I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.
Bette DavisRead
You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is closely tied to our expectations, and adjusting them can enhance our overall joy.
This quote by Bette Davis highlights the idea that our level of happiness is often determined by our expectations. If we anticipate happiness, we are likely to experience it; conversely, unrealistic or low expectations can lead to disappointment. To cultivate a more fulfilling sense of joy, one must shift their expectations to align with a more positive outlook on life.
Themes
HappinessExpectationChangeMindsetJoy
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a motivational speech about personal growth.
More from Bette Davis
All quotes βI have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.
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Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
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Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.
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Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.
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If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.
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Similar quotes
Happiness is the main object of our aspirations, whatever name we give to it: fulfilment, deep satisfaction, serenity, accomplishment, wisdom, fortune, joy or inner peace, and however we try to seek it: creativity, justice, altruism, striving, completion of a plan or a piece of work.
Matthieu RicardRead
Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
I think most of us are raised with preconceived notions of the choices we're supposed to make. We waste so much time making decisions based on someone else's idea of our happiness - what will make you a good citizen or a good wife or daughter or actress. Nobody says, 'Just be happy - go be a cobbler or go live with goats.'
Sandra BullockRead
My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
Ayn RandRead
Pets are always a great help in times of stress. And in times of starvation too, o'course.
Terry PratchettRead
Happiness doesn't lie in conspicuous consumption and the relentless amassing of useless crap. Happiness lies in the person sitting beside you and your ability to talk to them. Happiness is clear-headed human interaction and empathy. Happiness is home. And home is not a house-home is a mythological conceit. It is a state of mind. A place of communion and unconditional love. It is where, when you cross its threshold, you finally feel at peace.
Dennis LehaneRead