Surprise Quotes - Page 19

• It's a lovely answer and takes me entirely by surprise. I hadn't realized we were having a serious conversation, or I think I would've given a better reply when he asked me.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Thinking, Lovely, Answers

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• Did he say:"Hullo,Pippin!This is a pleasant surprise!"?No,indeed!He said:"Get up,you tom-fool of a Took!Where,in the name of wonder,in all this ruin is Treebeard?I want him.Quick" -Pippin Took

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Names, Want, Pleasant Surprises

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.108, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Marianne's mouth was open in surprise, but Poppy looked murderous. She clutched her reticule as though it contained a weapon. Realizing that it probably held some very sharp knitting needles, Christian reflected that it did.

  Jessica Day George

  Christian, Knitting, Mouths

  Jessica Day George (2011). “Princess of Glass”, p.58, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• The element of surprise wasn't allowed near the Periodic Table.

  Joseph Gordon-Levitt

  Elements, Tables, Periodic Table

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• Personally, I think knees should be kept for the eighth or ninth date, or the wedding day. As a nice surprise you know? 'oh, my darling, you have knees! I never would have thought

  Derek Landy

  Nice, Thinking, Wedding Day

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• The first time I saw you, when you stepped into that Skiz ring against Kaede, I thought you were the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. I could've watched you forever. The first time I kiss you..." That memory overpowers me now, taking me by surprise. I remember every last detail of it, almost enough to push away the lingering images of the Elector pulling June to him. "Well, that might as well have been my first kiss ever.

  Marie Lu

  Beautiful, Girl, Memories

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• It appeared to me obvious that the happiness of mankind should be the aim of all action, and I discovered to my surprise that there were those who thought otherwise.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Action, Should

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.39, Routledge

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• History is merely a list of surprises... It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  History, Lists, Slapstick

  "Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!". Book by Kurt Vonnegut (Chapter 48), 1976.

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• In life's last scene what prodigies surprise,
  Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!
  From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,
  And Swift expires a driveller and a show.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Wise, Eye

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Poems of Dr. Samuel Johnson. To which is Prefixed, a Life of the Author”, p.39

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• Agape's object is always the concrete individual, not some abstraction called humanity. Love of humanity is easy because humanity does not surprise you with inconvenient demands. You never find humanity on your doorstep, stinking and begging.

  Peter Kreeft

  Life, Humanity, Doe

  "Love". Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics, www.peterkreeft.com. 1988.

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• You have not looked at the poor woman for years, for the simple reason that marriage makes things so certain. Marriage makes things so dead and dull. Marriage takes all surprise and wonder away. Marriage makes you take your wife for granted, your husband for granted. What is the need to look at your wife? She will be there tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and forever. You look at people when you know you may not be able to look at them again. Marriage kills; it makes something tremendously beautiful very ugly.

  Rajneesh

  Marriage, Beautiful, Husband

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• ~One surprise of motherhood for me was how little control I have. I thought it would be a blissful romance with me at the helm, cuddling this little creature. It's been bittersweet and humbling to let her lead and to not try to be perfect myself.~

  Amanda Peet

  Parenting, Motherhood, Cuddling

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• War is, at first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off.

  Karl Kraus

  Hope, Peace, War

  Karl Kraus (1976). “Half-truths & one-and-a-half truths: selected aphorisms”

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• The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.

  Samuel Johnson

  Essence, Poetry, Delight

  Samuel Johnson (1819). “The lives of the most eminent English poets, with critical observations on their works”, p.201

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• Admiration is one of the most bewitching, enthusiastic passions of the mind; and every common moralist knows that it arises from novelty and surprise, the inseparable attendants of imposture.

  William Warburton

  Respect, Passion, Mind

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• No other area offers richer opportunities for successful innovation than the unexpected success.

  Peter Drucker

  Success, Opportunity, Innovation

  Peter Drucker (2014). “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, p.53, Routledge

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• I like the most provocative and most surprising partnerships on stage. Intensity and surprise.

  Mikhail Baryshnikov

  Dance, Partnership, Provocative

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• It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the Internet has evolved into a force strong enough to reflect the greatest hopes and fears of those who use it. After all, it was designed to withstand nuclear war, not just the puny huffs and puffs of politicians and religious fanatics.

  Denise Caruso

  Funny, Sarcastic, Religious

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• The greatest surprise of human evolution may be that the highest form of selfishness is selflessness.

  Robert E. Ornstein

  Motivational, Selfishness, May

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• If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid.

  Muriel Spark

  Death, Practice, Eggs

  "The prime of Miss Jean Brodie; The comforters; The only problem; The driver's seat; Memento mori".

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• I find no change of consequence in grown people, I do not miss the dead. It does not surprise me to hear that this friend or that friend died at such and such a time, because I fully expected that sort of news. But somehow I had made no calculation on the infants. It never occurred to me that infants grow up...These unexpected changes, from infancy to youth, and from youth to maturity, are by far the most startling things I meet with.

  Mark Twain

  Growing Up, Maturity, People

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• One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory.

  Jerry Bridges

  God, Religious, Jesus

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• The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.

  John Dryden

  Stupid, Eye, People

  John Dryden (1855). “The Poetical Works”, p.464

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• Marriage is a lot like the army, everyone complains, but you'd be surprise at the large number that re-enlist.

  James Garner

  Best Love, Army, Numbers

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• When one would make a surprise attack on the enemy, he should avoid the major roads and seek out the lesser ones. Then attack.

  Takeda Nobushige

  War, Enemy, Should

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