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Disappointments are a certain part of life. If you’re dealing with one right now, reading these disappointment quotes will help you feel better.
Whether someone you trusted let you down, something at work or in business didn’t go right, or your life just isn’t where you want it to be right now, life has a way of kicking us when we’re already down.
Disappointment may not be an easy thing to face, but is an inevitable feeling we all face.
Overcoming disappointment and picking yourself up afterwards is crucial to living a happy and fulfilling life.
So here are the very best quotes about disappointment, and overcoming it, to help you feel good again. Whatever brought you to this page will soon pass, and brighter days will come.
Disappointment Quotes
Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom.
Sir Boyle Roche
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
Eric Hoffer
We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.
Jim Rohn
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
Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.
Eliza Tabor
Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.
Kurt Vonnegut
Depression begins with disappointment. When disappointment festers in our soul, it leads to discouragement.
Joyce Meyer
Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.
Samuel Johnson
But you know that disappointment is just the action of your brain readjusting itself to reality after discovering things are not the way you thought they were.
Brad Warner
Sometimes when you get disappointment it makes you stronger.
David Rushida
There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Let’s face it: None of us are ever going to get to the place in life where we have no more disappointments. We can’t expect to be sheltered from every little thing. Disappointment is a fact of life–one that must be dealt with.
Joyce Meyer
If you’re betrayed, release disappointment at once. By that way, the bitterness has no time to take root.
Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.
Beverly Sills
God makes the life fertile by disappointments, as he makes the ground fertile by frosts.
Henry Ward Beecher
You have to learn to not let little disappointments get you down and to stay focused on the big picture.
Gillan Tans
When you have no expectations, you’ll never have disappointments.
Unknown
The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.
Thomas Hardy
Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.
Richelle E. Goodrich
We’ve all experienced change for a moment, only to feel let down and disappointed in the end.
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
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, My Sister’s Keeper
If you think one day you will get it all done, and then you can relax, you are bound to be disappointed.
Christina Winsey-Rudd
Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life – that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment – that would be the perfect state.
Cate Blanchett
Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction – only disappointment.
Ryan Holiday
I think childhood is, generally speaking, a preparation for disappointment.
Seamus Heaney
The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.
Conan O’Brien
He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.
P.G. Woodhouse
If you put in little effort and expect big returns, you will be deeply disappointed. You don’t get apples by planting lemon seeds.
Catherine Pulsifer
It is better to know and be disappointed, than to not know and always wonder.
Oscar Wilde
Music is 10% exhilaration and 90% utter disappointment.
John Barrow
Hope is tomorrow’s veneer over today’s disappointment.
Evan Esar
Disappointment is a good sign of basic intelligence. It cannot be compared to anything else: it is so sharp, precise, obvious, and direct. If we can open, then we suddenly begin to see that our expectations are irrelevant compared with the reality of the situations we are facing.
Chogyam Trungpa
Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Benjamin Franklin
Life is all about setbacks. A life lived without disappointment is a life lived in a cocoon. People have recovered from far worse setbacks.
Tony Clark
Disappointment is a sticky one, because no one can steal contentment, joy, gratitude, or peace – we have to give it away.
Kristin Armstrong
Hope is tomorrow’s veneer over today’s disappointment.
Evan Esar
We are often less grieved at disappointments than at ourselves for having said much concerning the certainty of our expectations.
Norman Macdonald
It is a bitter disappointment when you have sown benefits, to reap injuries.
Plautus
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Alexander Pope
I guess that’s what disappointment is — a sense of loss for something you never had.
Deb Caletti, The Nature of Jade
People and events don’t disappoint us, our models of reality do. It is my model of reality that determines my happiness or disappointments.
Stephan Zweig, Chess Story
The more we shelter children from every disappointment, the more devastating future disappointments will be.
Fred G. Gosman
Disappointment is an endless wellspring of comedy inspiration.
Martin Freeman
Disappointments are a result of failed expectations. To have less disappointments, either expect less from other people or demand more from yourself.
Kevin Ngo
Overcoming Disappointment
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Henry David Thoreau
Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead.
Les Brown
The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility.
Thomas S. Monson
Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there’s a choice I make.
Charles Stanley
If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.
Thomas Jefferson
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
Enthusiasm is followed by disappointment and even depression, and then by renewed enthusiasm.
Murray Gell-Mann
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
Sometimes Good Things Fall Apart So Better Things Can Fall Together.
Marilyn Monroe
Present, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope.
Ambroe Pierce
Anger is more constructive than despair.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Maturity’ really means: being very unsurprised by, and calm around, pain and disappointment.
Alain de Botton
What do you do when disappointment comes? When it weighs on you like a rock, you can either let it press you down until you become discouraged, even devastated, or you can use it as a stepping-stone to better things.
Joyce Meyer
Life is not always a celebration; so be ready to courageously face disappointments when they come, and be sure to grow stronger and wiser from them.
Edmond Mbiaka
See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan’s deflation is another’s inflation.
Jean Cocteau
In the midst of my disappointment I am never defeated. Only given the opportunity to rise again willing to take on new challenges.
Eleesha
The simple solution for disappointment depression: Get up and get moving. Physically move. Do. Act. Get going.
Peter McWilliams
The best way to deal with disappointment is to acknowledge and work through the feelings it induces.
Noaman Kaysingwala, How to Handle Disappointment In Life
Nothing in life has happened to you. It’s happened for you. Every disappointment. Every wrong. Even every closed door has helped make you into who you are.
Joel Osteen
As you work towards your goals, disappointments may slow you down, but they don’t have to keep you down.
Catherine Pulsifer
To courageously straighten up again after our heads have been bowed by defeat, disappointment and suffering is a supreme test of character.
Wilferd Peterson
Forget yesterday and last month and last year, with their gloomy diary of failures and disappointments. All that is in the past.
Og Mandino, Og Mandino’s University of Success
When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.
Kristin Armstrong
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
A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defense of some little peculiar vexation.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
We hope you’ve been inspired by these disappointment quotes and feel ready to overcome your disappointments today. Remember, these feelings won’t last. Think positive and keep moving forward. A brighter tomorrow awaits you!
*Update: Published on March 21, 2012 and updated on May 1, 2020.
