Shock Quotes - Page 6

To sit in solemn silence on a dull, dark dock in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block.

W. S. Gilbert

Block, Dark, Long

The Mikado act 1 (1885)

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My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening to active assistance, is simply bad; and I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else. Humility, after the first shock, is a cheerful virtue.

C. S. Lewis

Sadness, Humility, Thinking

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...You find a way, somehow to get through the most horrible things, things you think would kill you. You find a way and you move through the days, one by one, in shock, in despair, but you move. The days pass, one after the other, and you go along with them - occasionally stunned, and not entirely relieved, to find that you are still alive.

Michelle Richmond

Moving, Thinking, Despair

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Nothing could be slow enough, nothing lasts too long. No pleasure could equal, she thought, straightening the chairs, pushing in one book on the shelf, this having done with the triumphs of youth, lost herself in the process of living, to find it with a shock of delight, as the sun rose, as the day sank. Many a time had she gone, at Barton when they were all talking, to look at the sky; seen it between peoples shoulders at dinner; seen it in London when she could not sleep. She walked to the window.

Virginia Woolf

Book, Sleep, Talking

Virginia Woolf (2012). “Mrs. Dalloway - Broadview Edition”, p.193, Broadview Press

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Catching sight of himself in the long mirrors that ran along the walls, he stiffened in shock...His eyes were surrounded by black shadows, his shirt smeared with dried blood and filthy mud... "Admiring yourself?" The Inquisitor's voice cut through his reverie. "You won't look so pretty when the Clave gets through with you." "You do seem obsessed with my look...Could it be that you're attracted to me?" "Don't be revolting...You could be my son.

Cassandra Clare

Wall, Eye, Son

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Kumiko and I felt something for each other from the beginning. It was not one of those strong, impulsive feelings that can hit two people like an electric shock when they first meet, but something quieter and gentler, like two tiny lights traveling in tandem through a vast darkness and drawing imperceptibly closer to each other as they go. As our meetings grew more frequent, I felt not so much that I had met someone new as that I had chanced upon a dear old friend.

Haruki Murakami

Strong, Two, Drawing

Haruki Murakami (2011). “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”, p.223, Random House

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Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him.

Robert Bloch

Noise, Heard

Robert Bloch (2010). “Psycho: A Novel”, p.5, The Overlook Press

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This dim coolness of my room was to the broad daylight of the street what the shadow is to the sunbeam, that is to say equally luminous, and presented to my imagination the entire panorama of summer, which my senses, if I had been out walking, could have tasted and enjoyed only piecemeal; and so it was quite in harmony with my state of repose which (thanks to the enlivening adventures related in my books) sustained, like a hand reposing motionless in a stream of running water, the shock and animation of a torrent of activity.

Marcel Proust

Summer, Running, Book

Marcel Proust (2000). “In Search of Lost Time, Volume I: Swann's Way (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.131, Modern Library

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Life has been some combination of fairy-tale coincidence and joie de vivre and shocks of beauty together with some hurtful self-questioning.

Sylvia Plath

Self Questioning, Hurtful, Together

Sylvia Plath (2007). “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”, p.555, Anchor

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It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.

James A. Baldwin

Flags, Killing, Allegiance

Speech at Cambridge University, 17 Feb. 1965, in New York Times Magazine 7 March 1965, p. 32

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Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It instigates invention. It shocks us out of sheep-like passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving…conflict is a sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity.

John Dewey

Memories, Reflection, Sheep

John Dewey (2007). “Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology”, p.300, Cosimo, Inc.

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When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.

Flannery O'Connor

Mean, Talking, Vision

Flannery O'Connor (1983). “Three by Flannery O'Connor: Wise blood, The violent bear it away, Everything that rises must converge”, Signet Classics

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For now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose. The habit of entering accurately must help sooth me.

Bram Stoker

Feelings, Brain, Diaries

Bram Stoker (2016). “Dracula”, p.32, Zillmann Publishing

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Leave it to me: I'm always top banana in the shock department.

Truman Capote

Inspirational, Motivational, Entrepreneur

Truman Capote (2012). “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, p.61, Vintage

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Shock is a merciful condition. It allows you to get through disaster with a necessary distance between you and your feelings.

Lisa Kleypas

Distance, Grief, Feelings

Lisa Kleypas (2015). “The Travis Family Series, Books 1-3: Blue-Eyed Devil, Smooth Taking Stranger and Sugar Daddy”, p.444, St. Martin's Press

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The vestibule door opens onto a June morning so fine and scrubbed Classira pauses at the threshold as she would at the edge of a pool, watching the turquoise water lapping at the tiles, the liquid nets of sun wavering in the blue depths. As if standing at the edge of a pool she delays for a moment the plunge, the quick membrane of chill, the plain shock of immersion.

Michael Cunningham

Morning, June, Blue

Michael Cunningham (1998). “The Hours: A Novel”, p.9, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

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Don't worry about me," I finally said. "Really. I'm more worried about you." And even more worried about where Graves is. "Are you?" A fey smile lit his face, and I caught my breath. It was a shock to see him look so happy. "Well, then.

Lilith Saintcrow

Worry, Fey, Looks

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She laid her head against his collarbone, and he kissed her temple. To her shock, she felt a shudder roll through his body about the same time she registered wetness against her skin. Tears. His tears. She started to turn around, but he tightened his grip. “Stay,” he said in a choked voice. “Just let me hold you, baby. Just let me hold you.

Maya Banks

Baby, Voice, Tears

Maya Banks (2010). “The Darkest Hour”, p.109, Penguin

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Who was this women?' asked Harry. 'I dunno, some Ministry hag.' Mundungus considered for a moment, brow wrinkled. 'Little women. Bow on top of er' head.' He frowned and then added, 'Looked like a toad.' Harry dropped his wand. Harry looked up and saw his own shock reflected in Ron and Hermione's faces. The scars on the back of right hand seemed to be tingling again.

J. K. Rowling

Hands, Ron And Hermione, Faces

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To get into the best society, nowadays, one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people - that is all!

Oscar Wilde

People

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.566, Wordsworth Editions

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I think she is going to find you too old... Yes that was it, the moment she said it I knew it was true, and the revelation caused me no surprise, it was like the echo of a dull, not unexpected shock. The age difference was the last taboo, the final limit, all the stronger for the fact that it remained the last and had replaced all the others. In the modern world you could be a swinger, bi, trans, zoo into S&M, but it was forbidden to be old.

Michel Houellebecq

Zoos, Thinking, Echoes

Michel Houellebecq (2006). “The Possibility of an Island”, p.148, Vintage

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He’s gone, Harry told himself. He’s gone. He had to keep thinking it as he washed and dressed, as though repetition would dull the shock of it. He’s gone and he’s not coming back. And that was the simple truth of it, Harry knew, because their protective enchantments meant that it would be impossible, once they vacated this spot, for Ron to find them again.

J. K. Rowling

Simple, Thinking, Enchantment

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From a tale one expects a bit of wildness, of exaggeration and dramatic effect. The tale has no inherent concern with decorum, balance or harmony. ... A tale may not display a great deal of structural, psychological, or narrative sophistication, though it might possess all three, but it seldom takes its eye off its primary goal, the creation of a particular emotional state in its reader. Depending on the tale, that state could be wonder, amazement, shock, terror, anger, anxiety, melancholia, or the momentary frisson of horror.

Peter Straub

Eye, Emotional, Goal

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I've come to see our central nervous system as a kind of vintage switchboard, all thick foam wires and old-fashioned plugs. The circuitry isn't properly equipped; after a surplus of emotional information the system overloads, the circuit breaks, the board runs dark. That's what shock is.

Darin Strauss

Running, Dark, Emotional

Darin Strauss (2011). “Half a Life: A Memoir”, p.14, Random House

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Perhaps we are born knowing the tales of our grandmothers and all their ancestral kin continually run in our blood repeating them endlessly, and the shock they give us when we first bear them is not of surprise but of recognition.

P. L. Travers

Running, Grandmother, Knowing

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