The charm of a woodland road lies
not only in its beauty but in
anticipation.  Around each bend may
be a discovery, an adventure.

Dale Rex Coman

“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think.
Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was
a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when
you were, but he didn't know what it was called.

A.A. Milne
Winnie-the-Pooh

      

Never forget that anticipation is an important part
of life. Work's important, family's important, but
without excitement, you have nothing. You're cheating
yourself if you refuse to enjoy what's coming.

Nicholas Sparks
Three Weeks With My Brother
  

When I think something nice is going to happen I seem to fly right
up on the wings of anticipation; and then the first thing I realize I
drop down to earth with a thud.  But really, Marilla, the flying part
is glorious as long as it lasts...it's like soaring through a sunset.
I think it almost pays for the thud.

Lucy Maud Montgomery
Anne of Avonlea

   

Anticipation was the soul of enjoyment.

Elizabeth Gaskell
  

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.

W. E. Johns
    
   

   

Life needs mystery or else everything else flattens into a routine
so familiar you wonder if you will ever get out of the rut. We need
the sweet pain of anticipation to tell us we are really alive.

Dave Kindred

   
  

Looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

   

One's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction
is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance.  But this is
afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything
the less we enjoy it when it comes.

Arthur Schopenhauer
   
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

Norman Cousins
   

An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality;
our desires being often but precursors of the things
which we are capable of performing.

Samuel Smiles
   

Know how to keep anticipation
alive: always strive to feed it,
by letting the much promise more,
and the one achievement
be the announcement only of
a greater.  Put not all your
reserves into the first throw;
the great trick is to dole out
strength, and to dole out mind,
in such a fashion as to bring
forward increasingly the fulfillment
of what was expected of you.

Baltasar Gracián
  

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What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens.

Benjamin Disraeli
    

We love to expect, and when expectation is either
disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Samuel Johnson
     

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes.
What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

Seneca
    

    
If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.

Elbert Hubbard
    

No mind is much employed upon the present:
recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

Samuel Johnson
   

Events are only the external form of what happens.  Form carries with it
no particular content.  Because I once enjoyed myself during a Super Bowl,
I have concluded that watching Super Bowls causes enjoyment.  Or I went
to several cocktail parties and did not enjoy myself and have concluded
that cocktail parties cause boredom.  Anticipation is always the exercise of
such illogical connections.  Otherwise I would feel no urge to picture
the form of future events, realizing that content, not form, is the
determiner of happiness, and content is always within me.

Hugh Prather
    




A new expanded edition of Just for Today from Living Life Fully Publications:
Over a year of "Just for Today" passages from our popular e-mail daily quotations, and our new expanded edition includes over 180 reflections on those thoughts.  Full of ideas and focal points that you can use to help to make your day brighter and more fulfilling as you focus on different ways of giving and awareness of the blessings in your life!  Click on the image to the left for the print version.     Kindle Version

   
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One full year's worth of our daily meditations that until now have been available only on our site or through e-mail.  Now you can have the entire first year's worth of daily meditations for just $2.99 on your Kindle.  (Print edition available here.)
   
Perpetual anticipation is good for the soul but it's bad for the heart.

Stephen Sondheim