Surprising Things Quotes

And what lies unknown within us includes such surprising things as ships that go through towns, seas that are momentarily indistinguishable from skies, fantasies that our beloved family will die in a major conflagration, and intense feelings of love sparked by contact with smooth skin. ~ Alain De Botton

In this dark world where he now dwelt, ugly things and surprising things and once in a long while a tiny wondrous thing spilled out at him constantly; he could count on nothing. ~ Philip K. Dick

I'd always hated the word realistic. Or, more truthfully, I'd always hated the way people used the word realistic - as if it were a limitation, as if reality were something that conformed so severely to likelihood that surprising things could never, ever happen. From what I'd seen, reality was much more complicated than that. Sometimes it was remarkably predictable, but a lot of the time it didn't go the way anybody would expect. I didn't believe in using probabilities to rule out possibilities. ~ David Levithan

The main necessity on both sides of a revolution is kindness, which makes possible the most surprising things. To treat one's neighbor as oneself is the fundamental maxim for revolution. ~ Freya Stark

One of the surprising things about adulthood is how few people accompany you there and what a relief it is to occasionally talk to someone who knew the child-you and the teenaged-you; someone who has seen all versions, every update, and stuck with you through all of it. ~ Carys Bray

I think the most surprising thing about giving is it takes a while to find out what you're really interested in and what you really want to do. ~ Marc Benioff

One thing George R. R. Martin does is surprising things to main characters. But he says so himself. ~ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

It is a well-worn truth that cops grow callous, a cliché so tattered that it is even common on television. All cops face things every day that are so gruesome, brutal, and bizarre that no normal human being could deal with them on a daily basis and stay sane. And so they learn not to feel, to grow and maintain a poker-faced whimsy toward all the surprising things their fellow humans find to do to each other. All cops practice not-feeling, and it may be that Miami cops are better at it than others, since they have so many opportunities to learn. ~ Jeff Lindsay

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

One of the surprising things that Brezhnev said when we were in our talks, was - when I proposed that we make these changes in nuclear weaponry, he said, "God will never forgive us if we don't succeed." And, you know, coming from the leader of an atheistic communist country, this surprised everyone. ~ Jimmy Carter

One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself. ~ E.W. Howe

Whenever unexamined outlooks come to the surface, surprising things can happen. ~ Barnet Bain

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

From the perspective of an effective altruist, Tzu Chi does some surprising things. After the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, Tzu Chi raised funds to distribute hot meals to survivors, and in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which battered New York and New Jersey in 2012, Tzu Chi distributed $10 million dollars worth of Visa debit cards, with $600 on each card, to victims of the storm.7 When I visited the Tzu Chi hospital in Hualien, I asked Rey-Sheng Her, a spokesman for Tzu Chi, why the organization would give aid to the citizens of wealthy countries like Japan and the United States, when the money could do much more good if used to help people in extreme poverty. His answer was that it is important for Tzu Chi to show compassion and love for all, rich and poor. ~ Peter Singer

If I don't say it enough, Jean-Claude, I love you, I love seeing your face across the table while we eat, and watching you root at Cynric's football games, and watching you read bedtime stories to Matthew when he stays with us, and a thousand surprising things, all of it, its you, and I love you."
"You will make me cry."
"A smart friend told me that it's okay to cry, sometimes you're so happy it spills out your eyes. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

Therapy isn't Radio.We don't need to constantly fill the air with sounds. Sometimes, when its quite, surprising things happen. ~ Mary Pipher

The surprising thing is that I was not funny in high school. I was always jealous of the funny kids because they always got the girls. I couldn't tell a joke to save my life. ~ Seann William Scott

You see so many surprising things and you think they're obvious. ~ Courtney Milan

Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically. ~ Jean Cocteau

Happy is not the right word. This world is not a place where we can be happy. It wasn't created for man's happiness, though many believe this is the reason of our existence. I think we are here to fight, so that good and evil can clash within us, and good may prevail, thus enriching us spiritually. It's difficult to say whether we are happy or not: it doesn't depend on us… There are times when one regrets being born, but life also gives us surprising things that, alone, are worth living. The issue of happiness doesn't exist for me: happiness as such doesn't exist. ~ Andrei Tarkovsky

You can analyse a joke and say it's funny because this guy thought this was going to happen, and that happened, and it's surprising. But not all surprising things are funny. ~ John Lloyd

Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable, determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

Desperation can make a person do surprising things. ~ Veronica Roth

There are so many things out there now like these 30-minute workouts. I don't know if they work, but a lot of people have jobs and they don't have time to go to the gym. They can do those little 30-minute workouts they see on TV, or get one of those little portable gyms for their house. I think that's a good start. ~ Andre Reed

There's always a tension in my world between the pragmatic and the practical and the theoretical. I have a very theoretical turn of mind, but I also like to test things in place. ~ Michael Pollan

Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Therefore the sage desires what (other men) do not desire, and does not prize things difficult to get; he learns what (other men) do not learn, and turns back to what the multitude of men have passed by. ~ Lao-Tzu

I think being snobby about the kind of storytelling people do, it just irks me. It irks me. And in fact, it's one of the things that drives me to make as many horror movies as I do. ~ Jason Blum

People haven't found meaning in their lives, so they're running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. Then they find those things are empty, too, and they keep running. ~ Mitch Albom

Ultimately,we hear things because we cannot see everything. ~ Slavoj Zizek

Our ages ranged from 22, down to 18, and we had a 6 month contract to go to Bogata, Columbia. And of course, it was during the depression, we were still with our parents, and things were still pretty tough on them back in the United States. ~ Martin Denny

No, I'm saying those Yankees are messing things up again. No respectable Southern woman would ever say a girl was Rosewell's 'power mower.' For heaven's sake. That's ridiculous. But those Yankees have tin ears. On language alone we should have won the war." She looked at us. "The woman called that floozy his paramour. But some Yankee messed it up. Paramour. Power mower. You hear the difference?" Wally glanced at me. She was ~ Sibella Giorello

Eroticism, hallucinogenic drugs, nuclear science, Gaudi's Gothic architecture, my love of gold - there is a common denominator in all of it: God is present in everything. The same magic is at the heart of all things, and all roads lead to the same revelation: we are children of God, and the entire universe tends towards the perfection of mankind. ~ Salvador Dali

Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day - and yet, I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse, -
Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
As kill a man, or else devise his death,
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more. ~ William Shakespeare

It's as if our girls don't understand that they can be recognized for other things
their goals, their brains. Not just their bodies. ~ Siobhan Vivian

My real log is written in the sea and sky; the sails talking with the rain and the stars amid the sounds of the sea, the silences full of secret things between my boat and me, like the times I spent as a child listening to the forest talk. ~ Bernard Moitessier

Reality Check
His lying is not contigent on who you are or what you do. His lying is not your fault. Lying is his choice and his problem, and if he makes that choice with you, he will make it with any other woman he's with. That doesn't mean you're an angel and he's the devil. It does mean that if he doesn't like certain things about you, he has many ways to address them besides lying. If there are sexual problems between you, there are many resources available to help you. Nothing can change until you hold him responsible and accountable for lying and stop blaming yourself.

The lies we tell ourselves to keep from seeing the truth about our lovers don't feel like lies. They feel comfortable, familiar, and true. We repeat them like a mantra and cling to them like security blankets, hoping to calm ourselves and regain our sense that the world works the way we believe it ought to.
Self-lies are false friends we look to for comfort and protection - and for a short time they may make us feel better. But we can only keep the truth at bay for so long. Our self-lies can't erase his lies, and as we'll see, the longer we try to pretend they can, the more we deepen the hurt. ~ Susan Forward

I'm introverted by nature, and I need to have some things of my own. ~ Debby Ryan

I was always in trouble at school for what I was wearing; I was never made a prefect because of the way I used to dress - I ripped my tights, my skirts were too short, all sorts of things. ~ Alice Temperley

Remember, most of the things you think you need are ego trips designed to bolster your image and your perception of security ... You'll waste a lot of energy satisfying your ego only to find that, as soon as it's got what it wants, it ignores all your efforts and promptly nails another list of demands to your forehead. The ego will always try to force you to slave for its vision. I wouldn't stand for that BS if I were you. ~ Stuart Wilde

The great thing about being a Yankee is that youre always a Yankee. ~ Derek Jeter

Chade, I know the Fool is strange. But I like it when he comes to talk to me. He speaks in riddles, and he insults me, and makes fun of me, and gives himself leave to tell me things he thinks I should do, like wash my hair, or not wear yellow. But ( ... ) I like him. He mocks me, but from him, it seems a kindness. He makes me feel, well, important. That he could choose me to talk to. ~ Robin Hobb

The most important thing we can do to save our oceans is to dramatically expand our efforts to establish new marine protected areas and make sure that critical fish spawning sites and ecosystems remain undisturbed. ~ Serge Dedina

We shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on - and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same - like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into? ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

True light is that which radiates from within a man. It reveals the secrets of the soul to the soul and lets it rejoice in life, singing in the name of the Spirit. Truth is like the stars, which cannot be seen except beyond the darkness of night. Truth is like all beautiful things in existence; it does not reveal its beauties save to those who have felt the weight of falsehood. Truth is a hidden feeling which teaches us to rejoice in our days and to wish all mankind that rejoicing. ~ Kahlil Gibran

I was a swimsuit model, and I got bored. Acting was challenging. It was very hard and intimidating. We choose to do things in life sometimes that scare the crap outta us. Performing in front of people was my challenge. ~ Christa Campbell

Stop dwelling in the past.
No, you could not have known
better.
No, you would not do things differently
if you went back.
No, they would not have
treated you differently if
you had acted,
looked, or
cared differently.
They are who they are regardless of
who you are. ~ Najwa Zebian

The child that is not clean and neat,
With lots of toys and things to eat,
He is a naughty child, I'm sure
Or else his dear Papa is poor. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I really believe that we have to work hard to make online education better and better, and eventually it's going to be really great. But like most of these things, it takes time to improve, to understand and to make things really good. ~ Sebastian Thrun

The difference between greater people and greatest people is the "est" which stands for "extra mile". Extra steps give Extraordinary results; Extraordinary people do Extra things. ~ Israelmore Ayivor

I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul. ~ Bram Stoker

Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things? ~ J.L. Austin

It should be possible to say that there really is such as thing as "genius" and that what it is, is precisely a surprising and unexpected movement away from collective patterns of behavior and received wisdom. ~ William Irwin Thompson

I know a lot of Millennial women who don't listen to the program, anyway, when you mention my name - they've heard so much gunk and so many things that are not true - they say, "I never listen to that!" Say, "You've got to." ~ Rush Limbaugh

The things that we crave the most are the things that destroy us the quickest. ~ Wiz Khalifa