What does “entezar” mean in Persian?

In a single line, a doctor distills his whole philosophy of contentment: «شادی و آرامشی که در زندگی‌ام دارم، محصول انتظاری است که از هیچ‌کس نداشتم» (“the happiness and peace I have is the fruit of expecting nothing from anyone”). The hinge word is انتظار (entezār), “expectation.”

انتظار means both “waiting” and “expectation,” so انتظار داشتن (“to have expectations”) of people is exactly what he gives up. Lowered expectations, he says, are the secret to peace. It’s a tidy, shareable bit of Persian wisdom, the kind of line that travels from a clinic to a thousand captions.