Surprising Quotes - Page 10

• Desperation can make a person do surprising things.

  Veronica Roth

  Desperation, Persons, Surprising Things

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• [N]othing is as surprising as life. Except for writing. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the only consolation.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Writing, Consolation, Courses

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• Nothing is more natural than mutual misunderstanding; the contrary is always surprising. I believe that one never agrees on anything except by mistake, and that all harmony among human beings is the happy fruit of an error.

  Paul Valery

  Mistake, Believe, Errors

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• I've been very lucky at what's happened in my career to date, but playing something as far from me as possible is an ambition of mine - anything from a mutated baddy in a comic book action thriller, to a detective. If anything, I'd like Gary Oldman's career: he's the perfect example of it. I've love to have a really broad sweep of characters - to be able to do something edgy, surprising and unfashionable.

  Benedict Cumberbatch

  Book, Ambition, Character

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

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• Humans were always surprising me.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Humans

  Stephenie Meyer (2009). “The Host”, p.326, Hachette UK

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• The most understandable thing in the world should be how minutes lead to hours, how hours lead to days, how days can make a year. And yet, this neat progression can still be surprising.

  David Levithan

  Years, World, Hours

  David Levithan (2008). “The Realm of Possibility”, p.200, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• It's always surprising to be reminded that while you're watching and thinking about people, all knowing and superior, they're watching and thinking about you, right back at you.

  Terry Pratchett

  Thinking About You, Knowing, People

  Terry Pratchett (2010). “A Hat Full of Sky: (Discworld Novel 32)”, p.331, Random House

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• The pain, so unexpected and undeserved, had for some reason cleared away the cobwebs. I realized I didn’t hate the cabinet door, I hated my life… My house, my family, my backyard, my power mower. Nothing would ever change; nothing new could ever be expected. It had to end, and it did. Now in the dark world where I dwell, ugly things, and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things, spill out in me constantly, and I can count on nothing.

  Philip K. Dick

  Pain, Hate, Dark

  "A Scanner Darkly". Book by Philip K. Dick, 1977.

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• It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides.

  George Sand

  Funny, Wisdom, Mistake

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• Follow the rules whenever possible. That makes it a lot more surprising when you break them.

  Mira Grant

  Break

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• I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thanksgiving, Running, Sweet

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.373, Penguin

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• I tend to stay in character between scenes... to be rather serious on set, but here's why, and I think people will find it surprising. I'm one of the worst 'corpses' on a movie set, which means you can't keep a straight face. You start to get the giggles and you can't stop.

  Christian Bale

  Character, Mean, Thinking

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• It shouldn't come as any surprise that those who choose acting as a profession are phonies who live in a fantasy world. What is surprising is how many of them are blissfully unaware of it.

  Julie Burchill

  Acting, World, Fantasy

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• I'm sorry that it was all so successful. I honestly didn't mean it to happen like that. It's hardly surprising that people grew to hate me.

  Phil Collins

  Sorry, Hate, Mean

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• Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.

  Benedict Cumberbatch

  Roles, Landing, Happened

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• He possessed the logic of all good intentions and a knowledge of all the tricks of his trade, and yet he never succeeded at anything, because he believed too much in the impossible. Surprising? Why so? He was forever in the act of conceiving it!

  Charles Baudelaire

  Forever, Too Much, Impossible

  Charles Baudelaire (1986). “La Fanfarlo”

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• I rarely come away from presenting the 'Today' programme without some sense of regret. There is always some question that I should have asked, or some point that I should have made. This is annoying but not surprising. Perfection is hard to achieve in a three-hour live programme.

  Evan Davis

  Regret, Should Have, Perfection

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• I always had a sense that I would fall in love with Tokyo. In retrospect I guess it's not that surprising. I was of the generation that had grown up in the '80s when Japan was ascendant (born aloft by a bubble whose burst crippled its economy for decades), and I'd fed on a steady diet of anime and samurai films.

  Junot Diaz

  Falling In Love, Anime, Japan

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• But Saudi Arabia is surprising in a lot of ways. Like any place, or any people, it relentlessly defies easy categorization.

  Dave Eggers

  People, Arabia, Way

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• Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.

  Renee Fleming

  America, Jazz, Niche

  "Interviews with Bob Dole, Liz Smith, Renee Fleming, Ronan Tynan". "Larry King Live", edition.cnn.com. May 21, 2005.

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• Political consultants are pugilists, masters in the dark art of negativity. Which is why it's surprising to hear Democrats such as Steve McMahon and Republicans like Rich Galen urging their presidential candidates to be more, well, positive.

  Ron Fournier

  Art, Dark, Presidential

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• I kind of put myself out there as is. I'm a quiet person. I don't know if that's surprising. I'm a Pilates junkie.

  Zach Galifianakis

  Pilates, Quiet Person, Kind

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• It's not surprising that truly humanitarian manifestos originate frequently in minority circles or with people whose consciences are troubled by the problems of minorities.

  Naguib Mahfouz

  Circles, People, Minorities

  Naguib Mahfouz (2016). “The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street”, p.1130, Everyman's Library

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• Retribution is tricky. . . . The insult isn't usually worth the risk of punishment. And eventually one learns that karma has a surprising way of taking care of these situations. All you have to do is sit back and watch.

  Candace Bushnell

  Karma, Punishment, Risk

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• If there's one thing I learned from Rodrick, it's to set people's expectations real low so you end up surprising them by practically doing nothing at all.

  Jeff Kinney

  Real, People, Expectations

  Jeff Kinney (2012). “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, p.22, Abrams

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