Surprising Quotes

• It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Relationship, Confidence, Self Esteem

  76 Copy quote

• Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Government

  168 Copy quote

• It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves.

  Bill Watterson

  Done, Hard

  "Some thoughts on the real world by one who glimpsed it and fled". Bill Watterson's commencement speech at the Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, www.graduationwisdom.com. May 20, 1990.

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• Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

  Boris Pasternak

  Life, Leadership, Morning

  Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1959). “Poetry, 1917-1959”

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• I believe that the world isn't always what we can see...I believe there are secrets in the woods. And I believe that goodness wins out...So, if someone's changed overnight - by witch curse or poison apple or were-turtle - you have to show them what's good. You show them love. That works a surprising amount of the time.

  Anne Ursu

  Believe, Winning, Turtles

  8 Copy quote

• Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent.

  Baltasar Gracian

  People, Expectations, Each Day

  43 Copy quote

• Our music over the years has been very cinematic. It's surprising we never really got into film soundtracks.

  Martin Gore

  Years, Film, Soundtracks

  8 Copy quote

• The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me, and a matter of bewilderment for my wife.

  Barack Obama

  Wife, Politics, Littles

  "'Run Obama! Run!' Could this be the next US president?" by Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com. December 11, 2006.

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• A surprising number of government committees will make important decisions on fundamental matters with less attention than each individual would give to buying a suit.

  Herman Kahn

  Government, Numbers, Giving

  Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.209, Lexington Books

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• Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

  James Madison

  Confidence, Religious, Unions

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Memories, Mindfulness, Homecoming

  35 Copy quote

• To whom, then, must I dedicate my wonderful, surprising and interesting adventures? to whom dare I reveal my private opinion of my nearest relations? the secret thoughts of my dearest friends? my own hopes, fears, reflections and dislikes? Nobody!

  Fanny Burney

  Adventure, Reflection, Interesting

  Frances Burney, Fanny Burney (2015). “Complete Works of Frances Burney (Delphi Classics)”, p.3739, Delphi Classics

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• When air conditioning, escalators, and advertising appeared, shopping expanded its scale, but also limited its spontaneity. And it became much more predictable, almost scientific. What had once been the most surprising became the most manipulated.

  Rem Koolhaas

  Air, Shopping, Advertising

  19 Copy quote

• The most surprising thing for my mother and father was when I was actually earning more money than them by the time I was about 18. They thought I was going to be the ne'er do well, who they'd have to keep worrying about.

  Diane Cilento

  Mother, Father, Worry

  7 Copy quote

• I like a show to unfold and keep presenting itself, surprising you.

  Tommy Tune

  Shows, Presenting

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• One of the many interesting and surprising experiences of the beginner in child analysis is to find in even very young children a capacity for insight which is often far greater than that of adults.

  Melanie Klein

  Children, Interesting, Adults

  Melanie Klein, Juliet Mitchell (1987). “Selected Melanie Klein”, p.46, Simon and Schuster

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• El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I have heard a single voice.

  Dan Quayle

  Funny, Voice, Democracy

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• By 3000 B.C. the art of Egypt was so ripe and so far advanced that it is surprising to find any student of early culture proposing that the crude contemporary art of the early Babylonians is the product of a civilization earlier than that of the Nile.

  James Henry Breasted

  Art, Civilization, Egypt

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• It is hardly surprising that the Georgian domestic style emerges as the most remarkable in the world.

  Stephen Gardiner

  Style, World, Remarkable

  Stephen Gardiner (2002). “The house: its origins and evolution”, Constable & Company Limited

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• It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way they look instead of what is in their minds since not much has been put in their minds to begin with.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Mind, Looks, Way

  8 Copy quote

• It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Frustration, Gun

  "Obama 'sorry' for God and guns jibe" by Caroline Davies, www.theguardian.com. April 12, 2008.

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• Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Self, Littles, Common

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• Jesus Christ, the condescension of divinity, and the exaltation of humanity.

  Phillips Brooks

  Christian, Jesus, Humanity

  26 Copy quote

• There has never been a better raconteur than Jesus of Nazareth.

  Harvey Cox

  Jesus, Nazareth

  Harvey Cox (1985). “Seduction Spirit”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

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• Life is full of surprises.

  John Major

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  33 Copy quote