Surprise Quotes - Page 20

• Repeatedly place your pet opinions and prejudices before God. He will surprise you by showing you that the best of them need refining and some the purification of destruction.

  Charles Brent

  Prayer, Pet, Prejudice

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• The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being, in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.

  Salman Rushdie

  Lying, Vision, Delight

  Salman Rushdie (1990). “In good faith”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority.

  Bill Gates

  Taken, Priorities, Example

  Bill Gates' Speech at the University of Washington, archive.fortune.com. July 20, 1998.

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• Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.

  Denis Waitley

  Motivational, Success, Disappointment

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• Buying my wife a gun sort of like me saying, ' You know, I kinda want to kill myself, but I want it to be a surprise'.

  Marc Maron

  Suicidal, Gun, Wife

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• The nicest Father's Day surprise of all for Dad would be if you handed him a box, and he unwrapped it, and there, inside, sitting on a bed of folded tissue, was the pair of his undershorts that somebody threw away six months ago (without asking Dad) because they had reached the stage where they were 3 percent undershorts and 97 percent holes. Dad misses those undershorts. They were his Faithful Undershorts Companion.

  Dave Barry

  Fathers Day, Dad, Missing

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• Tennis is like a wonderful, longstanding relationship with a husband. Golf is a tempestuous, lousy lover; it's totally unpredicatable, a constant surprise.

  Dinah Shore

  Husband, Golf, Tennis

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• With some basic skills, ambition and persistence, then there is little limit to what you can achieve, and by trying you can often surprise yourself.

  Joe Gold

  Ambition, Persistence, Skills

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• That small circle of earth became a second home to both of us. Gardening boring? Never! It has surprise, tragedy, startling developments - a soap opera growing out of the ground. I'd forgotten that tremolo of expectation produced by a tiny forest of sprouts.

  Paul Fleischman

  Home, Garden, Circles

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• Life is a series of surprises.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Anticipation, Series

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.483, Library of America

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• Whenever I meet with anything agreeable in this world it surprises me so much - and pleases me so much (when my passions are not interested in one way or the other) that I go on wondering for a week to come.

  Lord Byron

  Passion, Please Me, Goes On

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• The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Greatness, Men, Pieces

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• Despite our preparation, indeed, despite our age, [the death of a parent] dislodges things deep in us, sets off reactions that surprise us and may cut free memories and feelings that we thought had gone to ground long ago. We might, in that indeterminate period they call mourning, be in a submarine, silent on the ocean's bed, aware of the depth charges, now near and now far, buffeting us with recollections.

  Joan Didion

  Memories, Ocean, Cutting

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• Life is full of surprises and and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success. If you try to plan every step, you may miss those wonderful twists and turns. Just find your next adventure-do it well, enjoy it-and then, not now, think about what comes next.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Adventure, Loving Life, Thinking

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• The biggest surprise in a man's life is old age.

  Ben Kingsley

  Men, Age, Aging

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• We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beauty, Beautiful, Novelty

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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• Others are to us like the characters in fiction, eternal and incorrigible; the surprises they give us turn out in the end to have been predictable and unexpected variations on the theme of being themselves.

  Mary McCarthy

  Character, Giving, Personality

  Mary McCarthy (1964). “The Humanist in the Bathtub”

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• When fortune surprises us by giving us some great office without having gradually led us to expect it, or without having raised our hopes, it is well nigh impossible to occupy it well, and to appear worthy to fill it.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Hope, Giving, Expectations

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• Do you know how I feel about that? I'm sure this is no big surprise... what a mistake. I should never have voted for that, but I accepted what [former Secretary of State] Colin Powell and the others said. But it took me just a matter of a few months to realize it was a bad mistake, and my record speaks for itself. I've spoken out against what was going on, not once, not twice, but lots of times. And I'm sorry that I was misled, but I was, and it was a mistake for me to vote for that war.

  Harry Reid

  Sorry, Military, War

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• I am thrilled to be an Olympian, and I think that although we will be underdogs we can beat many teams and will be a surprise in Sydney.

  Steve Nash

  Basketball, Team, Thinking

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• What has a writer to be bombastic about? Whatever good a man may write is the consequence of accident, luck, or surprise, and nobody is more surprised than an honest writer when he makes a good phrase or says something truthful.

  Edward Dahlberg

  Writing, Men, Luck

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• Loners, if you catch them, are well worth the trouble. Not dulled by excess human contact, nor blasé or focused on your crotch while jabbering about themselves, loners are curious, vigilant, full of surprises. They do not cling. Separate wherever they go, awake or asleep, they shimmer with the iridescence of hidden things seldom seen.

  Anneli Rufus

  Being Alone, Solitude, Loner

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• This is what I call understanding. If you understand, insecurity is an intrinsic part of life - and good that it is so, because it makes life a freedom, it makes life a continuous surprise. One never knows what is going to happen. It keeps you continuously in wonder. Don't call it uncertainty - call it wonder. Don't call it insecurity - call it freedom.

  Rajneesh

  Life, Understanding, Insecurity

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• Nothing is secure. That is my message. Nothing can be secure, because a secure life will be worse than death. Nothing is certain. Life is full of uncertainties, full of surprises - that is its beauty! You can never come to a moment when you can say, "Now I am certain." When you say you are certain, you simply declare your death, you have committed suicide.

  Rajneesh

  Life, Suicide, Messages

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• The drawings that interest me most are made with closed eyes. With eyes closed, I feel my hand slide down on the paper. I have an image in mind, but the results always surprise me.

  Willem de Kooning

  Eye, Hands, Drawing

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