Expect Nothing Quotes

I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return. ~ Muhammad Ali

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier. ~ Anthony Hopkins

Another ten points from Gryffindor," said Snape. "I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room. ~ J.K. Rowling

To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.
Dominique Francon ~ Ayn Rand

But if you cross me again Akil, so-help-me, I'll find a way to kill you this time."
His eyes lit up at the prospect, as though he'd accepted a challenge I didn't even know I'd laid down. "I'd expect nothing less."
Demons; only they can get a cheap thrill from a death threat. ~ Pippa DaCosta

But children die how they have been living-with hope. They don't what is happening, so they expect nothing, they don't ask you to hold their hand-but you end up needing them to hold yours. ~ Tea Obreht

Climate helps to shape the character of peoples, certainly no people more than the English. The uncertainty of their climate has helped to make the English, a long-suffering, phlegmatic, patient people rather insensitive to surprise, stoical against storms,. slightly incredulous at every appearance of the sun, touched by the lyrical gratitude of someone who expects nothing and suddenly receives more than he dreamed. ~ H.E. Bates

As always, when faced with a dilemma, he planned to by by his own set of rules. Act positively, plan negatively, expect nothing. ~ Rosamunde Pilcher

It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Remember that an artist's life is an intense search for truth. This search takes many forms. Everyone of these forms demands its own disciplines. I learned and adapted to my search. I expect nothing from you. Question the truth of anything you confront. How does it apply to yourself and the trail you are pursuing? ~ Brice Marden

When you give, expect nothing from people and everything from Allah. ~ Omar Suleiman

Expect nothing but be ready for everything. ~ Debasish Mridha

To not hope, to expect nothing, to dismiss at every turn - these had been her only protection against certain devastation. Disappointment could not ensue when one failed to gain what one had never wished for. ~ Galen Beckett

Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. expect nothing - get nothing! but expect something - get something!! ~ Benjamin Franklin

There are two ways to avoid getting disappointed.
Expect everything - or expect nothing. ~ Hasse Jerner

Needing nothing attracts everything. ~ Russell Simmons

Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes. ~ Charles Dickens

Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something. ~ Bill Parcells

Years ago I heard the Indian Jesuit Raimundo Panikkar say: Expect Nothing. ~ Lawrence Fagg

Expect nothing and life will be velvet. ~ Lisa Gardner

With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Right now, you and me here, put together entirely from atoms that have been part of millions of other organisms before they became us, sitting on this round rock with a core of liquid iron held down by this force that so troubles you called gravity, all the while spinning around the sun at 67 thousand miles an hour and whizzing through the Milky Way at 600 thousand miles an hour in a universe that very well may be chasing its own tail at the speed of light... and amidst all this frantic activity, fully cognizant of our own imminent demise, which is a very pretty way of saying we all know we're going to die, we reach out, to one another, sometimes for the sake of vanity, sometimes for reasons you're not old enough to understand yet, but a lot of the time we just reach out... and expect nothing in return. Isn't that strange? Isn't that weird? ... Isn't that... weird... enough? ~ Jonathan Tolins

La socie te ne doit rien exiger de celui qui n'attend rien d'elle. Society should not ask anything of the person who expects nothing from society. ~ Sydney Samuelson

Now that I expect nothing, now that I no longer entertain the slightest hopes, the end of this adventure becomes simply a matter of curiosity. ~ Alexandre Dumas-fils

Expect nothing of Walder Frey, and you will never be surprised. ~ George R R Martin

When you give everything and expect nothing in return, only then will you be in a position to gain anything. When you love loving, you give because giving is getting. Giving is a gift unto itself, and when you realize this you understand that you can't network if you can't love. ~ Jarod Kintz

expect nothing, be pleasantly surprised. ~ Cindy Pon

I've stopped bothering getting my hopes up and watching them die when all of it's just in my head. I expect nothing from the start, I expect nothing in the middle, and I expect nothing up until the end. ~ Wataru Watari

I don't care what they say, we are only to love those who deserve our love and love them to the degree that they deserve it! You see, we are not God. Only God can love people undeserving without spoiling them. Us, on the other hand, can love someone so undeserving, and actually turn the person into someone so vile who is convinced that they were always entitled to every bit of it! Mamma mia! And what about giving? Yes, they all want us to give and expect nothing in return, they all have many scriptures to lay on our tables when it is they who are at the receiving end! But when the tables are turned and we are the ones at the receiving end, suddenly all the scriptures mean something else! And all the times they were on our end and we gave to them- suddenly are all forgotten! ~ C. JoyBell C.

Funny how it works out though that when you expect nothing from a person, they might just give you everything you didn't know you wanted. ~ Jamie Kain

God doesn't have to try to do supernatural things. He is supernatural. He would have to try to not be. If He is invited to a situation, we should expect nothing but supernatural invasion. ~ Bill Johnson

Hatred always involves a painful sense of separation from love, which may be idealized. A person you feel strongly against at any given time upsets you because he or she does not live up to your expectations. The higher your expectations the greater any divergence from them seems. If you hate a parent it is precisely because you expect such love. A person from whom you expect nothing will never earn your bitterness.

In a strange manner, hatred is a means of returning to love; and left alone and expressed it is meant to communicate a separation that exists in relation to what is expected.

Love, therefore, can contain hate very nicely. Hatred can contain love and be driven by it, particularly an idealized love. You "hate" something that separates you from a loved object. It is precisely because the object is so loved that it is so disliked if expectations are not met. You may love a parent, and if the parent does not seem to return the love and denies your expectations, then you may "hate" the same parent because of the love that leads you to expect more. The hatred is meant to get your love back. It is supposed to lead to a communication from you, stating your feelings - clearing the air, so to speak, and bringing you closer to the love object. Hatred is not the denial of love, then, but an attempt to regain it, and a painful recognition of circumstances that separate you from it. -- ~ Jane Roberts

Expect nothing for no more heartbrakes. ~ Amiel Sudario

Generally speaking: Expect nothing but nightmarish obscenities to be born when human heads come together in intercourse. ~ Thomas Ligotti

The wheel of fortune lifts us up and brings us down. You must free your happiness from its vagaries. Expect nothing, and everything is a gift. ~ Phil Tucker

To hope for nothing, to expect nothing, to demand nothing. This is analytical despair. ~ James Hillman

Happy are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed."5 ~ Edward H. Burtt Jr.

Expect nothing. Everything else is a sweet surprise. ~ Lee Tockar

If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed. ~ Sylvia Plath

That a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, and that such a person need expect nothing from the Great Law. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, ~ Emmet Fox

Those who claim to be hurt by words must be led to expect nothing as compensation. Otherwise, once they learn they can get something by claiming to be hurt, they will go into the business of being offended. ~ Jonathan Rauch

The Accounting of Love and Hospitality -
Sermon on the Account


Do enough for others that it's impossible
For them to keep accounts
Of what they owe you
Or what you've done.

Lose the account yourself,
Expect nothing in return.

Make a habit of giving things away.
Pay for other people's meal,
Friends and strangers.
Keep no accounts on that either.

Take what is offered to you,
But expect or demand nothing.



Tell the people in your life
That you appreciate them
As often as you can.
There may be a day when you can't.

Tell your kids and spouse that you love them,
Often and every night.
Remind yourself
What it is you love about them.

Look for ways to be kind and helpful,
There are plenty to find.

Do things without telling others
You've done them.
Don't even remind yourself.
Do acts of kindness, then let them go.

Live a life without clinging to expectations
About who you should be.


Your friends and family will change,
Everything does, you will.
Life has a lot of additions and subtraction;
Change is inevitable.

Spend time mindfully changing yourself
Towards kindness and patience.

At the end of your life,
Which could be any moment,
Let the ones that knew you
Have lived a better life because you wer ~ Eric Overby

We should feel with our whole heart that we have no one to rely on except God, and that from Him, and Him alone can we expect every kind of good, every manner of help, and victory. Since we are nothing, we can expect nothing of ourselves, except stumblings and falls, which make us relinquish all hope of ourselves. On the other hand, we are certain always to be granted victory by God, if we arm our heart with a living trust in Him and an unshakable certainty that we will receive His help. ~ Lorenzo Scupoli

If you expect nothing but success, then you will be a success. ~ Debasish Mridha

Once you figure out what you want in life - expect nothing less. ~ Lorii Myers

What Caul liked most about Tom was his kindness. Kindness was not valued back in Grimsby, where the older boys were encouraged to torment the younger ones, who would grow up to torment another batch of youngsters in their turn. "Good practice for life," Uncle said. "Hard knocks, that's all the world's about!" But maybe Uncle had never met anyone like Tom, who was kind to other people and seemed to expect nothing more than kindness in return. ~ Philip Reeve

Invest in yourself first. Expect nothing from no one and be willing to work for everything. ~ Tony Gaskins

Expect nothing; be amazed by everything. ~ Todd Stocker

Happy are those who expect nothing; they won't be disappointed ~ Abel

He expects nothing, she thought, because he's never had anything. And nothing was expected of him. He was free in a way she never would be. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

Instead of expecting all and being lowered into despair each time I get less, I expect nothing now and, occasionally, I get a little, and am more than a little happy. ~ Susan Sontag

You can expect nothing in being a musician, and you have to be just very thankful every time it goes positively for you. ~ Halsey

It is only practice that improves our minds as well as bodies, and we must expect nothing from our understandings any farther than they are perfected by habits. ~ John Locke

Giving in its purest form is done with a heart that says I wish it were more, and I expect nothing in return. ~ Mary Hunt

Give,expect nothing, it's magic. ~ Greg Dutilly

Will I
help him make something of his life?
Who will help me? Why does everyone
presume that I, as damaged merchandise,
forfeit any claim to happiness? That I
expect nothing, have no ambitions or
longings of my own? When was it
agreed that my lot would be to gladly
serve as a prop and a crutch for others
who are whole? ~ Julie Berry

- Might it console you to know that I expect nothing but torture from her return? That I regard you as a bird of paradise?
She shook her head.
- That my admiration for you is painfully strong?
- I want Van – she cried – and not intangible admiration.
- Intangible? You goose. You my gauge it, you may brush it once very lightly with the knuckles of you gloved hand. I said knuckles. I said once. That will do. I can't kiss you. Not even your burning face. Good-bye, pet. Tell Edmond to take a nap after he returns. I shall need him at two in the morning. ~ Vladimir Nabokov

Hope for everything, expect nothing. ~ Darren Criss

Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise. ~ Alice Walker

As the hours, the days, the weeks, the seasons slip by, you detach yourself from everything. You discover, with something that sometimes almost resembles exhilaration, that you are free. That nothing is weighing you down, nothing pleases or displeases you. You find, in this life exempt from wear and tear and with no thrill in it other than these suspended moments, in almost perfect happiness, fascinating, occasionally swollen by new emotions. You are living in a blessed parenthesis, in a vacuum full of promise, and from which you expect nothing. You are invisible, limpid, transparent. You no longer exist. Across the passing hours, the succession of days, the procession of the seasons, the flow of time, you survive without joy and without sadness. Without a future and without a past. Just like that: simply, self evidently, like a drop of water forming on a drinking tap on a landing. ~ Georges Perec

Parents should have perfect control over their own spirits, and with mildness and yet firmness bend the will of the child until it shall expect nothing else but to yield to their wishes. ~ Ellen G. White

Wish for nothing larger Than your own small heart. ~ Alice Walker

..."Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them," exclaimed Anne. "You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, 'Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.' But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed."... ~ L.M. Montgomery

Seek to give much
expect nothing. ~ Jonathan Goforth

Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble. ~ Andrew Murray

When men die, they die in fear", he said. "They take everything they need from you, and as a doctor it is your job to give it, to comfort them, to hold their hand. But children die how they have been living - in hope. They don't know what's happening, so they expect nothing, they don't ask you to hold their hand - but you end up needing them to hold yours. With children, you're on your own. Do you understand? ~ Tea Obreht

When you expect nothing from the world - not the light of the sun, the wet of water, nor the air to breathe - everything is a wonder and every moment a gift. ~ Michael J. Sullivan

Expect nothing at all and accept as a joyful surprise whatever good you find in matrimony. ~ Frank Leslie

If you expect nothing, you can never be disappointed. ~ Tonya Hurley

Don't give to get. Give to inspire others to give. ~ Simon Sinek

Your mind creates your reality. If you expect nothing, you open up the universe to give you options. If you expect the worst, you usually get it. ~ James Patterson

She never wants to get to the point where she looks forward to hearing from someone. Once you look forward to something, you're inevitably let down and nothing can stay the same so she'd rather expect nothing at all and just be surprised that she was thought of at all. ~ Donna Lynn Hope

When you give something to a man and expect nothing - do not even expect the man to be grateful - his ingratitude will not tell upon you, because you never expected anything, never thought you had any right to anything in the way of a return. You gave him what he deserved; his own Karma got it for him; your Karma made you the carrier thereof. ~ Swami Vivekananda

I went away, after trying once more to rouse up Bashan by renewed calls and
encouragement. In vain. He cared as little for my going as for my coming. He seemed weighed down by bitter loathing and despair. He had the air of saying: "Since you were capable of having me put in this cage, I expect nothing more from you." And, actually,
had he not enough ground to despair of reason and justice?
[ ... ]
How could I explain to him we were treating him with great distinction, in shutting him up like a jaguar, without sun, air, or exercise, and plaguing him every day with a
thermometer? ~ Thomas Mann

If I expect nothing of you, it will be far easier to forgive your offenses than if I place my whole world in your hands. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Parents are living gods. They do everything to make their children happy and expect nothing in return. ~ Saravanakumar Murugan

You got no one, then?' she asked.
'No one but enemies.'
'Why aren't you fighting them?'
'Fighting? It's got me everything I have.' And he held his big empty hands up to show her. 'Nothing but an evil reputation and an awful lot of men with a burning need to kill me. Fighting? Hah! The better you are at it, the worse off it leaves you. I've settled some scores, and that can feel grand, but the feeling don't last long. Vengeance won't keep you warm nights, and that's a fact. Overrated. Won't do on its own. You need something else.'
Ferro shook her head. 'You expect too much out of life, pink.'
He grinned. 'And here was me thinking you expect too little.'
'Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed.'
'Expect nothing and you'll get nothing.'
Ferro scowled at him. That was the thing about talk. Somehow it always took her where she did not want to go. Lack of practice, maybe. ~ Joe Abercrombie

If you expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed. ~ Sylvia Plath

Gemma." His voice is rough and heated. "Some people may expect nothing. Most people expect something. But you, you, should expect everything. ~ Karina Halle

Blame Nobody, Expect Nothing, Do Something ~ Bill Parcells

One can understand why Surrealism was not afraid to make for itself a tenet of total revolt, complete insubordination, of sabotage according to rule, and why it still expects nothing save from violence. ~ Andre Breton

Bring your best to your mentors and expect nothing in return, then true value will be created. ~ Richie Norton

I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom." "You call that freedom?" "To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing." "What if you found something you wanted?" "I won't find it. I won't choose to see it. It would be part of that lovely world of yours. I'd have to share it with all the rest of you - and I wouldn ~ Ayn Rand

Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything ... ~ Harry Houdini

Piggy took off his shoes and socks, ranged them carefully on the ledge and tested the water with one toe. 'It's hot!' 'What did you expect?' 'I didn't expect nothing. My auntie-' 'Sucks to your auntie! ~ William Golding

Be unattached, expect nothing in return, attachment comes only where we expect a return, love shines in freedom alone. ~ Swami Vivekananda

She sighed as she set her spade down before turning to look at him.
She was crying.
Linus didn't hesitate as he scooped her up in his arms.
She buried her face in his neck, beard tickling his throat. "I am going to bury you right here," she sobbed. "I'm digging your grave, just so you know."
"I know," he said, rubbing a hand over her back. "I would expect nothing less. ~ T.J. Klune

Expect nothing, and you will enjoy everything! ~ Ethan Hawke

Expect nothing from People with cheap thoughts. Because, You will end up screwed! ~ Mohith Agadi

Expect nothing. Do your work. Celebrate! ~ Jules Olitski

For who expects nothing, all that comes is grateful ~ Fernando Pessoa

Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised ~ Daniel Defoe

Ritual and ceremony are powerful bonding tools. They result in a sense of community, a feeling of unity far beyond what you might expect. ~ Del Suggs

People think it's just forgetting your keys, she says. Or the words for things. But there are the personality changes. The mood swings. The
hostility and even violence. Even from the gentlest person in the world. You lose the person you love. And you are left with the shell... And you are expected to go on loving them even when they are no longer there. You are supposed to be loyal. It's not
that other people expect it. It's that you expect it of yourself. And you long for it to be over soon. ~ Alice LaPlante

In 1900, as the immigrants come down the gangplank into Jersey City, they expect the streets to be paved with gold, and they were only paved with gold in Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz,' of course. ~ David Levering Lewis

It's crazy because people expect you to be funny all the time and every day is not a funny day. I go to funerals and people are like 'tell a joke' and 'say one of your lines in a movie.' It's a funeral, man! ~ Chris Tucker

We want it visible
to show
when even the most
visible joy
will reveal itself
only when we have
transformed it within.
there's nowhere, my love, the
world can exist
expect within. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking us to refrain from using resources now so that future generations can have them later is like asking the poor to make gifts to the rich. ~ Julian Simon

But elimination will only happen if all countries - nuclear and non-nuclear states - genuinely work towards this result. Nuclear states must abolish their arsenals, as was indicated by the unanimous opinion of the international Court of Justice, the highest international tribunal. The five nuclear states seem to expect others to refrain from obtaining bombs while at the same time maintaining their own caches of deadly weapons. ~ C. G. Weeramantry

When your ideas shatter established thought, expect blowback. ~ Tim Fargo