Great Expectations Quotes

it is a principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.

We all have an equal interest in stability and security throughout Europe. The years the OSCE has existed, and particularly this year, have given rise to great expectations and at the same time to powerful disappointments.

The true power is in the imagination which dares to speculate upon that which is not yet. The imagination, backed by great expectations, can bring about almost any reality within the range of probabilities.

I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuadinig arguments of my best friends.

I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.

We were equals afterwards, as we had been before; but, afterwards at quiet times when I sat looking at Joe and thinking about him, I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart.

I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.

. . . in seclusion, she had secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences; that, her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their Maker . . .

Great expectations are placed on this generation for the establishment of peaceful and neighborly relations in the North Caucasus.

So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.

I identified with Pip from ‘Great Expectations,’ especially when I was younger; I had the same kind of gaucheness and uncertainty.

We all give up great expectations along the way.

I never had one hour’s happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death.

I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.

The law of self-fulfilling prophecy says that you get what you expect. So why not create great expectations and the highest vision possible of yourself and your world?

The secret was such an old one now, had so grown into me and become a part of myself, that I could not tear it away.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

So new to him,” she muttered, “so old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to me; so melancholy to both of us!

I won’t necessarily make new music because when you make a record there are these great expectations on the side of the record company who are going to produce your record, promoters that are going to do your shows. They want you to do interviews, they want you to play shows. I mean, they want it to be a campaign.

My guiding star always is, Get hold of portable property.

Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be.

We’ve been invited to come and believe the Unbelievable, receive the Inconceivable, and see beyond our wildest imaginations… Lord, we come with great expectations.

Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures, hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?

What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.

All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself.

These are the pieces of my youth, the small secrets and the not-so-great expectations that defined my coming of age.

But since doing the film [“The Invisible Woman”] I’ve really learned to appreciate [Charles Dickens], he’s phenomenal. “Great Expectations” would be one of my favorites.

I’ve been a fool to allow dreams to become great expectations.

It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.

Believe in yourself, believe in something higher than yourself, be selfless, exercise, have great expectations and execute day by day.

‘Great Expectations’ is one of the greatest stories.