Unexpected Quotes - Page 31

• What we have here is an unexpected touchdown on the runway of the heart.

  Tom Robbins

  Heart, Still Life With Woodpecker, Runway

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Still Life with Woodpecker”, p.31, Bantam

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It‘s funny how, when things seem the darkest, moments of beauty present themselves in the most unexpected places.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Moments, Unexpected Places, Seems

  5 Copy quote

• ...So please, be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium.

  Nick Hornby

  Real, Imagination, Life Is

  4 Copy quote

• But sometimes, in tight corners, when your back is against the wall and the world is against you, you have to fight back in unexpected ways.

  Caroline B. Cooney

  Wall, Fighting, World

  Caroline B. Cooney (2011). “The Vampire's Promise”, p.483, Scholastic Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Suddenly his expression turned to alarm. He sprinted toward us. For a moment I had an absurd vision of myself on the cover of one of Gran’s old romance novels, where the damsel wilts into the arms of one half-dressed beefy guy while another stands by,casting her longing looks. Oh, the horrible choices a girl must make! I wished I’d had a moment to clean up. I was still covered in dried river muck, twine, and grass, like I’d been tarred and feathered. Then Anubis pushed past me and gripped Walt’s shoulders. Well…that was unexpected.

  Rick Riordan

  Girl, Past, Expression

  8 Copy quote

• At the edge of chaos, unexpected outcomes occur. The risk to survival is severe.

  Michael Crichton

  Risk, Survival, Outcomes

  Michael Crichton (1997). “The Lost World”, Knopf

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• But when you have order, you don't need Gods. When everything is well ordered and disciplined then nothing is unexpected. If you understand everything,' I said carefully, 'then there's no room left for magic. It's only when you're lost and frightened and in the dark that you call on the Gods, and they like us to call on them. It makes them feel powerful, and that's why they like us to live in chaos.

  Bernard Cornwell

  Powerful, Dark, Order

  Bernard Cornwell (1998). “Enemy of God: A Novel of Arthur”, p.48, Macmillan

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm not an easy lay, Alexion” He actually smiled a real smile at her. It was charming and unexpected. "I am.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Real, Easy, Charming

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2010). “Sins of the Night: A Dark-Hunter Novel”, p.100, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Evaluate. Long experience had taught me to evaluate and assess. When the unexpected gets dumped on you, don’t waste time. Don’t figure out how or why it happened. Don’t recriminate. Don’t figure out whose fault it is. Don’t work out how to avoid the same mistake next time. All of that you do later. If you survive.

  Lee Child

  Mistake, Work Out, Long

  FaceBook post by Lee Child from Aug 11, 2015

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• its fun to do the unexpected.

  Walt Disney

  Fun

  5 Copy quote

• Our mania for rational explanations obviously has its roots in our fear of metaphysics, for the two were always hostile brothers. Hence, anything unexpected that approaches us from the dark realm is regarded either as coming from outside and, therefore, as real, or else as a hallucination and, therefore, not true. The idea that anything could be real or true which does not come from outside has hardly begun to dawn on contemporary man.

  Carl Jung

  Brother, Real, Dark

  Carl Gustav Jung (1964). “Civilization in transition”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Always take the most unexpected route

  Jennifer Estep

  Routes, Gin Blanco

  Jennifer Estep (2012). “Widow's Web”, p.3, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Bidding the wizard farewell, he turned to his daughter, who held up her finger and said, “Daddy, look — one of the gnomes actually bit me!” “How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial!” said Mr. Lovegood, seizing Luna’s outstretched finger and examining the bleeding puncture marks. “Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today — perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaim in Mermish — do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!” Ron, passing them in the opposite direction, let out a loud snort.

  J. K. Rowling

  Daughter, Farewell, Opposites

  8 Copy quote

• That's the past for you. Not only does it come back at the most unexpected, and inconvenient, times but it's set in stone.

  Jeffery Deaver

  Past, Doe, Stones

  Jeffery Deaver (2011). “Edge”, p.522, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I wake, I have a brief, delicious feeling of happiness that is somehow connected with Peeta. Happiness, of course, is a complete absurdity at this point, since at the rate things are going, I'll be dead in a day. And that's the best-case scenario, if I'm able to eliminate the rest of the field, including myself, and get Peeta crowned as the winner of the Quarter Quell. Still, the sensation's so unexpected and sweet I cling to it, if only for a few moments. Before the gritty sand, the hot sun, and my itching skin demand a return to reality.

  Suzanne Collins

  Sweet, Reality, Feelings

  Suzanne Collins (2013). “The Hunger Games Complete Trilogy”, p.497, Scholastic UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding.

  Alain de Botton

  Glasses, Understanding, Hurtful

  Alain De Botton (1997). “How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel”, Pantheon

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty.

  Jon Krakauer

  Mind, Despair, Astonishment

  Jon Krakauer (2013). “Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith”, p.304, Pan Macmillan

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.

  Mary Renault

  Kind, Shock, Expected

  Mary Renault (2013). “The Charioteer: A Virago Modern Classic”, p.71, Hachette UK

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not admit... that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia... by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race... has come in and taken its place.

  Winston Churchill

  Real, Taken, Race

  "The Churchill you didn't know". To Palestine Royal Commission, 1937, www.theguardian.com. November 28, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• This movement among the Jews is not new... This world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing... It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century.

  Winston Churchill

  Real, World Government, Civilization

  "Bolshevism versus Zionism; a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people". Winston Churchill, Illustrated Daily Herald, February 8, 1920.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who actually set out to see the fall of a city or those who choose to go to a front line, are obviously asking themselves to what extent they are cowards. But the tests they set themselves - there is a dead body, can you bear to look at it? - are nothing in comparison with the tests that are sprung on them. It is not the obvious tests that matter (do you go to pieces in a mortar attack?) but the unexpected ones (here is a man on the run, seeking your help - can you face him honestly?).

  James Fenton

  Running, War, Fall

  17 Copy quote

• Adversity often produces an unexpected opportunity. Look for it ! Appreciate and utilize it! This is difficult to do if you're feeling sorry for yourself because you're faced with adversity.

  John Wooden

  Motivational, Sorry, Adversity

  9 Copy quote

• History has taught us: never underestimate the amount of money, time, and effort someone will expend to thwart a security system. It's always better to assume the worst. Assume your adversaries are better than they are. Assume science and technology will soon be able to do things they cannot yet. Give yourself a margin for error. Give yourself more security than you need today. When the unexpected happens, you'll be glad you did.

  Bruce Schneier

  Technology, Errors, Security Systems

  39 Copy quote

• Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.

  Heraclitus

  Change, Truth, Circles

  125 Copy quote

• Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

  Diane Ackerman

  Love, Summer, Beach

  "A Natural History of the Senses". Book by Diane Ackerman, 1990.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source