Unexpected Quotes - page 2

I was walking late one night along a tree-lined path; a chestnut fell at my feet. The noise it made as it burst, the resonance it provoked in me, and an upheaval out of all proportion to this insignificant event thrust me into miracle, into the rapture of the definitive, as if there were no more questions-only answers. I was drunk on a thousand unexpected discoveries, none of which I could make use of. ... This is how I nearly reached the Supreme. But instead I went on with my walk. (Emil Cioran)
Poetry operates by raising our curiosity, engaging the mind by degrees to take an interest in the event, keeping that event suspended, and surprising at last with an unexpected catastrophe. The painter's art is more confined, and has nothing that corresponds with, or perhaps is equivalent to, this power and advantage of leading the mind on, till attention is totally engaged. What is done by Painting, must be done at one blow; curiosity has received at once all the satisfaction it can ever have. View quote
Joshua Reynolds
At any one time there is a natural tendency among physicists to believe that we already know the essential ingredients of a comprehensive theory. But each time a new frontier of observation is broached we inevitably discover new phenomena which force us to modify substantially our previous conceptions. I believe this process to be unending, that the delights and challenges of unexpected discovery will continue always. View quote
Val Logsdon Fitch
it is this broken road with pitfalls and sharp turns and unexpected traverses that has brought me joy and adventure. View quote
Alice Walker
The enemy of our games was always Japan, and the courses were so thorough that after the start of World War II, nothing that happened in the Pacific was strange or unexpected. View quote
Chester W. Nimitz
A man cannot spend his life worrying about the unexpected. View quote
David Gemmell
Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me. But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim's place, and now it seems I have become someone precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love. View quote
Suzanne Collins
The unexpected cannot guarantee success, but it guarantees the best chance of success. View quote
B. H. Liddell Hart
Well I'm still working on The Incredibles. So I'm going to take a little time off. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. I'm not ready to talk about them yet, but expect the unexpected. View quote
Brad Bird
Any medical man who predicts exactly when a patient will die, or exactly how long he will live, is bound to make a fool of himself. The human factor is always incalculable. The weak have often unexpected powers of resistance, the strong sometimes succumb. View quote
Agatha Christie
This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected - in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life. (Thomas Mann)
Over the years, I have learned that every significant invention has several characteristics. By definition it must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a world that is not prepared for it. If the world were prepared for it, it would not be much of an invention. View quote
Edwin H. Land
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. View quote
Carl Sagan
He who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for it is trackless and unexplored. View quote
Heraclitus
As Caesar was at supper the discourse was of death - which sort was the best, That, said he, which is unexpected. View quote
Plutarch
Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected. View quote
Plutarch
Important benefits often accrue to states that behave in an unexpected way. View quote
John Mearsheimer
Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day. View quote
Ann Landers
Of all nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody's image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us. View quote
Daniel J. Boorstin
I believe that a person should take an affirmative outlook. There are always problems in life, old and new, uncertainties, and unexpected contingencies. The optimal way to deal with this is not to give up in despair, but to move ahead using the best intelligence and resources that we have to overcome adversity. View quote
Paul Kurtz
Courtesy, modesty, good manners, conformity to definite ethical standards are universal, but what constitutes courtesy, modesty, good manners, and definite ethical standards is not universal. It is instructive to know that standards differ in the most unexpected ways. (Franz Boas)
I think there is a need for something completely new. Something that is too different, too unexpected, to be accepted as yet. View quote
Anton Zeilinger
What is wonderful about a university like LSE is that you not only receive teaching of very high quality, you also learn where to find the knowledge you are seeking. And you make unexpected discoveries; it was a Marxist professor who introduced me to the work of Cardinal Newman, a great master of English prose as well as theology. View quote
Pierre Trudeau
I must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist. View quote
Ernest Rutherford
I've always associated the moment of writing with a moment of lift, of joy, of unexpected reward. View quote
Seamus Heaney