Where there is love, there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I would not feel sorry for myself.” – Anthony De Mello
64. “To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To give. That takes courage because we don’t want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.” – Madonna
65. “Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
66. “A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment.” – Douglas Adams
67. “Unhappiness lies in that gap between our talents and our expectations.” – Sebastian Horsley
68. ” You ask nobody to give what they can’t give or be what they can’t be. You’ve learned that you got a headstart on heartbreak.” – Jack Farris
69. “Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.” – J.K. Rowling
70. “If you’re going to say what you want to say, you’re going to hear what you don’t want to hear.”― Roberto Bolaño
71. “To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect”― Jane Austen
72. “You can’t expect everyone to have the same dedication as you.”― Jeff Kinney
73. “He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that.”― Robert Jordan
74. “What I have since realized is that if people expect you to be brave, sometimes you pretend that you are, even when you are frightened down to your very bones. ”― Sharon Creech
75. “Expectation wasn’t just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.”― Brandon Sanderson
76. “Expectations are a funny thing,” Wen said. “When you’re born with them, you resent them, fight against them. When you’ve never been given any, you feel the lack of them your whole life.”― Fonda Lee
77. “You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.”― John Steinbeck
78. “She was becoming sad. There is no joy involved in following others’ expectations of yourself.”― Miriam Toews
79. “If you expect great things of yourself and demand little of others, you’ll keep resentment far away.”― Confucius
80. “One always expects something else.”― Erich Maria Remarque
81. “Maybe my expectations for honesty are too high.”― Kelley Armstrong
82. “Expectations should not always be taken as reality; because you never know when you will be disappointed.”― Samuel P. Huntington
83. “Expectation has brought me disappointment. Disappointment has brought me wisdom. Acceptance, gratitude, and appreciation have brought me joy and fulfillment.”― Rasheed Ogunlaru
84. “I am afraid I shall disappoint people’s expectations dreadfully.”― Jude Morgan
85. “A big desire is not enough to meet the expectations of lost dreams.”― Dejan Stojanovic
86. “Many things have been written and will be written for dreams. Dreams are nothing but our unclear expectations.”― Santosh Kalwar
87. “Often expecting immediate returns for goodness in this world is a sign of a normal human being”― Adil Adam Memon
88. “But that’s the paradox of expectations; they are infamous for generally never being fulfilled”― Kudrat Dutta Chaudhary
89. “How disappointing when people succumb to what is expected of them.”― Lauren Groff
90. “We have to live on our own terms, not disappearing into someone else’s expectations for us.”― Lauren Edmondson
91. “Peace is found where expectations meet grace.”― Jamie Hallman
92. “Don’t fear high expectations; embrace them. Choose to do hard things.”― Shawn Davis
93. “When your Least Expectations they don’t Meet, Make Sure You Mark your Graceful Exit.”― Somya Kedia
94. “But I realize now you can’t expect something from people who don’t have it in them to give.”― Tiffani Davis
95. “Gratitude keeps your focus on the gifts God has given and away from the expectations of your desires.”― Allene vanOirschot
96. “Expectations are like fine print; people ignore them.” – Unknown
97. “Trade your expectations for appreciation, and your world changes instantly.” – Tony Robbins
98. “The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably deal with.” -Tony Robbins
99. “Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” – Charlotte Brontë
100. “It’s not the world that’s disappointing, it’s your expectations.” – Unknown
101. “Expectations may sometimes lead you to disappointments, but the anger of getting disappointment may sometimes lead you to what you expected.” – Vikrant Parsai
102. “Sometimes we create our own heartbreaks through expectation.” – Unknown
103. “Expectations can be a wonderful thing; reality often has a way of intruding.” – Laura Moncur
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I’m Murshid Akram, a introvert who love reading and sharing positive vibes through quotes and sayings. I believe with love and compassion we can make this world a better place.