Surprise Quotes - Page 34

• All I asked was that I be spared surprises, although, in this world of six billion souls, all acting with free will and too many with audacity, surprises are inevitable, too few of them are the kind that make you smile and that lift your heart.

  Dean Koontz

  Heart, Soul, Make You Smile

  Dean Koontz (2016). “The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd”, p.1013, Bantam

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• History is a jangle of accidents, blunders, surprises and absurdities, and so is our knowledge of it, but if we are to report it at all we must impose some order upon it.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Order, History, Blunders

  Henry Steele Commager, Raymond Henry Muessig (1980). “The study and teaching of history”, Merrill Publishing Company

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• Even the dullest bird or face becomes interesting when you give it a good look in the wild/flesh. The way the shadow drops across the cheek, the light hits an eyebrow, etc... there are many more angles, positions etc. than you can ever imagine. My heart always makes a little jump when I see things in birds or faces that surprise me.

  Siegfried Woldhek

  Heart, Eyebrows, Light

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• I'll be clickin' by your house about two forty-five, Sidewalk Sundae Strawberry Surprise.

  Tom Waits

  Ice Cream, Two, House

  Song: Ice Cream Man, 2006

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• There once was an umpire whose vision Was cause for abuse and derision He remarked in surprise, 'Why pick on my eyes? It's my heart that dictates my decision.'

  Ogden Nash

  Sports, Heart, Eye

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• Let us not have a computer psychology that makes us think we know it all. All answers on computers - but no surprises. The challenge of love. God reveals himself through surprises.

  Pope Francis

  Thinking, Psychology, Challenges

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• This is a big surprise I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.

  Banksy

  Men, Awards, House

  "Banksy Request to Appear at the Oscars in Disguise Rejected" by Stuart Kemp, www.hollywoodreporter.com. February 21, 2011.

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• Most archivists don't like surprises. That's why we work in the past.

  Brad Meltzer

  Past, Archivists

  "The Inner Circle". Book by Brad Meltzer, abcnews.go.com. 2011.

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• Nothing, for the most part, surprises me anymore.

  Brett Favre

  Surprise Me

  "Brett Favre surprised by reaction". www.espn.com. October 8, 2011.

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• Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.

  Stephen Sondheim

  Beauty, Song, Art

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• Americans rightly asked, if this is the way our government responds to a natural disaster it knew about days in advance, how would it respond to a surprise terrorist attack? How would it respond to an earthquake?

  Russ Carnahan

  Government, Earthquakes, Way

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• All too often too often we try to push, pull, outline and control our ideas instead of letting them grow organically. The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.

  Julia Cameron

  Heart, Creativity, Ideas

  Julia Cameron (2012). “The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity”, p.248, Souvenir Press

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• The designers usually don't like to say until we're on the runway. Like when I did Prada last year, I couldn't mention doing Prada or even Tweet or take a picture and put it on Twitter saying I was backstage at the Prada show. And Dolce was the same thing. They like to keep a little surprise, I guess, a little secret for everybody.

  Alessandra Ambrosio

  Years, Secret, Littles

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I soon began to dream. ... I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. ... I left my bed and wandered downstairs. ... There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.''

  Abraham Lincoln

  Dream, White, Numbers

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• Another thing about creation is that every day it is like it gave birth, and it's always kind of innocent and refreshing. So it's always virginal to me, and it's always a surprise.

  Louise Berliawsky Nevelson

  Birth, Kind, Innocent

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• I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Politics Is the Entertainment Branch of Industry. C-SPAN's coverage of governmental proceedings is wonderful. Caution! Buffoons on the Hill! Wallowing in blabber and spew, regiments of ex-lawyers and used-car salesmen attempt to distract us from the naughty little surprises served up by deregulated corporate America.

  Frank Zappa

  Naughty, America, Car

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.322, Simon and Schuster

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• Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore.

  Garrison Keillor

  Humorists

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• The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.

  Scott McClellan

  Country, War, Media

  "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception". Book by Scott McClellan, April 21, 2008.

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• It’s very strange how electronic music formatted
  itself and forgot that its roots are about the
  surprise, freedom, and the acceptance of every race,
  gender, and style of music into this big party.

  Thomas Bangalter

  Party, Acceptance, Race

  "Machines for Life". Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com.

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• You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.

  William Stafford

  Exercise, Self, Quirky

  William Stafford (1986). “You must revise your life”, University of Michigan Press

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• Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Art, Powerful, War

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.360, Princeton University Press

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• Investment bubbles and high animal spirits do not materialize out of thin air. They need extremely favorable economic fundamentals together with free and easy, cheap credit, and they need it for at least two or three years. Importantly, they also need serial pleasant surprises in such critical variables as global GNP growth.

  Jeremy Grantham

  Animal, Air, Years

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• I'm a great believer in the beauty and the power of surprise.

  Mark Gatiss

  Believer

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• The greatest surprise in life to me is the brevity of life.

  Billy Graham

  Surprise In Life, Brevity Of Life, Brevity

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• I listen to a lot of alternative types of music: I listen to a lot of Chinese music, I listen to a lot of Asian music. It might surprise you, but I listen to a lot of Arabic music. And I don't care - music is music.

  Timbaland

  Chinese, Asian, Alternatives

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