Surprise Quotes - Page 26

• My host at Richmond, yesterday morning, could not sufficiently express his surprise that I intended to venture to walk as far as Oxford, and still farther. He however was so kind as to send his son, a clever little boy, to show me the road leading to Windsor.

  Karl Philipp Moritz

  Morning, Clever, Son

  Karl Philipp Moritz (2010). “Travels in England in 1782”, p.63, BoD – Books on Demand

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• Why does corruption in government always surprise us? Why do we expect anything else from it? Government is organized force. It takes our wealth and makes war. And we think honest men would do that work?

  Joseph Sobran

  War, Men, Thinking

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• For a person who lives 100 years in the future, the present comes as no surprise.

  Viktor Schauberger

  Years, Persons

  Viktor Schauberger, Callum Coats (1999). “The Water Wizard – The Extraordinary Properties of Natural Water: Volume 1 of Renowned Environmentalist Viktor Schauberger’s Eco-Technology Series”, p.11, Gill & Macmillan Ltd

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• I hope it will come as no surprise that I have something to say.

  Teresa Heinz

  "Hardball with Chris Matthews", www.nbcnews.com. July 27, 2004.

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• I personally take cues directly from the script, then I like to surprise the other actors. But you must maintain control on a level and see how far you can go up, down or out emotionally. You have to balance the craft with spontaneity.

  Lusia Strus

  Balance, Actors, Levels

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• It came as a surprise to find that a professional society and journal (Econometrica) were flourishing, and I entered this area of study with great enthusiasm.

  Lawrence Klein

  Enthusiasm, Study, Flourishing

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• It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve: It more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy.

  Albert Shanker

  Education, School, Innovation

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• While it might surprise many ecologists to hear, capitalism is itself the ultimate form of conservationism. Capitalists seek to conserve resources, not because of sentimental feelings about nature or the earth or whales or worry about the well-being of future generations, but simply because every drop of oil, every ton of ore, every shipment of wood saved is a cost reduction and money in the pocket.

  Steven Plaut

  Funny, Animal, Oil

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• Open your ears before you open your mouth, it may surprise your eyes!

  Earl Nightingale

  Motivational, Eye, Ears

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• Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Motivational, Accomplishment, Trying

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• I often surprise myself. You can't plan some shots that go in, not unless you're on marijuana, and the only grass I'm partial to is Wimbledon's.

  Rod Laver

  Marijuana, Tennis, Wimbledon

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• People expect the math to be simplified, but I want to surprise them right from the start. When the brain gets lost, it doesn't stop working. It tries to makes sense of things. It begins to speculate and guess, and that's when things open up. That's exciting.

  Simon McBurney

  Math, People, Brain

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• What you're seeing is a loss of confidence in institutions and their legitimacy because they are not seen as delivering. It's hardly a surprise that it's producing a degree of paralysis. Politics becomes very reactive and it's hard to deal with the bigger issues.

  Jonathan Wood

  Loss, Issues, Democracy

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• If you use the original World Wide Web program, you never see a URL or have to deal with HTML. That was a surprise to me - that people were prepared to painstakingly write HTML.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  Writing, Html, People

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• The beauty of facing life unprepared is tremendous. Then life has a newness, a youth; then life has a flow and freshness. Then life has so many surprises. And when life has so many surprises, boredom never settles in you.

  Rajneesh

  Boredom, Never Settle, Flow

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• Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy. Joy comes from surprise and connection and humanity and transparency and new...If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low.

  Seth Godin

  Joy, Consistency, Humanity

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• That she won the game startled me cold. The way she won, the pattern of her thought on the chessboard, charmed me warm again and then some.

  Richard Bach

  Games, Patterns, Chess

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• The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of turns, achievements, disappointments, surprises, and crises is a life full of landmarks. The empty life has even its few details blurred, and cannot be remembered with certainty.

  Eric Hoffer

  Disappointment, Empty Life, Achievement

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• It surprises people that there's actually a very large number of slaves in the world today-our best estimate is 27 million. And that is defining a slave in a very narrow way; we're not talking about sweatshop workers or people who are just poor, we're talking about people who are controlled by violence, who cannot walk away, who are being held against their will, who are being paid nothing.

  Kevin Bales

  Talking, Numbers, People

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• Music helps set a romantic mood. Imagine her surprise when you say, "We don't need a stereo - I have an accordion."

  Martin Mull

  Music, Needs, Helping

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• Around every corner is another gift waiting to surprise us, and it will surprise us if we can achieve control over our natural tendencies to make comparisons [to things that are better rather than things that are worse], to take things for granted [rather than imagining how much worse things would be if they weren't there and so feeling grateful], and to feel entitled!

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Grateful, Waiting, Feelings

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• [Constant curiousity leads to happiness:] I wake up curious every day and every day I'm surprised by something. And if I can just recognize that surprise every day and say, 'Oh, that's a new thing, that's a new gift that I got today that I didn't even know about yesterday,' it keeps me going. It keeps me more than going. It keeps me enthusiastic and grateful!

  Michael J. Fox

  Grateful, Yesterday, Today

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• Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adventure into life. ... The unexpected around the corner gives a sense of anticipation and surprise. Thank God for the unknown future.

  E. Stanley Jones

  Adventure, Giving, Thank God

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• Saturday afternoon, although occurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always takes this railway by surprise.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Luck, Afternoon, Saturday

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• When a Roman was returning from a trip, he used to send someone ahead to let his wife know, so as not to surprise her in the act.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Marriage, Wife, Used

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