Expectations Low Quotes & Sayings

GREAT SECRET Whenever I'm learning something difficult, I keep expectations low, and aspirations high. — James Marcus Bach

As long as there are people in education making excuses for failure, cursing future generations with a culture of low expectations, denying children access to the best that has been thought and written, because Nemo and the Mister Men are more relevant, the battle needs to be joined. — Michael Gove

Many consumerist economies stay afloat by manipulating the low self-esteem of their consumers and by creating spiritual expectations through material means. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

You want to know the secret to raising good kids?"
"What's that? asked Thomas.
"High expectations."
Thomas laughed. "Alright, well what's the secret to a happy marriage?"
Clyde smiled back, but his face started to fall, and he chose his words carefully. " ... Low expectations. — Chris Nicolaisen

If your expectations aren't to be the best, then ... you know, nobody rises to low expectations. — Chip Kelly

I work hard to stay cynical enough! I keep my expectations of our culture and our leaders low, low, low, and I do it so I don't have to be let down. And yet again I am lowballed by the brokenness of the American cultural machine. — Vinnie Tesla

If I answer questions every time you ask one, expectations would be high. And as you know, I like to keep expectations low. — George W. Bush

One of the unique things about the human brain is that it can do only what it thinks it can do. The minute you say, "My memory isn't what it used to be ... " you are actually training your brain to live up to your diminished expectations.
Low expectations mean low results.
The first rule of super brain is that your brain is always eavesdropping on your thoughts. As it listens, it leans. If you teach it about limitation, your brain will become limited.
But what if you do the opposite? What if you teach your brain to be unlimited? — Deepak Chopra

Unfortunately we often get praise for things that weren't particularly difficult to achieve. If we focus on the props and encouragement of those who have low expectations for us, we become mediocre. It can be challenging to set our sights on excellence, particularly when we're hearing that we're already there. One of life's greatest lessons, which we all must learn, could be expressed in the phrase "That was nothing. Watch this." Challenge yourself and others to call the normal things normal and save that word excellent for things that really are. — Alex Harris

low income does not mean low expectations — Johnnie Dent Jr.

I could hardly be responsible for my actions when everyone around me gave me every opportunity to sink to their low expectations. — Darynda Jones

I said once that if they gave me enough money to read the phone book, I'd do it. I live in a total state of non-expectation. I don't expect things, and I keep my expectations very low about everything — Anthony Hopkins

A married guy is responsible for everything, no matter what. Women, thanks to their having been oppressed all these years, are blameless, free as birds, and all the dirt they do is the result of premenstrual syndrome or postmenstrual stress or menopause or emotional disempowerment by their fathers or low expectations by their teachers or latent unspoken sexual harassment in the workplace, or some other airy excuse. The guy alone is responsible for every day of marriage that is less than marvelous and meaningful. — Garrison Keillor

When reentering society and risking rejection, the library is a good place to start. They have low expectations. I love the library. Also church. Both have to take you in. — Glennon Doyle Melton

Crackpot is an excellent job because the expectations are so low. No one ever tells crackpots that they should be doing more. — Scott Adams

Our thoughts about an event can have a dramatic effect on how we go through the event itself. When our expectations are low, it's easy to be pleasantly surprised. When they're not, we're vulnerable to painful disappointment. Because of this, many people spend a good deal of effort trying to avoid developing high hopes about anything. — Martha Beck

The mistake isn't releasing something bad. The mistake is to launch it and get PR people involved. You don't want people to start amping up expectations for an early version of your product. The best entrepreneurship happens in low-stakes environments where no one is paying attention, like Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room at Harvard. — Eric Ries

The way we make money as a group is that we don't pay a lot for anything, and most of the stocks we buy have low expectations. — Joel Greenblatt

It would be an incalculable gain to domestic happiness, if people would begin the concert of life with their instruments tuned to a very low pitch: they who receive the most happiness are generally they who demand and expect the least. — Harriet Beecher Stowe

It's great to be a blonde. With low expectations it's very easy to surprise people. — Pamela Anderson

Americans are in serious intellectual trouble - in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations. — Susan Jacoby

I've been awkward forever. I have really low expectations for myself. When I do perform to some sort of social standard, I leave feeling really comfortable. I'm either so awkward that I look retarded or I'm so awkward that everyone else feels retarded. — Earl Sweatshirt

If you expect perfection from people your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings and complaints. If, on the contrary, you pitch your expectations low, taking folks as the inefficient creatures which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped. — Bruce Barton

If expectations are low, you can only impress people. But if expectations are there for you to be the leading guy, and you've been paid X amount of money, you're on a tightrope, and all of a sudden, you're looking down. — James Marsden

The good thing about setting your expectations low is that you will not often be disappointed. — Danielle L. Jensen

He that would relish success to a purpose should keep his passions cool, and his expectations low; and then it is possible that his fortune might exceed his fancy; for an advantage always rises by surprise; and is almost always doubled by being unlooked for. — Jeremy Collier

o not preoccupy yourself with wants or expectations. The world won't abide by the standards, you set in any case, whether you set them too low or too high. It will break them every time for the simple fact that our true essence has no desire, hope or expectation for anything. It has no selfish inclinations of any kind. Everything, it experiences, is a passing phase, not its real identity. — Anita B. Sulser PhD

We have become the revisionist society. We rewrite history in favor of viewpoints. We rewrite ethics in favor of "what's right is what makes you feel good after." Political correctness puts Jesus and Buddha on the same low shelf. Gender inclusivity has us tied up in proper pronouns. Since God goes undefined, His expectations have been missing for some time, and sin is what you do that hurts others. — Calvin Miller

When you get high on something - including "spiritual bliss" - there is always going to be a low. The comedown is your body / mind returning to balance, or the closest thing to balance that it knows. If you desperately crave bliss while your body / mind needs balance, you are bound to label the changeover as "feeling bad," when in fact it's the best thing that can happen.
Zen practice is not about getting high on anything and in so doing, getting high on absolutely everything. We then find that everything we encounter - bliss and nonbliss - possesses a tremendous depth and beauty that we usually miss. — Brad Warner

Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to. — Greg Anderson

I have never met a politician who has exceeded my low expectations of them. — Grant McLachlan

If you look hard at it, if you look hard at the bleeding heart attitude to always throw money at issues, throw money at problems, what you're in fact probably saying is you're exercising a prejudicism of low expectations. — Andrew Forrest

low expectations were the key to a happy life. — I. W. Gregorio

The secret to true happiness is low expectations and insensitivity. — Olivia Goldsmith

I don't really distinguish between a fictional hero and a real life hero as a basis for any comparison. To me, a hero is a hero. I like making pictures about people who have a personal mission in life or at least in the life of a story who start out with certain low expectations and then over achieve our highest expectations for them. That's the kind of character arc I love dabbling in as a director, as a filmmaker. — Steven Spielberg

In the context of novel writing, this means you should lower the bar from "best-seller" to "would not make someone vomit." Exuberant imperfection encourages you to write uncritically, to experiment, to break your time-honored rules of writing just to see what happens. In a first draft, nothing is permanent, and everything is fixable. So stay loose and flexible, and keep your expectations very, very low. — Chris Baty

All of the dissatisfactions he had felt in his practice of the art form he had stumbled across within a week of his arrival in America, the cheap conventions, the low expectations among publishers, readers, parents, and educators, the spatial constraints that he had been struggling against in the pages of Luna Moth, seemed capable of being completely overcome, exceeded, and escaped. The Amazing Cavalieri was going to break free, forever, of the nine little boxes. — Michael Chabon

Compassionate conservative soft bigotry of low expectations. — George W. Bush

Every time you hear someone read your book and liked your book, you're never sure whether that's going to follow with a similar remark from someone else. Perhaps I have low expectations, but whenever I hear someone say, 'I liked your book,' I don't know if it's going to happen again. — Joshua Ferris

Keep low expectations and life gets pretty good. — Anthony Hopkins

Iran has a young population, and the desire to get out from under conservative religious social restrictions and to be able to speak their mind without fear of arrest is palpable. But nearly seven years after authorities crushed massive street protests, reformers are still threatened with arrest and expectations for change are extremely low. — Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

The one thing I've always had going for me was people's low expectations. Nobody ever expects a whole hell of a lot from me. — Chris Isaak

Happiness is low expectations paired with a short-term memory problem. — Glennon Doyle Melton

I think they'll probably put that on my gravestone. 'He Was Heterosexual and Had Low Expectations. — Cassandra Clare

My mom had very low expectations for me, and she really had a point. I was a big problem at seventeen. If I had a kid like me, I would have those same expectations. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Right away, we realized that we'd made a terrible mistake. Everything about the project ran counter to what we believed in. We didn't know how to aim low. We had nothing against the direct-to-video model, in theory; Disney was doing it and making heaps of money. We just couldn't figure out how to go about it without sacrificing quality. What's more, it soon became clear that scaling back our expectations to make a direct-to-video product was having a negative impact on our internal culture, in that it created an A-team (A Bug's Life) and a B-team (Toy Story 2). The crew assigned to work on Toy Story 2 was not interested in producing B-level work, and more than a few came into my office to say so. It would have been foolish to ignore their passion. — Ed Catmull

I'm nothing but envious that you've been happily married for two years. Try hauling your cookies on a new blind date every Friday, only to have your, already extremely low, expectations dashed as you meet men who look like Quasimodo and have Homer Simpson's IQ. — Jane Green

I think people in Europe are generally pessimistic about the future. They have low expectations; they're not working hard to change things. When you're a slacker with a pessimistic view of the future, you're likely to meet those expectations. — Peter Thiel

It's not really possible to open 'The Casual Vacancy' without a lot of expectations both high and low crashing around in your brain and distorting your vision. There's no point pretending they're not there. — Lev Grossman

When you're as small as I am, people don't expect you to be much of an athlete. You either wilt under the weight of low expectations, or you rise above them. — Daniel Rodriguez

If you have realistically low expectations, you'll end up pleased in most circumstances. — David Brooks

PROFITS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID | Idea in Brief 105 words THE PROBLEM Multinational firms' socially beneficial ventures in low-income markets need to earn profits if they're to command corporate resources, but operating in the black is harder than it looks. THE SOLUTION Companies can use the authors' "opportunity map" to design and undertake ventures at the bottom of the pyramid that match their capabilities and financial expectations. THE DETAILS The map sorts ventures according to cost and complexity by analyzing two key challenges in selling to the poor: changing consumers' behavior and changing the way products are made and delivered. The map can encourage companies to forgo overly ambitious, unsustainable projects and start with smaller ones that generate steady profits. — Anonymous

The expectations were low for 'Castle;' people thought we'd be one season and done. — Tamala Jones

Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans. — Ken Blanchard

I was no better at reading people than I had been ten seconds ago, but in that moment, I suddenly gained a flash of understanding into the mystery that was Adrian Ivashkov. People didn't believe in him very often. They had low expectations of him, so he did as well. Even Eddie had sort of written him off: 'He's Adrian'. As though there was nothing to be done for it.
I also suddenly realized that, as unlikely as it seemed, Adrian and I had a lot in common. Both of us were constantly boxed in by others' expectations. It didn't matter that people expected everything of me and nothing of him. We were still the same, both of us constantly trying to break out of the lines that others had defined for us and be our own person. Adrian Ivashkov - flippant, vampire party boy - was more like me than anyone else knew. — Richelle Mead

..fresh friends from completely different worlds faced with the hard shapings of truth and deceit, of right and wrong, and of the equivalent damage when high expectations and low expectations are devastatingly unmet. — Christopher Scotton

I'm the master of low expectations. — George W. Bush

If we could tax Americans' cognitive dissonance we could balance the budget. The American people want all kinds of incompatible things, they're human beings, and they want high services, low taxes, and an omnipresent, omniprominent welfare state. — George F. Will

Like the world had met her low expectations. — Maya Rodale

Stars walk among us! Just keep your expectations low because they might be going to a shoe or the loo, for that matter! — Tom Harvey

People like to set the bar high. I like to put the bar on the ground and barely step over it. I like to keep the expectations really low. — Kevin Smith

Its a call-to-action to rise from the dead and actually live. Were born spiritually dead, and Im calling for everyone to become spiritually alive. Secondly, dont wait until later to live the way you were created. God created you to honor Him, find joy, and serve others. Dont sleep on that. Lastly, rise above the low expectations people have. — Trip Lee

Refuse to allow yourself to have low expectations about what you're capable of creating — Wayne Dyer

I've always found that one of the biggest benefits of being a girl is that most people refuse to take you seriously. While boys must be constantly monitored and are always the first suspects when anything goes wrong, everyone expects girls to do what they're told. It may seem a little insulting at first, but low expectations can be a blessing in disuise. If you're smart, you can use people's foolishness to your own advantage. It's amazing what you can get away with when no one bothers watching. — Kirsten Miller

It's always better if you can keep the bar low, and then exceed the expectation. When it's high, that makes the job even tougher. But, I think we're up for the challenge. We're ready. — Will Packer

I keep expectations so embarrassingly low that I broke my contract and went and got a hair-cut. — Cristin Milioti

The first discipline modernity's originators imposed upon themselves was that of self-restraint, learning to live with vulgarity. Their high expectations for effectiveness were made possible by low expectations of what was to be. — Allan Bloom

When you stop looking forward to things, you get used to low expectations and you realise, what's the big deal about success anyway? If we're all to attain everything we've been conditioned to desire - wealth, fame, education, prestige, security - then those things will become so prevalent that they'll become meaningless. — Hilary Thayer Hamann

Look, the key for me is to keep expectations low. — George W. Bush

Something caught in her throat at this second thanks, when she'd threatened him so brutally. When you're a monster, she thought, you are thanked and praised for not behaving like a monster. She would like to restrain from cruelty and receive no admiration for it. — Kristin Cashore

I've learned that generosity is far easier than justice and that, in the highly distorted markets of the poor, it is all too easy to veer only toward the charitable, to have low
or no
expectations for low-income people. This does nothing but reaffirm prejudices on all sides. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Neurotic guilt," like that often fostered by religion, is a different matter. It tends to be excessive and inappropriate, based on the expectations of others instead of personal values or dwelling on the error rather than using the guilt feelings to make a change. In your religious experience, committing a sin made you a sinner, a bad deed made a bad person. This global condemnation creates low self-worth and more neurotic guilt and misery. — Marlene Winell

We've been sold this lie that disability makes you exceptional and it honestly doesn't. ... I want to live in a world where we don't have such low expectations of disabled people that we are congratulated for getting out of bed and remembering our own names in the morning. — Stella Young

If there's one thing I learned from Rodrick, it's to set people's expectations real low so you end up surprising them by practically doing nothing at all. — Jeff Kinney

When I needed to overcome the low expectations of others or the bias that would be expressed in one circumstance or another, I'd keep on keeping on. And I climb over the obstacle, go around it, dig under it, fly over it. That's what kept me going. Otherwise I would have never been an astrophysicist. — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

No expectations, no tension between goals and performance, no outrage, resolve or intention, no action, no results. There's only one way to get a government - and a nation - to stop drifting to low performance. That's to wake up and insist on higher standards. — Donella Meadows

I kept my expectations low, which is one of the secrets of life. — Anne Lamott

One possible sign of low self-esteem is suppressing parts of yourself so you can fill someone else's expectations of what you should be. You try to fill someone else's (or your own) prescription of perfection, instead of being yourself and embracing your originality. — Robin Meade

One can fall into the 'soft bigotry of low expectations.' — Gerald Chertavian

I don't want to be someone that you're settling for. I don't want to be someone that anyone settles for. Marriage is hard enough without bringing such low expectations into it, isn't it? — Nora Ephron

But in any case, I did poorly on the tests and so, in the first three years of school, I had teachers who thought I was stupid and when people think you're stupid, they have low expectations for you. — Robert Sternberg

Writing blog posts is totally freeing in a whole new way for me. I'm not writing it for any editor, and I'm not being paid, so I can say whatever I want. I don't have to justify the cost of a book to readers; they get it for free, so expectations are naturally low. (And no one-star reviews!) — Kate Christensen

pessimism works because it's self-fulfilling: if you're a slacker with low expectations, they'll probably be met. — Peter Thiel

Society imposes low expectations of those who have disabilities — Erik Weihenmayer

I have a different starting premise from those 100 academics who are so heavily invested in the regime of low expectations and narrow horizons which they have created. — Michael Gove

The secret to happiness is low expectations. — Barry Schwartz

If you put fleas in a shallow container they jump out. But if you put a lid on the container for just a short time, they hit the lid trying to escape and learn quickly not to jump so high. They give up their quest for freedom. After the lid is removed, the fleas remain imprisond by their own self policing. So it is with life. Most of us let our own fears or the impositions of others imprison us in a world of low expectations. — John Taylor Gatto

Life delivers far less disappointment when your expectations are low. — Brad Meltzer

Don't let the low standards and expectations of the world and others cause you to aim beneath your nobility and ability-dream big! What I know and have learned is that anything worth doing is not easy and that we can do anything that is not easy if we believe. — Elaine S. Dalton

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

Perhaps Danish happiness is not really happiness at all, but something much more valuable and durable: contentedness, being satisfied with your lot, low-level needs being met, higher expectations being kept in check. — Michael Booth

6 If I love them only when they meet my requirements or expectations, they will feel incompetent and will believe it is pointless to do their best, since it is never enough. They will always be plagued by insecurity, anxiety, low self-esteem, and anger. To guard against this, I need to often remind myself of my responsibility for their total growth. (For more on this, you will want to read How to Really Love Your Child by Ross Campbell.) — Gary Chapman

The God I decide to believe in is the God of the bathroom floor. A God of scandalously low expectations. A God who smiles down at a drunk on the floor, wasted and afraid, and says, There you are. I've been waiting. Are you ready to make something beautiful with me? I look at the blue cross and decide I will let it be. I will stop deeming myself unworthy of invitations and trust the inviter. I will test out the ridiculous, nonsensical possibility that somehow, in some way I can't yet see, I will rise to meet this call. Yes, — Glennon Doyle Melton

One reason that a lot of people see me as cheerful and optimistic is that my expectations are really rather low. — Glenn Reynolds

People's expectations of what I'm capable of doing are very low. People have been used to hearing little one-liners and me play around. — Nicki Minaj

The most damaging example of the systems archetype called "drift to low performance" is the process by which modern industrial culture has eroded the goal of morality. The workings of the trap have been classic, and awful to behold. Examples of bad human behavior are held up, magnified by the media, affirmed by the culture, as typical. This is just what you would expect. After all, we're only human. The far more numerous examples of human goodness are barely noticed. They are "not news." They are exceptions. Must have been a saint. Can't expect everyone to behave like that. And so expectations are lowered. The gap between desired behavior and actual behavior narrows. Fewer actions are taken to affirm and instill ideals. The public discourse is full of cynicism. Public leaders are visibly, unrepentantly amoral or immoral and are not held to account. Idealism is ridiculed. Statements of moral belief are suspect. It is much easier to talk about hate in public than to talk about love. — Donella H. Meadows

I had very low expectations. Honestly, I think I had 11 rounds of golf the entire year in before this tournament, and I had hit balls maybe four or five times. — Trent Dilfer

Self appointed expectations lead to self induced frustrations. — Abraham Low

As far as 'Windup Girl' becoming a hit - none of us expected that. 'Night Shade' was just hoping not to lose their shirts, and I had grown up hearing from everyone that science fiction didn't sell, so all of our expectations were very low. — Paolo Bacigalupi

Women, on the other hand, had to wield their intellects like a scythe, hacking away against the stubborn underbrush of low expectations. — Margot Lee Shetterly