According to Wallace, the expectation that art amuses is a 'poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with,' since it places all of the power with the audience, sometimes breeding resentment on the part of the author. 'I can see it in myself ...
Don’t get me wrong. For the most part, being strong got me through a lot. And I’m thankful that short of people dying on me, nothing can make me break down. There are times, however, when being strong feels a bit of a curse. You see, when you’r...
When we criticize the suicidal for being selfish, we are actually criticizing them for not enduring their pain with grace and good manners. These are nice qualities; we may be correct to reproach average citizens for not having them. But to expect ev...
There are two things a combat deployment offers which all of us strongly desire. The first, being purpose. Every morning we woke up and knew why we were there. It is immediate and unavoidable. Although, it is extreme and unpleasant, there is a comfor...
Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitiv...
of us, whether vivisector or vegan, have been subject to mechanisms undercutting sympathy for animals. How long and to what extent we submit to these mechanisms is not a matter of rationality: to cut off our feelings and support animal exploitation r...
Cold summer night The night is silence But your voice is shouting My mind reminiscing Your love is lacking The night is cold Longing of your arms I need your heat And your gone The dawn is immenent I'm dreaming of you My eyes are crying I'm missing y...
Mitch Kowalski: Look at the way the old man glared at Ashley, can't even tone it down for Mom's funeral. Steve Kowalski: What do you expect?, Dad's still living in the 50's, he expects his granddaughter to dress a little more modestly. Mitch Kowalski...
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 tha...
The other night we talked about literature's elimination of the unessential, so that we are given a concentrated "dose" of life. I said, almost indignantly, "That's the danger of it, it prepares you to live, but at the same time, it exposes you to di...
Number 23 had plenty of redeeming qualities that made falling for him a justifiable accident. But our connection had nothing to do with our similarities, our differences, our aesthetic attractions, or our emotional and physical needs. When we spoke, ...
I once had a drinking contest with an artist on his yacht... It amused him as I took shot after shot, and I realized that this was the reason he'd invited us, his amusement. Looking back, I thought he didn't expect we'd have anything to say, that my ...
So many things that are so dramatic or exciting when you read about them actually happen so simply and quietly. We humans like to consider ourselves important to creation and to the world, and we expect that whenever death comes it should be with a c...
And then as the little plane climbed higher and Olive saw spread out below them fields of bright and tender green in this morning sun, farther out the coastline, the ocean shiny and almost flat, tiny white wakes behind a few lobster boats--then Olive...
Morpheus: I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he's expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo? Neo: No. Morpheus: Why not? Neo: 'Cause I don't like ...
Jett Gallatin expected trouble in Alsop, Texas—but not zombies.
True hope is severed from expectation.
Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.
People expect me to be stupid. I'm not saying I'm Stephen Fry, but it is amazing the perception people have.
If you expect nothing, you can never be disappointed.
Don’t be surprised by your greatness. Be surprised that no one expected it.
