Top 100 Surprise Quotes
#1. The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American Policy makers.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
#2. The voices didn't join in this time, as she hadn't spoken, but to her surprise, they all thought in chorus." - LEWIS CARROLL, Through the Looking-Glass
Connie Willis
#3. I don't think anyone ever gets over the surprise of how differently one audience's reaction is from another.
Dick Cavett
#4. Robert Frost said, No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.
Kim Addonizio
#5. Any reason why we couldn't just ditch the condoms from now on?" Surprise
Madeleine Urban
#6. If people from their own country are killed, they may express surprise, grief, anger, and sympathy. But if ten thousand people are killed in a distant, far-off land, they will not be the slightest bit affected, particularly if it was their own doing.
Hiroshi Yamamoto
#7. A Bridgeport, Connecticut, man presented his girlfriend with an engagement ring and handed her one end of a ribbon; the other end disappeared into his pocket. "A surprise," he said, and urged her to pull it. She obliged. The ribbon was attached to the trigger of a revolver. The man died instantly.
Erik Larson
#8. Mikael had rarely managed to surprise Berger. This time she was silent for nearly ten seconds.
Stieg Larsson
#9. Every goodbye calls for preparation, but most times, life takes us by surprise.
Elisabetta Gnone
#11. The greatest surprise of human evolution may be that the highest form of selfishness is selflessness.
Robert E. Ornstein
#12. I make my own surprises and I'm always surprised to see what I do, to see it when it's finished and the biggest challenge is once I finish it, it's not a failure. It's not a flop.
Robert Barry
#13. Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.
Stephen Sondheim
#15. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture, ... When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.
Rick Santorum
#16. Tennis is like a wonderful, longstanding relationship with a husband. Golf is a tempestuous, lousy lover; it's totally unpredicatable, a constant surprise.
Dinah Shore
#18. What are you?" Lady Marsden asked, not bothering to hide her surprise. Obviously the lady was not accustomed to being caught snooping, let alone shut down twice.
"I have no idea,
Kady Cross
#20. Sometimes people can surprise you. Sometimes they have a great capacity to hear the truth.
Joe Seneca
#21. He knows bad days. Bad days take him completely by surprise. They make him not trust the good days because it's likely something is lurking twenty-four hours away.
Melina Marchetta
#22. Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
#23. It certainly should not surprise us that a young person without any real stake in a legitimate occupation or career may get into trouble more easily. Such persons readily accept the idea that they have been unjustly deprived of money, status, and opportunity.
Robert Kennedy
#24. Bob Marley performed the 'One Love Peace' concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There's always been that in black music and culture in general. It's no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what's going on in black life. It's not unusual for hip-hop.
Mos Def
#26. One of the elements of writing that is most delightful to the engaged reader is the element of surprise. And one of the ways to surprise the reader is to set up an expectation that you then veer away from it at the last moment. A stitch in time saves the penny earned. Or something like that.
Douglas Wilson
#27. It may surprise you that the primary lifetime threat to your child is his or her own anger.
Gary Chapman
#28. The fun thing about Snapchat is really the surprise and the joy that comes from learning how to use it.
Evan Spiegel
#29. A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens.
Robert Baden-Powell
#30. Silence, this will surprise you not, isn't really a Jewish concept.
Simon Schama
#31. I never assumed I would have that commercial success, so it was a total surprise. And honestly, I never assumed that it would ever happen again.
Tracy Chapman
#32. Do not try to entrap others with your haughty knowledge. To your wide surprise, they will entrap you with their lengthy ignorance.
Sri Chinmoy
#33. Only gratefulness, in the form of limitless openness for surprise, lays hold of the fullness of life in hope.
David Steindl-Rast
#34. I'm supposed to spread my fingers as wide as they were with the rubber band, mash my palms hard into the floor, and pull myself down. When I do, I surprise even myself when my elbows straighten with barely any effort.
Christopher McDougall
#35. I've always liked New York, as I like towns with an edge and New York has a European feel, so when I came to play music here in the '80s it was a surprise to me.
Billy Childish
#36. And then something blossomed deep within and opened almost like the multitude petals of a rose, pushing back the tension in rippling waves as they bloomed until she surrendered to relaxation with a soft exclamation of surprise
Mary Balogh
#37. Lily," Mom said, "we need to talk."
I don't think I'm ruining the surprise by pointing out that nothing good happens when someone starts a speech like that.
Chloe Neill
#38. I don't feel the need to be the hot chick every second of the day. I like to be able to surprise people when I turn it on. I want it to be like the movie 'She's All That' when they unveil her.
Ronda Rousey
#39. When a copier sales person cold calls a purchasing manager whom he has never met is it any surprise that the purchasing manager will most likely never return that call?
Josh Turner
#40. Because we all know one of the main factors of war is the element of surprise. And what could be more surprising than the First Batallion Transvestite Brigade? Airborne Wing.
Eddie Izzard
#41. It will not surprise you to learn that it is not uncommon for jockeys who struggle with their weight to starve themselves and spend hours in the sauna to lose a few pounds to be able to make a big-race ride.
Tony McCoy
#42. People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.
Brian Eno
#43. It must surprise people that I'm such a rap fan, but it's true. Sometimes, just staying in, putting on some rap music, and letting loose is all I need to have a good time.
Phoebe Tonkin
#44. To make sure I learned the etiquette of grieving, Granny took me with her to the many funerals she attended. O Death, where is thy sting? Search me. I grew up looking at so many corpses that I still feel a faint touch of surprise whenever I see people move.
Florence King
#45. But Hogwarts is hidden," said Hermione, in surprise. "Everyone knows that ... well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway." "Just you, then," said Ron.
J.K. Rowling
#46. Motherhood is the thing in a woman's life that catches her by total and complete surprise.
Melanie Shankle
#47. It's hard to remember that Jesus did not come to make us safe, but rather to make us disciples, citizens of God's new age, a kingdom of surprise.
Stanley Hauerwas
#48. Spirituality is a mixed-up, topsy-turvy, helter-skelter godliness that turns our lives into an upside-down toboggan ride of unexpected turns, surprise bumps and bone shattering crashes ... a life ruined by a Jesus who loves us right into his arms.
Mike Yaconelli
#49. I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.
Yann Martel
#50. To his surprise he ... discovered that it was possible to be good at what you had little interest in, just as it had been possible to be bad at something ... that you cared about a great deal.
Richard Russo
#51. It's wherever you are. If it's tapped into any of your senses, it knows where you are and what you're doing."
Oh no, I thought, my spirits sinking. I hadn't considered that. Did that mean nothing I did was ever anymore?
"Even in the bathroom?" the Gasman's eyes widened with surprise.
James Patterson
#52. No race has the last word on culture and on civilization. You do not know what the black man is capable of; you do not know what he is thinking and therefore you do not know what the oppressed and suppressed Negro, by virtue of his condition and circumstance, may give to the world as a surprise.
Marcus Garvey
#53. The shock of photographed atrocities wears off with repeated viewings, just as the surprise and bemusement felt the first time one sees a pornographic movie wear off after one sees a few more.
Susan Sontag
#54. Happiness is the satisfaction you feel. There's delight, joy, excitement and pleasant surprise.
Dee Dee Artner
#55. The techs tell him the girl on the other side of the glass hasn't said a word since they brought her in. It doesn't surprise him at first, not with the traumas she's been through, but watching her now from behind the one-way mirror, he starts
Dot Hutchison
#56. At the age of 19, you always think you are prepared for everything and you think you have the knowledge of what?s coming ahead.
Princess Diana
#57. And this should not surprise us. The plunder of black life was drilled into this country in its infancy and reinforced across its history, so that plunder has become an heirloom, an intelligence, a sentience, a default setting to which, likely to the end of our days, we must invariably return.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
#58. Sometimes the best answers to prayer are the ones God doesn't answer.
Robin Jones Gunn
#59. The fact that ghosts are real doesn't surprise me-I've always been a believer in that area. It's the realization that there may be something out there, something most can't see, that is able to kill.
Brandy Nacole
#60. It's part of the buzz of the city among Christians. It wouldn't surprise me that it got to George Bush. He reads, he picks stuff up, he talks to people. And he's pretty serious about his own Christian beliefs.
Charles Colson
#61. It's no surprise that the Bush administration's bullying swagger and blithe ignorance have caused much of the Muslim world to hold the U.S. in rock-bottom regard.
Graydon Carter
#62. Surprise is not humor. I think that there can be a fine line there.
Keegan-Michael Key
#64. Solitude is an unmarked place beyond the borders of the map, a place where most fear to tread. It's no surprise, then, that this is where the greatest secrets and most valuable treasures are hidden.
Cristen Rodgers
#65. The passion for finding the system in experience, replacing surprise with order, is a persistent part of human nature ... Science came to mean the elimination of surprise. It outlawed miracles, because miracles are above all unexpected.
George Gilder
#66. Momma, you're special, Renesmee told me without any surprise, like she was commenting on the color of my clothes.
Stephenie Meyer
#67. Some people experience rare moments when everything they believe is challenged. Or at least shaken up. Those moments stay with them. Surprise, real surprise, is an exotic thing not soon forgotten.
Gregory Miller
#68. There's a version of the future in my head where I stay here forever....Bleak, I know. But, still, there's a lot of comfort that comes with knowing how your life is going to turn out. I've never had a surprise turn out in my favor.
Julie Murphy
#69. if you'll take a step of faith to become someone else's miracle, God is going to surprise you in ways you never imagined.
Jamie Larbi
#70. To my surprise, the young lady held up her gloved hand to detain me. "If your friend," she said, "would be good enough to stop, he might be of inestimable service to me.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#72. Your total intelligence knows how to accomplish astounding feats. You just need a clear objective. Get clear. You will surprise yourself!
Bryant McGill
#73. Doing the right thing is fun. If nothing else, it surprises people.
Thomas Sowell
#74. If we get total certainty, we get ... bored out of our minds. So, God, in Her infinite wisdom, gave us a second human need, which is uncertainty. We need variety. We need surprise.
Tony Robbins
#75. I think it's important for artists to work together. It's great for fans to see, like, Ludacris came out to our show in Atlanta and kinda made a surprise appearance there, it shows a mutual respect for what each other does.
Jason Aldean
#76. Because from what I've seen of marriages and relationships, there aren't any rules. You deal with what comes, like anything else in life. There's no template. No freaking outline. And that's what makes relationships interesting, right? The element of surprise.
Kristin Walker
#77. Humans are not as unsophisticated as mulch wrigglers, they can see the writing on the wall. Is it any surprise, that among the ones who look outward, the real debate is not over whether to run, but over how far and how fast?
Charles Stross
#78. If you don't know anything about computers, just remember that they are machines that do exactly what you tell them but often surprise you in the result.
Richard Dawkins
#79. There is no perception without memory. But good art surprise us. Good art reorients our expectations, forces us to break the pattern, to see in a new way.
Siri Hustvedt
#80. We never really know what's around the corner when we're filming - what turn a story will take, what a character will do or say to surprise us, how the events in the world will impact our story.
Barbara Kopple
#81. The most pleasant surprise is to get lost in the beauty of life.
Debasish Mridha
#82. Her first week on the job a caller went silent in surprise on the other end of the line, expecting to hear Miss Jacobs' voice. Bertie's response: "Speak ass, 'cause the mouth won't!
Dawn Shamp
#83. I think the movie business is in trouble. It's all movies that you've seen before. Everything's a remake; they want things that are familiar rather than things that surprise you.
Graydon Carter
#84. For me, if you distill comedy down, it is surprise and the unexpected. That has to be it on its most base level, in any form.
Bo Burnham
#85. Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?
Alice Munro
#86. Much to my surprise, as I set them free, I was able to forgive myself for the judgments I had made about them. I now hold them in a loving space in my heart and honor them as my ancestors who love me and guide me each day.
Iyanla Vanzant
#87. Often, superstition and injustice are imposed by the same ecclesiastical and secular authorities, working hand in glove. It is no surprise that political revolutions, scepticism about religion, and the rise of science might go together,
Carl Sagan
#88. It's no surprise that optimistic athletes, managers and teams do better. What's interesting is where they do better. It's in coming back from defeat and acting in the clutch.
Martin Seligman
#89. When demand is being destroyed by expensive oil just as expensive oil is incentivising increased production - it should come as no surprise that at some point the markets would react.
Samuel Alexander
#90. The absence from the Dead Sea Scrolls of historical texts proper should not surprise us. Neither in the inter-Testamental period, nor in earlier biblical times, was the recording of history as we understand it a strong point among the Jews.
Geza Vermes
#91. Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino makes zombie movies, which probably comes as a surprise to him. At the center of his best and most recent pictures are the walking dead, characters in a race with themselves across mortality's finish line, their spirits arriving before the rest of them.
Steve Erickson
#92. It is on a day like this one,
a little later a little earlier
that you descover without surprise
that something is wrong
that you don't know how to live
and you will never know
Georges Perec
#93. There is some awe mixed with the joy of our surprise, when this poet, who lived in some past world, two or three hundred years ago, says that which lies close to my own soul, that which I also had wellnigh thought and said.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#94. In life the only thing that you can expect is the unexpected; the only surprise is a day that has none.
Joan Rivers
#95. It doesn't surprise me that people can't see beyond my image. It's amazing, but I can understand it. That's what image is for. But it's never a problem for me. It's only a problem for them. I don't really care. I do what I want regardless.
Grace Jones
#96. Continue to surprise those who would put you in a neat demographic. Be insistently curious.
Gordon Gee
#97. To try something longer, I entered a half-hour radio drama contest with the national public broadcaster, CBC. To my surprise, I won. And that opened doors in film and television, because that broadcaster was looking to cultivate new Canadian talent, especially women who could write.
Karen Walton
#98. To expect wickedness from human beings is the best way I know of to avoid surprises. And when I am surprised, it's always pleasantly.
Orson Scott Card
#99. Sara: "You are so brave," I tell her, and then I smile. "When I grow up, I want to be just like you."
To my surprise, Kate shakes her head hard. Her voice is a feather, a thread. "No Mommy," she says. "You'd be sick.
Jodi Picoult
#100. Lord, catch me off guard today. Surprise me with some moment of beauty or pain so that at least for the moment, I may be startled into seeing that you are here in all your splendor, always and everywhere, barely hidden, beneath, beyond, within this life I breathe.
Frederick Buechner
