Antony Beevor Quotes

I've always done the safest thing, which is to assume that it's going to feel like that, to assume that you're going to feel like a freshman in a group of seniors - if you expect the worst, then it's never going to be that bad.

Any degree of success or achievement for me is only ever a relief. My version of getting carried away is: 'Mmm, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.'

I'm rarely optimistic.

I always love to be careful with my expectations so that life has pleasant surprises for me.

I'm predisposed to never be in pure celebration mode.

The only way to go on holiday is with your expectations at ground level. Convince yourself before you go that the weather's going to be dreadful and there will be nylon sheets. You'll then be pleasantly surprised.

I always embrace the worst-case scenario.

I'm a pessimist. But I'm a pessimist with a sense of responsibility.

While some of the big publishers might give out 200,000 advances, if your book does not hit some of the lists in the second week, they stop paying attention to you.

Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.

I think people in Europe are generally pessimistic about the future. They have low expectations; they're not working hard to change things. When you're a slacker with a pessimistic view of the future, you're likely to meet those expectations.

The process of writing a book is so removed in my mind from the process of publishing it that I often forget for great stretches that I eventually hope to do the latter.

I'm a pessimist by nature, so it's always the worst things that come to mind first whenever you make a decision or have a decision to make.

I am such a pessimist that every project has surpassed what I envisioned.

Maybe I'll take a little better care of myself, but I wouldn't count on it.

I'm not a birthday person. Maybe because I don't like to build expectations around that one day. You never know how it'll turn out to be.

I'm a bad pessimist. I don't think about how successful any record I've ever done is going to do before it came out.

I don't always expect good from people. I always expect the bad and I am pleasantly surprised when they are nice.

I don't know that I'd call myself an optimist.

The attitude among the people I knew was, 'Fleur wants to be a singer' but it was never, 'Go for it. You can do it.' Everyone was cynical because we'd never seen anyone where we came from do it.

I came from a town of about 2,000 people with one stop light, and I was told that nothing I ever wanted to do, I would succeed in.

I just don't get my hopes up. I don't expect too much from people in the league because you just never know what could happen.

I never assume anyone will see or like things I do, honestly!

I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than fatally disappointed.

Pessimism is playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child's play.