If you expect nothing, you're apt to be surprised. You'll get it.
Interpretation
Expecting little can lead to pleasant surprises.
This quote by Malcolm Forbes suggests that having low expectations can make one more receptive to unexpected outcomes. When you do not hold a strong anticipation for a particular result, you leave room for surprise, thereby allowing even the smallest positive outcomes to bring joy and satisfaction.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing life's uncertainties.
Over the years, I've evolved a somewhat heretical but time-and mind-saving approach to books, articles, editorials that deal with weighty matters. More often than not, by beginning at the end and contemplating the conclusions, one can determine if it's worth going through the whole to get there.
Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely like exercising authority usually lose it.
To live long and achieve happiness, cultivate the art of radiating happiness.
The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
If you never budge, don't expect a push.
It's never a good deal when only one party thinks it is.
It's possible to take that as a personal metaphor and then multiply it to a people, a race, a sex, a time. If we can keep this thing going long enough, if we can survive and teach what we know, we'll make it.
Ask an impertinent question and you are on the way to the pertinent answer.
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.
Being, not doing, is my first joy.
You see, now that trials have come, they have shown that I am NOT a nice child. I was afraid they would. Perhaps... that is what they were sent for... I suppose there MIGHT be good in things, even if we don't see it.
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