The situation in Iraq was dire at the end of 2006, when President George W. Bush decided to implement the surge and selected me to command it. Indeed, when I returned to Baghdad in early February 2007, I found the conditions there to be even worse than I had expected.
Always render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.
Following the war in Europe a large increase of European immigration to the United States is to be expected, of which the largest part is and always has been made up of men skilled in farming.
Practicing in the trial work trenches of the law, I saw, too, that when we judges don our robes, it doesn't make us any smarter, but it does serve as a reminder of what's expected of us: Impartiality and independence, collegiality and courage.
It's the first time I've ever done anything like that. It took longer than I expected. I've gotten a lot of E-mail since I got back, saying they thought I did a good job and presented the case well.
The naked thing was short-lived. It was only around for about six months because we thought it was shocking. Once people expected us to do it we kind of never did it again.
I'm used to being a supporting player in the background. All I ever wanted, at the very most, was to have a small part in something where people were like, 'Oh, right, that one guy, whoever he is, was pretty good in that.' That's all I ever really strived for or expected.
Managers, regardless of salary, should not be allowed to earn or use comp time. They are expected to work as many hours as needed to get the job done - especially at these salary levels.
Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?
My mom and I used to listen to records, read, and take train rides across the country in the summer. It was a very chill life. She didn't expose me to anything that was ahead of my development, but she expected me to adjust to her world - she did not expect to adjust to mine.
There has never been a campaign where there hasn't been sniping from the outside and second-guessing. I hear the same sometimes from the Democratic side in terms of President Obama's campaign, so that's to be expected.
There were some situations where I was giving up everything I had for the band and I just expected everybody else to feel the same way. I realized I was just kidding myself.
It is not to be expected that human nature will change in a day.
I wrote 'Lights' a long, long time ago. And I expected it to be on the album, because it was - I wrote it with 'Biff' Stannard. And he wrote every single Spice Girls song and every single pop song of the 90s, basically. So I thought, you know, I was really lucky to work with him, but I didn't think it would be a big song for some reason.
Today, campaigning isn't an 'interruption' but a permanent condition. Indeed, if you are a successful campaigner, it's expected you'll be a successful president.
Look at what has occurred in history. When the Berlin Wall fell, it was not surprising, but it was unexpected. Who predicted the Arab Spring? Nobody expected it, but all the ingredients were there. I think all the ingredients are also there for Quebec to become a country. But when? That's another question.
The difficulty with any sort of esteem is that more is expected of you.
I would say that one of the really special gifts about playing an athlete is that it's the best motivation you'll ever have to get in top shape and stay in top shape because you know that you're going to be expected to deliver.
After costs, only the top 3% of managers produce a return that indicates they have sufficient skill to just cover their costs, which means that going forward, and despite extraordinary past returns, even the top performers are expected to be only as good as a low-cost passive index fund. The other 97% can be expected to do worse.
I'm used to the egos in the 1960s, '70s and '80s where people just expected massive success and thought it was their birth right to be successful.
Let's not forget, it was the government, Department of Finance and Central Bank that decided to unfairly land the taxpayers of this country with unmitigated losses of Anglo and massive legacy issues that would have been expected when nationalising a fraudulent bank.
You come to realize that only one person can tell you what's expected of you, and that's you.
When I diagnose my depression now, I think it was partially about saying goodbye to these kids that I always expected to have but already knew that I wouldn't.
I feel more and more at ease, because I think the older I get, the less pressure there is. People say, 'Well, he's not cutting edge because he's not in his twenties, so he's not expected to be.'
Being in this fine mood, I spoke to a little boy, whom I saw playing alone in the road, asking him what he was going to be when he grew up. Of course I expected to hear him say a sailor, a soldier, a hunter, or something else that seems heroic to childhood, and I was very much surprised when he answered innocently, 'A man.'
I've read plenty of amazing science pieces where the writers don't hang out in labs. I just have fun doing it. And I get rewarded for it; I get gushy, especially when kids tell me they expected to be bored by my books, but weren't.
I never expected to become a director. It never occurred to me to come to America, to Hollywood. It's all been a wonderful accident. I'm still amazed every time I finish a film.
In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.
When it comes to storytelling, not taking risks is riskier than swinging for the fences. I have very simple ambitions when it comes to taking risks in storytelling and programming. I try very hard to avoid the expected.
My discovery that black holes emit radiation raised serious problems of consistency with the rest of physics. I have now resolved these problems, but the answer turned out to be not what I expected.
I assumed 'Freak the Mighty' was probably too weird and melodramatic to find a publisher. I certainly never expected the book to have a profound influence on my career as a writer, but indeed it has.
My youngest sister, Cindy, has Down syndrome, and I remember my mother spending hours and hours with her, teaching her to tie her shoelaces on her own, drilling multiplication tables with Cindy, practicing piano every day with her. No one expected Cindy to get a Ph.D.! But my mom wanted her to be the best she could be, within her limits.
The late Tom Wicker's biography of Nixon, called 'One of Us,' is really quite good: you see the biographer discovering dimensions of sympathy for his subject that he hadn't expected to feel.
I grew up under demanding people, that demanded things from you, expected you to toe the mark.
Most of the time, I don't want to use anti-climatic, but sometimes you go out there thinking this is going to be the worst thing you've ever gotten yourself into, and then you get back to base and think, 'Wow, that wasn't anything like I expected.'
Most Americans aren't the sort of citizens the Founding Fathers expected; they are contented serfs. Far from being active critics of government, they assume that its might makes it right.
