--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: For people who live on expectations, to…" description: "\"For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.\" — Elizabeth Bowen" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png" --- # For people who live on expectations, to face up to their… ![“For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png) > “For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.” [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. People who base lives on expectations struggle when reality confronts them, causing distress. **In simple terms:** Expectations cause pain when reality differs. Key Takeaway Adjust expectations to reality. Themes expectations reality disappointment Mood reflective cautious Type philosophical advice When to use this quote - career planning - relationships - personal development Key Concepts psychology self‑awareness Questions to Reflect On - How do you manage expectations? - What strategies help align hopes with reality? A Different Perspective Unrealistic expectations can lead to chronic dissatisfaction. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Expectations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expectations/) [Expectations Face](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expectations-face-912629/) [Faces](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faces/) [Live Expectations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/live-expectations/) [Miscellaneous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/miscellaneous/) [Ordeal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ordeal/) [Ordeals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ordeals/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Realization](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/realization/) [Realization Ordeal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/realization-ordeal-4807956/) ## Related quotes > [“For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realisation is something of an ordeal. Expectations are the most perilous form of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-face-up-to-their-realisation/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“The ordeals of others . . . prepare us, and later become the compass . . . in our time of ordeal.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-talmage-mathis/the-ordeals-of-others-prepare-us-and-later-become-the-compass-in-our/) [John-Talmage Mathis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-talmage-mathis/) > [She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-sanger/she-goes-through-the-vale-of-death-alone-each-time-a-babe-is-born-as/) [Margaret Sanger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-sanger/) > [I'm grateful this ordeal is over, and I'm so looking forward to getting back to the job I love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paula-abdul/i-m-grateful-this-ordeal-is-over-and-i-m-so-looking-forward-to/) [Paula Abdul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paula-abdul/) > [I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-roth/i-have-a-slogan-i-use-when-i-get-anxious-writing-which-happens-quite/) [Philip Roth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-roth/) > [The supreme ordeal, let us say rather, the only ordeal, is the loss of the beloved being.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-hugo/the-supreme-ordeal-let-us-say-rather-the-only-ordeal-is-the-loss-of/) [Victor Hugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-hugo/) > [Marriage . . . is not a love affair; it is an ordeal. (92)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/marriage-is-not-a-love-affair-it-is-an-ordeal-92/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [The mantram becomes one's staff of life and carries one through every ordeal. Each repetition has a new meaning, carrying you nearer and nearer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-mantram-becomes-one-s-staff-of-life-and-carries-one-through-every/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/muriel-barbery/the-real-ordeal-is-not-leaving-those-you-love-but-learning-to-live/) [Muriel Barbery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/muriel-barbery/) > [People who thought of my journey as a physical ordeal or an act of courage... missed the point. Courage and physical endurance were no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-simon/people-who-thought-of-my-journey-as-a-physical-ordeal-or-an-act-of/) [Ted Simon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-simon/) > [To find the point where hypothesis and fact meet; the delicate equilibrium between dream and reality; the place where fantasy and earthly things are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lillian-smith/to-find-the-point-where-hypothesis-and-fact-meet-the-delicate/) [Lillian Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lillian-smith/) > [Books that recount ordeals are precious because an ordeal is what we most fear, and the stories that tell us how to survive them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ramona-koval/books-that-recount-ordeals-are-precious-because-an-ordeal-is-what-we/) [Ramona Koval](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ramona-koval/) > [The ordeal is part of the commitment" Esquire Interview 10/10](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-roth/the-ordeal-is-part-of-the-commitment-esquire-interview-10-10/) [Philip Roth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-roth/) > [Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bob-bitchin/attitude-is-the-difference-between-ordeal-and-adventure/) [Bob Bitchin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bob-bitchin/) > [Marriage is not a simple love affair, it's an ordeal, and the ordeal is the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/marriage-is-not-a-simple-love-affair-it-s-an-ordeal-and-the-ordeal-is/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) ## More by Elizabeth Bowen > [Temperamentally, the writer exists on happenings, on contacts, conflicts, action and reaction, speed, pressure, tension. Were he acontemplative purely, he would not write.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/temperamentally-the-writer-exists-on-happenings-on-contacts-conflicts/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“Are you really an orphan? Yes, I am, said Portia a shade shortly. Are you? No, not at present, but I suppose it's a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/are-you-really-an-orphan-yes-i-am-said-portia-a-shade-shortly-are-you/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [It is not our exalted feelings, it is our sentiments that build the necessary home.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/it-is-not-our-exalted-feelings-it-is-our-sentiments-that-build-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Every love has a poetic relevance of its own; each love brings to light only what to it is relevant. Outside lies the junk-yard…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/every-love-has-a-poetic-relevance-of-its-own-each-love-brings-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [without fiction, either life would be insufficient or the winds from the north would blow too cold.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/without-fiction-either-life-would-be-insufficient-or-the-winds-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [One's sentiments -- call them that -- one's fidelities are so instinctive that one hardly knows they exist: only when they are betrayed or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/one-s-sentiments-call-them-that-one-s-fidelities-are-so-instinctive/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One's relation to them, the daily…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/only-in-a-house-where-one-has-learnt-to-be-lonely-does-one-have-this/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-walk-into-history-is-to-be-free-at-once-to-be-at-large-among-people/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [The wish to lead out one's lover must be a tribal feeling; the wish to be seen as loved is part of one's self-respect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/the-wish-to-lead-out-one-s-lover-must-be-a-tribal-feeling-the-wish-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Convention was our safeguard: could one have stronger?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/convention-was-our-safeguard-could-one-have-stronger/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the everyday, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/first-love-with-its-frantic-haughty-imagination-swings-its-object/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [to leap is not only to leap, it is to hit the ground somewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-leap-is-not-only-to-leap-it-is-to-hit-the-ground-somewhere/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [That is partly why women marry - to keep up the fiction of being in the hub of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/that-is-partly-why-women-marry-to-keep-up-the-fiction-of-being-in-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“But Miss Pym gave an impression, somehow, of having been attacked from within .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/but-miss-pym-gave-an-impression-somehow-of-having-been-attacked-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/rudeness-to-mrs-dosely-was-like-dropping-a-pat-of-butter-on-to-a-hot/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) [Explore all 275 Elizabeth Bowen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## More Expectations quotes > [Balance suggests a perfect equilibrium. There is no such thing. That is a false expectation… There are going to be priorities and dimensions of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/denise-morrison/balance-suggests-a-perfect-equilibrium-there-is-no-such-thing-that-is/) [Denise Morrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/denise-morrison/) > [My mom had very low expectations for me, and she really had a point. I was a big problem at seventeen. If I had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu/my-mom-had-very-low-expectations-for-me-and-she-really-had-a-point-i/) [Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu/) > [I've long believed one of the mainsprings of our own liberty has been the widespread ownership of property among our people and the expectation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-reagan/i-ve-long-believed-one-of-the-mainsprings-of-our-own-liberty-has-been/) [Ronald Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-reagan/) > [I say this all the time: I've always been really good at managing my expectations so that I'm not let down.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brett-young/i-say-this-all-the-time-i-ve-always-been-really-good-at-managing-my/) [Brett Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brett-young/) > [When Allah puts barakah (His blessings) in something, it will come beyond your expectations- never underestimate the power of one good deed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nouman-ali-khan/when-allah-puts-barakah-his-blessings-in-something-it-will-come/) [Nouman Ali Khan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nouman-ali-khan/) > [Keeping up with everybody's expectation is soooo hard!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/naomi/keeping-up-with-everybody-s-expectation-is-soooo-hard/) [Naomi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/naomi/) > [I recognize I am essentially a failed human being in the sense that I can't possibly live up to the expectations of an Almighty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-w-bush/i-recognize-i-am-essentially-a-failed-human-being-in-the-sense-that-i/) [George W. Bush](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-w-bush/) > [We're wired to expect the world to be brighter and more meaningful and more obviously interesting than it actually is. And when we realize…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lev-grossman/we-re-wired-to-expect-the-world-to-be-brighter-and-more-meaningful/) [Lev Grossman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lev-grossman/) > [“Does your reality match your expectations? If not it's time to change either your expectations or your reality.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-redhead/does-your-reality-match-your-expectations-if-not-it-s-time-to-change/) [Steven Redhead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-redhead/) > [Jesus' kingdom was not like the popular expectation. He used the phrase 'kingdom of God' with a different meaning. His kingdom was not of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-harpur/jesus-kingdom-was-not-like-the-popular-expectation-he-used-the-phrase/) [Tom Harpur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-harpur/) > [Disappointment contains an appointment for doing much better. High expectations mean your higher capacity and belief in abilities.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tasneem-hameed/disappointment-contains-an-appointment-for-doing-much-better-high/) [Tasneem Hameed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tasneem-hameed/) > [It's a good place when all you have is hope and not expectations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/danny-boyle/it-s-a-good-place-when-all-you-have-is-hope-and-not-expectations/) [Danny Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/danny-boyle/) > [When we give from a place of love, rather than from a place of expectation, more usually comes back to us than we could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-jeffers/when-we-give-from-a-place-of-love-rather-than-from-a-place-of/) [Susan Jeffers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-jeffers/) > [Everybody out there watches the show and has expectations of wanting to be an 'Idol', but we're going to teach them how much hard…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bo-bice/everybody-out-there-watches-the-show-and-has-expectations-of-wanting/) [Bo Bice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bo-bice/) > [When we fall utterly, something gathers us up. But our falling must be without reservation, without expectation, without hope, though not hopeless. You cant…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-housden/when-we-fall-utterly-something-gathers-us-up-but-our-falling-must-be/) [Roger Housden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-housden/) [Browse all 4,210 Expectations quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expectations/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elizabeth Bowen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-face-up-to-their-realization/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Expectations" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-face-up-to-their-realization/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf6/elizabeth-bowen-1197_expectations_for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-f_3007881.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.” — Elizabeth Bowen", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elizabeth Bowen", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "For people who live on expectations,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-face-up-to-their-realization/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/for-people-who-live-on-expectations-to-face-up-to-their-realization/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```