Aback Quotes

#1. I was just a little taken aback. That - that wasn't the proposition I was expecting, is all. Excuse me. I fear I am become incurably low-minded." "You can't help that, I'm sure," Ethan said tolerantly. "Being female, and all that." She

Lois McMaster Bujold

#2. You have a good father." She was taken aback.

Henning Mankell

#3. His name," said the cabman, "was Mr. Sherlock Holmes."
Never have I seen my friend more completely taken aback than by the cabman's reply. For an instant he sat in silent amazement. Then he burst into a hearty laugh.

Arthur Conan Doyle

#4. I hope there's always at least a small part of me that's always surprised, always taken aback, always childlike or innocent.

Zachary Levi

#5. Nick was giving me the same look. And this time,instead of being taken aback or feeling squicky about it,my heart raced and my face grew hot. My body's response to the call of Nick.

Jennifer Echols

#6. Carter was so taken aback by her attack he dropped his knife. "You knocked him stupid," he bellowed.
"No," Emily corrected in what she believed was a reasonable tone of voice. "He was already stupid. I knocked him out.

Julie Garwood

#7. Now I smile. "How's everything with you?" I call down cheerfully. This takes them aback, but I know the crowd will love it.

Suzanne Collins

#8. If our extinction proceeds slowly enough to allow a moment of horrified realization, the doers of the deed will likely be quite taken aback on realizing that they have actually destroyed the world. Therefore I suggest that if the Earth is destroyed, it will probably be by mistake.

Eliezer Yudkowsky

#9. To embrace the message of Christmas is to throw off my hedonistic rebellion and bow before the chafing reality that I can't save myself, and in that very act to be suddenly taken aback in that I've stumbled upon the very freedom I've longed for in the very place I'd least expected it.

Craig D. Lounsbrough

#10. When I visited Chechnya, I was taken aback at first because people would regularly make jokes about kidnapping me.

Anthony Marra

#11. I'm always taken aback by things that are successful that I think are just crap, and then I'm completely surprised when things I do end up being successful because you walk into things and you never know ... It's just really remarkable.

Kevin Spacey

#12. The man glanced up. "Hello. Tweeter tells me you're Kody, a fellow Mundanian, newly arrived, and you want to compare notes." "Uh, yes, in essence," Kody agreed, taken aback. All that from one tweet? Well, maybe it did fit within 140 characters.

Piers Anthony

#13. People here are quite struck aback at Sunday's news of the capture of New Orleans. It took them three days to make up their minds to believe it. The division of American had become an idea so fixed that they had about shut out all the avenues to the reception of any other.

Henry Adams

#14. I've never really been star struck. I was a little bit taken aback when I was doing a chat show recently and I was sat in the make-up chair chatting to a guy say next to me but I couldn't look round and see who it was, it was only when I got up I realised it had been Bryan Adams I'd been talking to!

Richard Fleeshman

#15. Thirrin's fighting spirit still roared within her though, and as the creature lowered its jaws towards her throat she punched it hard on the nose. The werewolf shook its head and sneezed, taken completely aback.

Stuart Hill

#16. She emerged from the shadows like an apparition, and he was taken aback by her beauty. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to chance upon such a vision of loveliness in those harsh and unforgiving mountains. Her beautiful face, long black hair, and slender figure enchanted him.

Alan Kinross

#17. I believe he was feeling a bit nervous. Possibly it was my costume that took him aback. I was dressed quite well, even elegantly, and looked as if I belonged to the best society.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#18. Yes, right, and the earth is flat," I replied. Stupidly, I said it out loud. Everyone else at the table looked at me, taken aback.
"No, Gwenny, the earth is a globe," Caroline kindly told me. "I couldn't believe it at first, either. But apparently it flies through the universe at lightning speed.

Kerstin Gier

#19. Modern amorists are sometimes taken aback at the prospect of investing in a relationship with no guarantee of reward. It is precisely that absence, however, that separates gift from shrewdness. Love cannot be extracted, commanded, demanded, or wheedled. It can only be given. (208)

Thomas Lewis

#20. He doesn't seem very impressed," Cimorene commented in some amusement.
"Why should he be?" Kazul said.
"Well, you're a dragon," Cimorene answered, a little taken aback.
"What difference does that make to a cat?

Patricia C. Wrede

#21. Now, Watson, confess yourself utterly taken aback," said he. "I am." "I ought to make you sign a paper to that effect." "Why?" "Because in five minutes you will say that it is all so absurdly simple.

Arthur Conan Doyle

#22. Don Quixotes! Stand aback from my windmill!

Lara Biyuts

#23. A curly-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl to whom Harry had never spoken in his life asked him to go to the ball with her the very next day. Harry was so taken aback he said no before he'd even stopped to consider the matter. The girl walked off looking rather hurt,

J.K. Rowling

#24. I'm quite taken aback when I get something that appears to be technically a good photograph, because it's not necessarily my intention.

Robert Rauschenberg

#25. As they walked he glanced sideways and at last asked, "You are the one they call Pug?"
If Pug hadn't already been surprised by what they had encountered, he was now openly taken aback. "Yes," he said.
"I'd thought you'd be taller," mused the Pantathian.

Raymond E. Feist

#26. She then turned to Poseidon & with a large smile, asked him to undress her.Taken aback by such an unusual request, the young man baulked.She then begged him to undress her saying that the customers were now waiting to see her show.[MMT]

Nicholas Chong

#27. Good news?' Gloria queried. She wondered if Emily was pregnant again (was that good news?), so she was taken aback when Emily said, 'I've found Jesus.' 'Oh,' Gloria said. 'Where was he?

Kate Atkinson

#28. Lady Brienne is a warrior maid," confided Septon Meribald, "hunting for the Hound." "Aye?" Narbert seemed taken aback. "To what end?" Brienne touched Oathkeeper's hilt. "His," she said.

George R R Martin

#29. I believe you vere an alcoholic, Sir Samuel."
"No," said Vimes, completely taken aback, "I was a drunk. You have to be richer than I was to
be an alcoholic.

Terry Pratchett

#30. Whoa," Danny said, taken aback, "You broke up with Meathead?

Kelly Creagh

#31. Mr. Obama is proud of his belief that government knows best. When he told the world that individuals were not totally responsible for their personal success, that government has a major role in it, many Americans were taken aback. But Barack Obama sincerely believes that.

Bill O'Reilly

#32. I've come to ask you where Seth is." "Funny," said Andrea. "We were going to ask you the same thing." I was taken aback. "How would I know?" They both just stared. "I don't!

Richelle Mead

#33. Jace was looking at her incredulously. "Let me get this straight," he said. "You came here to apologize to me?" She was taken aback. "Of course I did." "Clary," he said. "You saved my life." "I stabbed you. With a massive sword. You caught on fire.

Cassandra Clare

#34. Father Dom looked taken aback. "Normal?" he echoed. As in, who would ever want to be that?

Meg Cabot

#35. Person says to you, "How do you do?" he will be taken aback if you reply, with impeccable logic, "How do I do what?" The complexities of the English language are

Bill Bryson

#36. Vorobyaninov, I've got a pressing artistic task for you,' he whispered. 'Go over to the exit from the first-class hallway and stand there. If somebody approaches, start singing, loudly.'
The old man was taken aback. 'But what should I sing?'
'Not "God Save the Tsar," that's for sure!

Ilya Ilf

#37. You're not going to hurt my daddy, are you?" the little girl asked Tanin, glaring at him with dark eyes. "N-no," stuttered Tanin, taken aback. He lowered his sword. "We're just"-he shrugged, flushing scarlet-"talking. You know, man talk

Anonymous

#38. People are taken aback by a confident, pretty girl who knows what she wants in life and isn't going to let anyone get in her way. And you know what it's all about? Jealousy.

Summer Altice

#39. If a Danish politician would go up and say he believes in God, people would be a little bit taken aback by that because it's slightly different there than in the U.S. Most of Europe is not that faith based, especially in terms of the politics, and politicians don't use that there.

Nikolaj Arcel

#40. People have interpretations of what you're supposed to be like. If you're unattractive and overweight, you must have a great personality. If you're attractive, then you must not be the nicest person. People are always taken aback that I'm easygoing but not necessarily stupid.

Mila Kunis

#41. Are you expecting someone to poison you?" he said, somewhat taken aback.
"Not really. But it seems to me that if you wait around until you know you need an antidote, it's probably too late to pick one up.

Patrick Rothfuss

#42. That of all people, it should be him; that took her aback. That the heart should settle on somebody like him; that surprised her. But she was so certain about it, so certain.

Alexander McCall Smith

#43. I was reading newspaper front pages from the 1930s, and I was taken aback. I'm not naive about American history, but I was a bit knocked off my feet by things that used to be on the front pages of newspapers.

Daniel Woodrell

#44. Ah, today is not really a good day, but my afterthought suggests it is, since I have had the chance to learn that life cannot be exemplary all the time. It is good to be taken aback once in a while because only then, would I value the state of being nonchalant.

Aishah Madadiy

#45. jumped out of her way. She burst into her office's reception area and found Margaret Daly. 'Margaret, do you know what Jacinta found out about Gobber magazine, by any chance?' Daly was taken aback by Allie's brusqueness. 'No, no, sorry, she didn't say. But she was on the phone about it, I know

Steven Bannister

#46. I'm normally not at a loss of words but I am a little taken aback by what you're wearing; it's a little different.

Joe Teti