Promising is the very air o' th' time; it opens the eyes of
expectation. Performance is ever duller for read more

Promising is the very air o' th' time; it opens the eyes of
expectation. Performance is ever duller for his act; and, but in
the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is
quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable;
performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great
sickness in his judgment that makes it.

I do my thing and you do yours. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, read more

I do my thing and you do yours. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, then it is beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.

Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To tow'rs and windows, read more

Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To tow'rs and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.

If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.

If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.

I have known him [Micawber] come home to supper with a flood of
tears, and a declaration that nothing read more

I have known him [Micawber] come home to supper with a flood of
tears, and a declaration that nothing was now left but a jail;
and go to bed making a calculation of the expense of putting
bow-windows to the house, "in case anything turned up," which was
his favorite expression.

It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be
expected to do.

It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be
expected to do.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the read more

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Everything comes if a man will only wait.

Everything comes if a man will only wait.