Astonishing Quotes - Page 14

• It is the gift of all poets to find the commonplace astonishing, and the astonishing quite natural.

  Margery Sharp

  Poet, Natural, Commonplace

  4 Copy quote

• It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Effectiveness, People, Effort

  8 Copy quote

• I think 1973 was the nadir of fashion. When you watch the coverage from that era, you're struck by the astonishing ugliness of the clothes.

  John Malkovich

  Fashion, Thinking, Clothes

  "John Malkovich Discusses Secretariat". Interview with Brian Gallagher, movieweb.com. January 24, 2011.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• When we look at the pay of men and women who do work equal hours, two discoveries are quite astonishing: --When women and men work less than 40 hours a week, the women earn more than the men; --When men and women work more than 40, the men earn more than the women.

  Warren Farrell

  Men, Discovery, Two

  Warren Farrell (2005). “Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap--and what Women Can Do about it”, p.79, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophical, Science, Engineering

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “The ABC of relativity”, Signet

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is a firm hand to me, of what use to me is this astonishing power if I cannot change the order of things, if I cannot make the sun set in the east, that suffering diminish and that beings no longer die?

  Albert Camus

  Power, Hands, Order

  6 Copy quote

• The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Believe, Literature, Crowds

  9 Copy quote

• In the last ten years of watching films I have found that some of the foreign films I saw affected me most. One American film that stands out for me for its workmanship and artistry is 'Ratatouille.' It was an astonishing effort in filmmaking.

  Irvin Kershner

  Years, Effort, Lasts

  5 Copy quote

• Nobody knows anything. I deal with people in all walks of life, some of whom should have some idea of what they're doing. And they're all clueless. It's astonishing that any bridges stay up, or that planes don't constantly plummet from the sky. It's heartening, in a strange way.

  Peter York

  Clueless, Should Have, Sky

  "This Much I Know". Interview with Stuart Husband, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2007.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I abandoned the extraterrestria l hypothesis in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs ... The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs.

  John A. Keel

  Psychics, Vision, May

  8 Copy quote

• Smiths songs certainly have an astonishing afterlife.

  Steven Morrissey

  Song, Afterlife

  9 Copy quote

• I want the reader to feel something is astonishing. Not the 'what happens,' but the way everything happens. These long short story fictions do that best, for me.

  Alice Munro

  Everything Happens For A Reason, Long, Fiction

  "A Conversation with Alice Munro". Interview, knopfdoubleday.com.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.

  Neil Gaiman

  Life, Morning, Bed

  Neil Gaiman (2012). “Coraline”, p.81, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's kind of astonishing that people trust strangers because of words they write on computer screens.

  Howard Rheingold

  Writing, People, Computer

  4 Copy quote

• When Oscar Niemeyer died on December 5, 2012, ten days before his 105th birthday, he was universally regarded as the very last of the twentieth century's major architectural masters, an astonishing survivor whose most famous accomplishment, Brasilia, was the climactic episode of utopian High Modern urbanism.

  Martin Filler

  Accomplishment, Survivor, Oscars

  7 Copy quote

• The uniformity of the earth's life, more astonishing than its diversity, is accountable by the high probability that we derived, originally, from some single cell, fertilized in a bolt of lightning as the earth cooled.

  Lewis Thomas

  Cells, Diversity, Lightning

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I committed to directing 'Catch Me If You Can' not because of the divorce component, but principally because Frank Abagnale did things that were the most astonishing scams I had ever heard.

  Steven Spielberg

  Divorce, Scams, Committed

  Interview with Steve Head, www.ign.com. December 17, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.

  Philip Roth

  Knowing, Knows

  Philip Roth (2000). “The Human Stain: A Novel”, p.209, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• Audiences are quite happy to be astonished, and they don't care who does that astonishing.

  Harold Prince

  Doe, Care, Audience

  9 Copy quote

• I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.

  Sidney Poitier

  Father, Men, Poor

  "Oprah Talks to Sidney Poitier". Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. October, 2000.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real story of the Ground Zero mosque is that the project only became feasible because of the appalling and astonishing fecklessness of the officials who were charged with the reconstruction of the site and the neighborhood all the way back in 2001.

  John Podhoretz

  Zero, Real, Mosques

  4 Copy quote

• Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never tire of it. If we do tire of it, if we lose our curiosity, we have lost something of infinite value, because to a high degree it is curiosity that gives meaning and savour to life.

  Robertson Davies

  Giving, Curiosity, Degrees

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected works on the art of writing”, Penguin Group Canada

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing.

  E. Nesbit

  Change, Wonderful, Used

  E. Nesbit (2013). “Delphi Complete Novels of E. Nesbit”, p.503, Delphi Classics

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I heard about the Microsoft Kinect, though, I felt an urgency rising in me. A game you played without touching any machinery? A chance to wave your hands around, Minority-Report style, and move things around on a screen? This sounded like almost too much fun, with gadget-y pizzazz that sounded astonishing.

  Susan Orlean

  Fun, Moving, Hands

  "Connected" by Susan Orlean, www.newyorker.com. December 17, 2010.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not astonishing that there are many journalists who have become human failures and worthless men. Rather, it is astonishing that, despite all this, this very stratum includes such a great number of valuable and quite genuine men, a fact that outsiders would not so easily guess.

  Max Weber

  Men, Numbers, Outsiders

  Max Weber (2013). “From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology”, p.99, Routledge

  8 Copy quote

  Show source