Startling Quotes

Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom. (Joseph Stiglitz)
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. View quote
Emily Dickinson
It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass. View quote
Eudora Welty
A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods. View quote
Robert Henri
Orientation in time, space, and status are the essentials of social existence, and the Balinese, although they make very strong spirits for ceremonial occasions, with a few startling exceptions resist alcohol, because if one drinks one loses one's orientation. Orientation is felt as a protection rather than as a strait jacket and its loss provokes extreme anxiety. View quote
Margaret Mead
Love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. A Brave and Startling Truth. View quote
Maya Angelou
Jesus!" Luke exclaimed. "Actually, it's just me," said Simon. "Although I've been told the resemblance is startling. View quote
Cassandra Clare
One of the most startling discoveries of my career was when I realized that the strongest women in the world are not lesbians but heterosexual women, who know how to handle men. View quote
Camille Paglia
God knew where he was, but he asked so as to start a conversation with Adam and avoid startling him too much to reply. View quote
Rashi
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 has become apparent that art can have a startling impact without really being or saying anything startling - or new. The character itself of being startling, spectacular, or upsetting has become conventionalized, part of safe good taste. (Clement Greenberg)
It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. View quote
Eric Hoffer
There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call extreme self-seeking is actually self-renunciation. The miser, health addict, glory chaser and their like are not far behind the selfless in the exercise of self-sacrifice. View quote
Eric Hoffer
If you're too sloppy, then you never get reproducible results, and then you never can draw any conclusions; but if you are just a little sloppy, then when you see something startling, (...) you nail it down (...). So I called it the "Principle of Limited Sloppiness." View quote
Max Delbrück
You just said you were sorry." ... "I was only apologizing," he said stiffly, "for startling you. The applause was to compliment you on the improvement in your life-saving techniques since the last time you. View quote
Meg Cabot
The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day. View quote
William Kent Krueger
If it can be verified, we don't need faith... Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things-a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring-with immense, even startling power. View quote
Raymond Carver
As a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, I will be participating in several hearings on the startling revelations contained in the report. View quote
Charles Bass
Father, we thank you, especially for letting me fly this flight - for the privilege of being able to be in this position, to be in this wondrous place, seeing all these many startling, wonderful things that you have created. View quote
Gordon Cooper
So many other countries have had female leaders, in fact the U.S. ranks 61st in female representation in government and I think it is startling and sign of a change that needs to be made. (Geena Davis)
When you look at the startling ruins of Nuremberg, you are looking at a result of the war. When you look at the prisoners on view in the courthouse, you are looking at 22 of the causes. View quote
Janet Flanner
Being born in Cuba, a country where freedom of speech is non-existent, it's startling to observe how Venezuela, where I was happily raised, is fast becoming Cuba's mirror image: Dismantling of fundamental democratic rights deserved by its people and citizens of the world. View quote
Maria Conchita Alonso
Human nature is not amenable to prediction based on the trends or tendencies prevailing at the time. It is amenable to startling creativity of the kind practiced by great artists, directors, writers, musicians, actors, who know how to touch a chord in humans everywhere. View quote
Maurice Saatchi
Note the startling regularity through history with which society martyrs the rebel in one generation and worships him in the next. Socrates, Jesus, William Blake, Buddha, Krishna - the list is as endless as it is rich. View quote
Rollo May