Shock Quotes - Page 2

• The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

  Voltaire

  Eye, Color, May

  Voltaire (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)”, p.3307, Delphi Classics

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today's comics use four-letter words as a shortcut to thinking. They're shooting for that big laugh and it becomes a panic thing, using four-letter words to shock people.

  Red Skelton

  Thinking, People, Laughing

  50 Copy quote

• Only conservatives believe that subversion is still being carried on in the arts and that society is being shaken by it.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Art, Believe, Subversion

  16 Copy quote

• if you are perfectly willing to shock an individual verbally, the next thing you will be doing is to shock him practically.

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould

  Next, Language, Individual

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1920). “Modes and Morals”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Humility, after the first shock, is cheerful virtue.

  C. S. Lewis

  Humility, Cheerful, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• Memory runs along deep, fixed channels in the brain, like electricity along its conduits; only a cataclysm can make the electrons rear up in shock and slide over into another channel. The human mind seems doomed to believe, as simply as a rooster believes, that where we are now is the only possibility

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Running, Memories, Believe

  4 Copy quote

• It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Time, Age, Generations

  Fanny's First Play (1914) "Induction"

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• To survive, to avert what we have termed future shock, the individual must become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before.

  Alvin Toffler

  Individual, Adaptable, Avert

  ALVIN TOFFLER (1970). “FUTURE SHOCK”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The silence is death.
  It comes each day with its shock
  to sit on my shoulder, a white bird,
  and peck at the black eyes
  and the vibrating red muscle
  of my mouth.

  Anne Sexton

  Eye, White, Bird

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.181, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• And that's when Anna realized that what the wolf had been asking Bran for was death. Impulsively, Anna stepped away from Charles. She put a knee on the bench she'd been sitting on and reached over the back to close her hand on Asil's wrist, which was lying across the back of the pew. He hissed in shock but didn't pull away. As she held him the scent of wilderness, of sickness, faded. He stared at her, the whites of his eyes showing brightly while his irises narrowed to small bands around his black pupil. "Omega," he whispered, his breath coming harshly.

  Patricia Briggs

  Lying, Eye, Hands

  6 Copy quote

• I want everyone out there in TV land to touch the TV. Touch the back of the TV and get a shock for Jesus.

  Robin Williams

  Jesus, Land, Religion

  6 Copy quote

• When I write I don't aim to shock people, and I'm surprised when I do. But I don't think that anything that occurs in life should be omitted from art, though the artist should present it in a fashion that is artistic and not ugly. I set out to tell the truth. And sometimes the truth is shocking.

  Tennessee Williams

  Fashion, Art, Writing

  4 Copy quote

• I'm in shock. Whitney was such an amazing artist. When I started my English career, I wanted to be like her. I loved her so much. My prayers go out to her daughter and to all of her family.

  Celine Dion

  Daughter, Prayer, Artist

  FaceBook post by Céline Dion from Feb 13, 2012

  61 Copy quote

  Show source

• Law that shocks equity is reason's murderer.

  Aaron Hill

  Law, Reason, Murderer

  Voltaire, Aaron Hill (1797). “Merope: A Tragedy”, p.50

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Death is supposed to be the great equalizer, but that's never true. Death is random, capricious, unconcerned, a flagrant player of favorites. It keeps its own counsel, so much the better to profoundly shock by its actions.

  Kenneth Turan

  Death, Player, Action

  4 Copy quote

• I don't like the phrase shock value. Surprise is essential in comedy, and if people are shocked by what I consider merely surprising, then that's their shock. But there is no joke without surprise.

  George Carlin

  People, Essentials, Phrases

  Interview with Sam Merrill, reprints.longform.org. January 1982.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was about 12 or 13 years old. I picked up the Bible and read it from cover to cover one weekend ,just as if it were a novel, very rapidly, and I've never gotten over the shock of it. The miracles, the inconsistencies, the improbabilities, the impossibilities, the wretched history, the sordid sex, the sadism in it - the whole thing shocked me profoundly.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Sex, Weekend, Years

  5 Copy quote

• The Premier League is the No1 league in the world in many areas. The events, the shocks, the production, the viewing figures, the worldwide audience are by far the best. Do I think at this moment in time it's got the highest quality levels in Europe in terms of Champions League football and domination of that area? In quality terms it needs to rise again to get to that point where it's by far the best in all areas.

  Gary Neville

  Football, Thinking, Champions League

  4 Copy quote

• Growing up in Bombay made me immune to culture shock, in a way. So, culture shock is not part of my DNA.

  Freida Pinto

  Growing Up, Dna, Culture

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The people are different in L.A. There was a time when I lived in New York and that was a bit of a shock, because everybody in New York was so honest, instead of so polite and backstabbing. But you learn to love the backstabbing politeness in L.A.

  Scott Clifton

  New York, People, Different

  Source: movies.about.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most contemporary artists are behind the bubble in time. They're making videos that are so incredibly boring compared to a good movie. Or they're making work where I say, "You realize minimal art is 50 or 60 years old?" That's what I tell people to shock them. They just blanch.

  Alex Katz

  Art, Years, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm predicting that we'll finally have a computer will search my e-mail automatically and delete every message that begins with 'thought you'd be interested,' and then give an electrical shock to the sender to remind him or her to stop send that kind of message.

  Scott Adams

  Giving, Mail, Messages

  4 Copy quote

• No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma - but we make out of them just what suits our purposes.

  Alfred Adler

  Success, Congratulations, Failure

  67 Copy quote

• I don't think the media circus has ever been a shock to my life seeing as I was with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor when I was 17.

  Francesca Annis

  Thinking, Media, Circus

  4 Copy quote

• I didn't know I was going to live for 50 years. It has come as a shock.

  David Bailey

  Years, Knows

  5 Copy quote