Taken by Surprise

Sunday, September 6, 2015 – Taken by Surprise

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him. ~ Charles De Gaulle

Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment – that which they cannot anticipate. ~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Always mystify, mislead and surprise the enemy if possible. ~ Stonewall Jackson

Whoever can surprise well must conquer. ~ John Paul Jones

The future is bound to surprise us, but we don’t have to be dumbfounded. ~ Kenneth Boulding

One should expect that the expected can be prevented, but the unexpected should have been expected. ~ Norman Ralph Augustine

There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare. ~ Mary Renault

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often. ~ Mae West

I try not to be surprised. Surprise is the public face of a mind that has been closed. ~ Bernard Beckett

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. ~ Oscar Wilde

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience? ~ George Bernard Shaw

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we’d been saying they were. ~ John F. Kennedy

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable. ~ Jane Austen

I am often surprised by the cleverness, and now and again by the stupidity of my dog; and I have similar experiences with mankind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Ignorance makes for weakness and fear; knowledge gives strength and confidence. Nothing surprises an intellect that knows all things with a sense of discrimination. ~ Magdeleine Sable, Maximes et pensées diverses, 1678

There can never be surprises in logic. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. ~ Albert Camus

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. ~ Alice Walker

The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition. ~ W. H. Auden

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men. ~ John Locke

Charm is a product of the unexpected. ~ Jose Marti

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go and surprise the whole country by doing something right. ~ Mark Twain

The most important American addition to the World Experience was the simple surprising fact of America. We have helped prepare mankind for all its later surprises. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. ~ Boris Pasternak

Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. ~ Florence Nightingale

Which death is preferably to every other? The unexpected. ~ Julius Caesar

A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens. ~ Sir Robert Baden-Powell

I doubt whether the world holds for any one a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream. ~ Heywood Broun

There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition. ~ William James

What a surprise to find you could shift the contents of your head like rearranging furniture in a room. ~ Lisa Alther

Statistically, the probability of any of us being here is so small that you’d think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in contented dazzlement of surprise. ~ Lewis Thomas

As North, South, East and West form the directions of our physical reality, and cannot be taken away, so Surprise, Delight, Inspiration and Challenge form the directions of our psychological reality, and cannot be taken away. ~ Laura Teresa Marquez

I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I’m looking out of my third eye and everything that I’m supposed to be doing. It’s amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. “Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight! Mama’s got the magic of Clorox 2!” ~ Ellen DeGeneres

Sometimes the mind, for reasons we don’t necessarily understand, just decides to go to the store for a quart of milk. ~ Andrew Schneider

It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it. ~ Henry Allen

Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we’ve been bombing over the years been complaining? ~ George Wallace

One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. ~ Andrew Carnegie

Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies. ~ Woody Allen

I’m a jerk to everyone. Best way to protect yourself from lawsuits. ~ David Hoselton

Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. ~ Samuel Johnson

The man who said, “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed,” put the eulogy quite inadequately and even falsely. The truth “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.” The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun. Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall possess the cities and the mountains; blessed is the meek, for he shall inhereit the earth. Until we realize that things might not be we cannot realize that things are. ~ G. K. Chesterton

Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one. ~ Bill Watterson