Surprising Quotes - Page 24

• Our hearts are continuously rebellious. Every time we sin in thought, word, or deed, we're essentially saying in that moment that, "I don't need you God. I don't want you God. I like my way better than your way." If this goes on day after day after day, year after year, month after month, it would understandable for God to say, "I've given you ten trillion tries. You're finished." But it's not. So in that sense, His grace is always surprising, never ceases to be amazing and His mercy is remarkably outrageous.

  Tullian Tchividjian

  Heart, Years, Grace

  Source: www.christianpost.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• One can get very fond of the people one meets in bars. The trouble is they then appear sort of different in the daylight and you realize that taking them with you is rather like taking a goldfish for a walk: not entirely correct, and surprising for the next people you run into.

  Alice Thomas Ellis

  Running, People, Different

  Alice Thomas Ellis (1988). “Home Life Three”, Gerald Duckworth

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• History is never surprising after it happens.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Happens

  Robert A. Heinlein (2010). “The Green Hills of Earth and The Menace from Earth”, p.189, Baen Publishing Enterprises

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• This naming of things is so crucial to possession - a spiritual padlock with the key thrown irretrievably away - that it is a murder, an erasing, and it is not surprising that when people have felt themselves prey to it (conquest), among their first acts of liberation is to change their names.

  Jamaica Kincaid

  Spiritual, Keys, Names

  4 Copy quote

• Faith is the new, the mysterious, the surprising. Nobody has ever been there before.

  Carter Heyward

  Faith, Mysterious

  Carter Heyward (1976). “A Priest Forever”, HarperCollins Publishers

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• After the initial critical learning period of youth is over, the areas of the brain that need to be 'turned on' to allow enhanced, long lasting learning can only be activated when something important, surprising, or novel occurs, or if we make the effort to pay close attention.

  Norman Doidge

  Knowledge, Long, Effort

  18 Copy quote

• It's great when you know somebody and they keep surprising you.

  Tim Burton

  Knows

  Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. March 3, 2010.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is surprising to see what superficial, inconsequential reasonings satisfy the most part of mankind. A piece of wit, a jest, a simile, or a quotation of an Author, passes for a mighty argument.... This weakness and effeminacy of mankind in being persuaded where they are delighted, have made them the sport of orators, poets, and men of wit.

  John Arbuthnot

  Sports, Men, Pieces

  George Atherton Aitken, John Arbuthnot (1892). “The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D.: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• What I had not counted on was discovering how closely a man could come to dying and still not die, or want to die. That, too, was mine; and it also is to the good. For that experience resolved proportions and relationships for me as nothing else could have done; and it is surprising, approaching the final enlightenment, how little one really has to know or feel sure about.

  Richard E. Byrd

  Men, Dying, Finals

  Richard E. Byrd (2003). “Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure”, p.8, Island Press

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• The thing that is always so surprising about plays written in another century is how remarkably elastic they are. When you listen to the way in which Shakespeare attacks relationships, for example, even though the words may start off sounding foreign, in actuality they are so accessible, the motivations so clear, the resonances so contemporary. When you put it in a modern context - we could well be in a place with someone like Gaddafi or Mubarak - it becomes apparent how Richard III resonates with that type of personality, with media and manipulation, alliances and petty jealousies.

  Kevin Spacey

  Motivation, Media, Play

  Speech at the Old Vic, Summer 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The heavenly bodies are nothing but a continuous song for several voices (perceived by the intellect, not by the ear); a music which... sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time. It is therefore, no longer surprising that man, in imitation of his creator, has at last discovered the art of figured song, which was unknown to the ancients. Man wanted to reproduce the continuity of cosmic time... to obtain a sample test of the delight of the Divine Creator in His works, and to partake of his joy by making music in the imitation of God.

  Johannes Kepler

  Song, Art, Men

  "The Sleepwalkers". Book by Arthur Koestler, 1959.

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• For me, even if I'm not a fan of the band in general or maybe it's not the style of music I want to put on for my daughter and me when we're waking up in the morning, there's always something that I can learn from it. And I think those are the things that are surprising.

  Jon Foreman

  Daughter, Morning, Thinking

  10 Copy quote

• Love is an experiment ... what happens next is always surprising.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Love, Next, Experiments

  4 Copy quote

• No such individual would find the Golden Rule surprising in any way because at its base lies the foundation of most human interactions and exchanges and it can be found in countless texts throughout recorded history and from around the world - a testimony to its universality.

  Michael Shermer

  Lying, Foundation, World

  Michael Shermer (2005). “The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule”, p.64, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I like the lad who, when his father thought To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase Of vagrant worm by early songster caught, Cried, "Served him right! it's not at all surprising; The worm was punished, sir, for early rising!

  John Godfrey Saxe

  Morning, Father, Naps

  John Godfrey Saxe (1872). “The Poems: Complete in One Volume”, p.134

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am not a "culture critic" because I am not in any way interested in classifying cultural forms. I am a metaphysician, interested in the life of the forms and their surprising modalities. That is why I have no interest in the academic world.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Culture, World, Way

  "Letters of Marshall McLuhan". Book edited by Corrine McLuhan, Matie Molinaro and William Toye, March 1, 1987.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• What interests me is the surprising enormous extent to which most people accept the fate that's been given to them, and find some dignity.

  Kazuo Ishiguro

  Fate, People, Dignity

  4 Copy quote

• It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Christmas, Atheist, Holiday

  "Christmas with Christopher Hitchens". Interview with Gregg LaGambina, www.avclub.com. December 20, 2007.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be No. 1 on the 'New York Times' best-seller list, well, that's alarming. Having been a stand-up comedian, I think it's surprising to a lot of people that I had the insight I had.

  Steve Harvey

  New York, Thinking, People

  7 Copy quote

• It is not surprising that most Pakistanis do not support America's bombardment of Afghanistan. The Afghans are neighbours on the brink of starvation and devastated by war. America has shown itself to be untrustworthy, a superpower that uses its values as a scabbard for its sword.

  Mohsin Hamid

  War, America, Support

  "Pakistan must not be abandoned" by Mohsin Hamid, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think of a lot of comedy being watched alone, for some reason. It's surprising to me that people are getting together to watch stand-up comedy.

  Gary Gulman

  Thinking, People, Comedian

  9 Copy quote

• I just feel like bands always need to work harder than the hardest working band. You need to constantly be one-upping yourself and surprising yourself at how hard that you'll work and devote yourself to your craft.

  Hayley Williams

  Hard Work, Needs, Band

  6 Copy quote

• You have to keep surprising your audience.

  Shane Black

  Audience

  "Crash, bang, wallop what a picture" by Sam Delaney, www.theguardian.com. May 21, 2009.

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• On consideration, it is not surprising that Darwin's finches should recognize their own kind primarily by beak characters. The beak is the only prominent specific distinction, and it features conspicuously both in attacking behaviour, when the birds face each other and grip beaks, and also in courtship, when food is passed from the beak of the male to the beak of the female. Hence though the beak differences are primarily correlated with differences in food, secondarily they serve as specific recognition marks, and the birds have evolved behaviour patterns to this end.

  David Lack

  Character, Science, Differences

  David Lack (1947). “Darwin's Finches”, p.54, CUP Archive

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The most surprising thing to me is what an incredibly intense effort it's been to create a world from the ground up. I had run a show that had already existed and had been created by the show-runner, Meredith [Stiehm]. It's a very different experience to come in at ground zero and meet people and assemble the cast and crew. As a group and as a family, we're creating this world.

  Veena Sud

  Running, Zero, Creating

  Source: collider.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source