Quotes & Sayings About Having Low Expectations

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

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 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.

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

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

The secret to happiness is having low expectations. — Warren Buffett

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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