Disappointment is a universal experience, one that can be a steppingstone and learning opportunity to growth and resilience. This powerful emotion that we encounter in various aspects of our lives is often swept under the rug. These disappointment quotes have the power to soothe the wound, offer perspective, and turn disappointment into a steppingstone towards achieving greater heights. Let these words of wisdom uplift your spirits and put a twist on the way you perceive life’s disappointments.
Best Disappointment Quotes
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. H. Jackson Brown Jr.
When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Ryan Reynolds
Let me tell you this if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them. Jodi Picoult
I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time sometimes far too long waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism. Elizabeth Gilbert
The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way. Robert Kiyosaki
Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment. Haruki Murakami
When you create Hope in people, you create expectations. When you do not fulfill those expectations, when the change becomes more of the same old, same old, the Hope that was created can only turn to anger, frustration and bitter disappointment. Vermin Supreme
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. Alexander Pope
When people get married because they think it’s a long time love affair, they’ll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity. Joseph Campbell
You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It wont happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life. Joel Osteen
The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality. Conan O’Brien
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. William Blake
The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes. Thomas Hardy
When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way. Paulo Coelho
There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. The line between reason and madness grows thinner. Rosa Parks
Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious both are disappointed. Oscar Wilde
It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony. Benjamin Britten
Part of the problem with the word disabilities is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can’t feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren’t able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities. Fred Rogers
I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together. Mark Twain
It was one thing to make a mistake; it was another thing to keep making it. I knew what happened when you let yourself get close to someone, when you started to believe they loved you you’d be disappointed. Depend on someone, and you might as well admit you’re going to be crushed, because when you really needed them, they wouldn’t be there. Either that, or you’d confide in them and you added to their problems. All you ever really had was yourself, and that sort of sucked if you were less than reliable. Jodi Picoult
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation. Eric Hoffer
Longed for him. Got him. Shit. Margaret Atwood
I think childhood is, generally speaking, a preparation for disappointment. Seamus Heaney
There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you’ve carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand. Sarah Dessen
Hope is tomorrow’s veneer over today’s disappointment. Evan Esar
It was one of those times you feel a sense of loss, even though you didn’t have something in the first place. I guess that’s what disappointment is a sense of loss for something you never had. Deb Caletti
You can’t dwell on disappointment. You’ve got to take the positives and keep looking ahead. AJ Tracey
Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one. Marilyn Monroe
Evil lurks where disappointment lodges. George Foreman
Life is a long preparation for something that never happens. W.B. Yeats
There’s always failure. And there’s always disappointment. And there’s always loss. But the secret is learning from the loss, and realizing that none of those holes are vacuums. Michael J. Fox
She wanted none of those days to end, and it was always with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward. Markus Zusak
Disappointment builds character and strength. Nafessa Williams
If you’re betrayed, release disappointment at once. By that way, the bitterness has no time to take root. Toba Beta
The depth of the love of parents for their children cannot be measured. It is like no other relationship. It exceeds concern for life itself. The love of a parent for a child is continuous and transcends heartbreak and disappointment. James E. Faust
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. Henry David Thoreau
Culture is the intersection of people and life itself. It’s how we deal with life, love, death, birth, disappointment all of that is expressed in culture. Wendell Pierce
He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom. P.G. Wodehouse
Expectations are dangerous. I recommend not having any, if only to avoid disappointment. Conchita Wurst
Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed. Patricia McCormick
Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment. Marsha Sinetar
We ruined each other by being together. We destroyed each other’s dreams. Kate Chisman
I can’t even explain to you how terrible that feels, that I equate dating a woman with punishment, shame, guilt, disappointment, reproach, reprimand, persecution. It’s a nightmare. John Mayer
Young alienation, disappointment and heartache is all a part of the first real growing up that we do. Judd Nelson
You really didn’t see the sadness or the longing unless you already knew it was there. But that was the trick, wasn’t it? Everyone had their disappointment and their baggage; only, some people carried it in their inside pockets and not on their backs. Maggie Stiefvater
People from New York have been calling, to see if I’m still alive. When I answer the phone, you can hear the disappointment in their voice. Maurice Sendak
Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy’s Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day’s work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city’s reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty. P.G. Wodehouse
Don’t fall in love with politicians, they’re all a disappointment. They can’t help it, they just are. Peggy Noonan
Nobody ever gets what they want when it comes to love. Scott Turow
A father’s disappointment can be a very powerful tool. Michael Bergin
I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach. Upton Sinclair
Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes. Euripides
One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on. Alain de Botton
A widely held, but rarely articulated, belief in our society is that the ideal self is bold, alpha, gregarious. Introversion is viewed somewhere between disappointment and pathology. Susan Cain
There’s an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté. Margaret Atwood
A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment. Carl Jung
Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment help us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments but all of this is transitory it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken. Paulo Coelho
We must all suffer one of two things the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment. Jim Rohn
We met each other when we were young, before we knew enough about disappointment, and once we did we found we reminded each other of it. Nicole Krauss
You’re not looking for perfection in your partner. Perfection is all about the ego. With soulmate love, you know that true love is what happens when disappointment sets in and you’re willing to deal maturely with these disappointments. Karen Salmansohn
The strength of a love is always misjudged if we evaluate it by its immediate cause and not the stress that went before it, the dark and hollow space full of disappointment and loneliness that precedes all the great events in the heart’s history. Stefan Zweig
Ambition is a very dangerous thing because either you achieve it and your life ends prematurely, or you don’t, in which case your life is a constant source of disappointment. You must never have ambition. Jeremy Clarkson
Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation. Charlotte Brontë
The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility. Thomas S. Monson
Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it. Eliza Tabor
The snow began to fall again, drifting against the windows, politely begging entrance and then falling with disappointment to the ground. Jamie McGuire
When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in. Kristin Armstrong
If you expect nothing, you can never be disappointed. Tonya Hurley
Depression begins with disappointment. When disappointment festers in our soul, it leads to discouragement. Joyce Meyer
Why is it so hard to articulate love yet so easy to express disappointment? Kaui Hart Hemmings
Sometimes when you get disappointment it makes you stronger. David Rudisha
Disappointments in love, even betrayals and losses, serve the soul at the very moment they seem in life to be tragedies. The soul is partly in time and partly in eternity. We might remember the part that resides in eternity when we feel despair over the part that is in life. Thomas Moore
I know what it is to feel unloved, to want revenge, to make mistakes, to suffer disappointment, yet also to find the courage to go forward in life. Tim O’Brien
But there were worse things than disappointment, and I’d lived through several of them already. R.J. Anderson
Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead. Les Brown
I caught myself thinking about falling in love with someone who I hoped was out there right now thinking about the possibility of me, but I quickly banished the notion. It was that kind of thinking that landed me in this situation to begin with. Hope can ruin you. Perry Moore
Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer and often the supreme disappointment. Ansel Adams
Truth is, something that I thought was perfect was taken away from me, and I never wanted perfect again. I wanted middle of the road, stuff I didn’t care about so that I couldn’t lose anything I really loved ever again. Cecelia Ahern
Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything. Kurt Vonnegut
Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them, exclaimed Anne. You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed. But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed. L.M. Montgomery
Suspense is worse than disappointment. Robert Burns
My mother gave me a disappointed look. Then I gave her one back. Mine was for everything, not just the sandwich. Carol Rifka Brunt
It may help us, in those times of trouble, to remember that love is not only about relationship, it is also an affair of the soul. Thomas Moore
When things are a disappointment, try not to be so discouraged. Carol Burnett
We are happy when people/things conform and unhappy when they don’t. People and events don’t disappoint us, our models of reality do. It is my model of reality that determines my happiness or disappointments. Stefan Zweig
Disenchantment, whether it is a minor disappointment or a major shock, is the signal that things are moving into transition in our lives. William Throsby Bridges
Mrs. Lynde says, Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed. L. M. Montgomery
In England, an inventor is regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances, invention ends in disappointment and poverty. In America, an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth. Oscar Wilde
Sometimes parents don’t find what they’re looking for it their child, so they plant seeds for what they’d like to grow there instead. I’ve witnessed this with the former hockey player who takes his son out to skate before he can even walk. Or in the mother who gave up her ballet dreams when she married, but now scrapes her daughter’s hair into a bun and watched from the wings of the stage. We are not, as you’d expect, orchestrating their lives; we are not even trying for a second chance. We are hoping that if this one thing takes root, it might take up enough light and space to keep something else from developing in our children the disappointment we’ve already lived. Jodi Picoult
Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction only disappointment. Ryan Holiday
Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side. Richelle E. Goodrich
Regrets are something you can’t really have as an actor, because ultimately you’ll end up destroying yourself there’s a lot of disappointment in this business. Henry Cavill
Love is like a wind stirring the grass beneath trees on a black night, he had said. You must not try to make love definite. It is the divine accident of life. If you try to be definite and sure about it and to live beneath the trees, where soft night winds blow, the long hot day of disappointment comes swiftly and the gritty dust from passing wagons gathers upon lips inflamed and made tender by kisses. Sherwood Anderson
The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment, no matter what the score. Nick Hornby
What hurts so bad about youth isn’t the actual butt whippings the world delivers. It’s the stupid hopes playacting like certainties. Mary Karr
As someone who has faced as much disappointment as most people, I’ve come to trust not that events will always unfold exactly as I want, but that I will be fine either way. Marianne Williamson
I think people would be happier if they admitted things more often. In a sense we are all prisoners of some memory, or fear, or disappointment we are all defined by something we can’t change. Simon Van Booy
Present, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope. Ambrose Bierce
A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel. Julian Barnes
There’s always something good to come out of disappointment Comfort. Deborah Wiles
There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well.The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense. Jane Austen
Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word. Laurence Olivier
You fall in love, it’s intoxicating, an for a little while you feel like you’ve actually become one with the other person. Merged souls, and so on. You think you’ll never be lonely again. Only it doesn’t last and soon you realize you can only get so close and you end up brutally disappointed, more alone than ever, because the illusion the hope you’d held on to all those years has been shattered. Nicole Krauss
People ask me, Don’t you ever run out of ideas? Well, on the first place, I don’t use ideas. Every time I have an idea, it’s too limiting and usually turns out to be a disappointment. But I haven’t run out of curiosity. Robert Rauschenberg
After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely. J.R.R. Tolkien
While it is important for people to see your promise you must also remember that hope is the keeper of both happiness and disappointment, the father of both progress and failure. Bryant H. McGill
I saw everything in the world build up and then everything in the world fall down again. Marina Keegan
As I look back and connect the dots, all I want to do is go back and hug my scared young self, who took a lot of steps out of impulse not knowing what will happen. So many nights of disappointment, so many others of being disillusioned where I would have just gone ahead and quit it all I still do not know what kept me hanging in there. Arfi Lamba
Not all friends know they have lost you. Joyce Rachelle