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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker finds that disappointment often brings relief, perhaps because expectations are lowered.
In plain terms
Even when I am disappointed, I feel relieved.
What can you take from it?
Disappointment can be comforting if it confirms low expectations.

Where it applies

  • failed hope
  • reality check
  • burnout

Putting it to work

  • managing expectations
  • reframing failure
  • acceptance

Questions to consider

  • Why does failure sometimes feel like relief?
  • What are you afraid of hoping for?

Another view

It normalizes a potentially unhealthy emotional response to failure.

More from Samuel Beckett

  1. I felt ill at ease with all this air about me, lost before the confusion of innumerable prospects.

    Permalink to quote #17
  2. Poor juvenile solutions, explaining nothing. No need then for caution, we may reason on to our heart's content, the fog won't lift.

    Permalink to quote #19
  3. I have always been amazed at my contemporaries' lack of finesse, I whose soul writhed from morning to night, in the mere quest of itself.

    Permalink to quote #16

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