Astonishment Quotes - Page 5

• I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Ideas, People

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• Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.

  Charles Darwin

  Attention, Graduates, Surprise

  Charles Darwin (1872). “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, p.278

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• We look back, already, with astonishment, at the daring outrages committed by despotism, on the reason and rights of man; we look forward with joy, to the period, when it shall be despoiled of all its usurpations, and bound forever in the chains, with which it had loaded its miserable victims.

  James Madison

  Men, Rights, Joy

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.467

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• This is that eloquence the ancients represented as lightning, bearing down every opposer; this the power which has turned whole assemblies into astonishment, admiration and awe- - that is described by the torrent, the flame, and every other instance of irresistible impetuosity.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Flames, Lightning, Admiration

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Miscellaneous Works: The bee. Essays. An inquiry into the present state of polite learning in Europe. Prefaces and introductions”, p.131

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• Rome is an astonishment!

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Rome

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (2016). “Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe: Compiled From Her Letters and Journals by Her Son Charles Edward Stowe”, p.234, Library of Alexandria

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• At the back of our brains is a blaze of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Spiritual, Art, Brain

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• There is that unique moment when one confronts something new and astonishment begins.

  Diane Ackerman

  Weekend, Unique, Moments

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• I doubt that the phenomenon was any terrestrial reflection, because... nothing of the kind has ever appeared before or since... I was so unprepared for such a strange sight that I was really petrified with astonishment.

  Clyde Tombaugh

  Reflection, Sight, Doubt

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• I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Thinking, Machines, Sometimes

  "Mysterious World (Strange Skies)". TV Series, November 18, 1980.

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• Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.

  E. Lockhart

  Hours, Should, Spending

  E. Lockhart (2014). “We Were Liars”, p.46, Delacorte Press

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• Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and affecting that the heart is nearly stilled in astonishment.

  Dean Koontz

  Motivational, Heart, Joy

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• Those who have past much of their lives in this great city, look upon its opulence and its multitudes, its extent and variety, with cold indifference; but an inhabitant of the remoter parts of the kingdom is immediately distinguished by a kind of dissipated curiosity, a busy endeavour to divide his attention amongst a thousand objects, and a wild confusion of astonishment and alarm.

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Cities, Confusion

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.41

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• In the aftermath of the recent wave action in the Indian Ocean, even the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williamson [sic], proved himself a latter-day Voltairean by whimpering that he could see how this might shake belief in a friendly creator. Williamson is of course a notorious fool, who does an almost perfect imitation of a bleating and frightened sheep, but even so, one is forced to rub one's eyes in astonishment. Is it possible that a grown man could live so long and still have his personal composure, not to mention his lifetime job description, upset by a large ripple of seawater?

  Christopher Hitchens

  Atheist, Jobs, Ocean

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• I can still recall vividly how Freud said to me, "My dear Jung, promise me never to abandon the sexual theory. That is the most essential thing of all. You see, we must make a dogma of it, an unshakable bulwark" ... In some astonishment I asked him, "A bulwark-against what?" To which he replied, "Against the black tide of mud"-and here he hesitated for a moment, then added of occultism.

  Carl Jung

  Science, Promise, Black

  Carl Gustav Jung (1973). “Memories, dreams, reflections”, Random House Inc

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• But how much better, in any case, to wonder than not to wonder, to dance with astonishment and go spinning in praise, than not to know enough to dance or praise at all; to be blessed with more imagination than you might know at the given moment what to do with than to be cursed with too little to give you -- and other people -- any trouble.

  Eudora Welty

  Blessed, People, Giving

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• A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Heart, Men, Years

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.225, Simon and Schuster

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• He produced a handkerchief—crisply folded—and handed it to her. She took it with silent astonishment. She’d never before known anyone who carried a handkerchief.

  Cassandra Clare

  Silent, Handkerchiefs, Known

  Cassandra Clare (2010). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (3 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

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• And as for you Agent Pallas – man-to-man, if you ever insult my girl on national television again, I’ll…” he stopped. Everyone in the room waited, hanging. Jack raised an eyebrow. “Yes?” Collin turned to Cameron with a look of astonishment. “I’ve got nothing. I had this whole exit speech going and I was gonna end with some big macho threat but when I got there, it was like – bleh – nothing. That’s a pisser.” He appeared disgusted with himself, then shrugged it off. “Oh well. Catch you guys later.” He strode out without a second glance.

  Julie James

  Girl, Men, Eyebrows

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• The ability of nonintelligent people to understand the most complicated mechanisms and to use them has always been to me a cause of astonishment: their inability to understand simple questions is even more astonishing. The general acceptance of simple ideas is difficult and rare, and yet it is only when simple, fundamental, ideas have been accepted that further progress becomes possible on a higher level.

  George Sarton

  Acceptance, Simple, Ideas

  George Sarton (1952). “A History of Science: Ancient science through the Golden Age of Greece”

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• Rich men are resolved to be astonished at nothing. When they see a masterpiece, they must needs at one glance recognize some flaw to dispense them from admiration, a vulgar emotion.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, Needs, Emotion

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• Frederick Buechner brings the reader to his knees, sometimes in laughter, sometimes in an astonishment very close to prayer, and at the best of times in a combination of both.

  Michael Mewshaw

  Laughter, Prayer, Knees

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• Every one must be struck with astonishment, when he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral-rock, often many leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green color.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, Ocean, Reflection

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 7: The Geology of the Voyage of the H. M. S. Beagle, Part I: Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs”, p.3, NYU Press

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• It certainly strikes the beholder with astonishment, to perceive what vast difficulties can be overcome by the pigmy arms of little mortal man, aided by science and directed by superior skill.

  Henry Tudor

  Science, Men, Skills

  Henry Tudor (1834). “Narrative of a tour in North America: comprising Mexico, the mines of Real de Monte, the United States, and the British colonies; with an excursion to the island of Cuba. In a series of letters, written in the years 1831-2”, p.233

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• It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Party, Heart, Years

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• [I was advised] to read Jordan's 'Cours d'analyse'; and I shall never forget the astonishment with which I read that remarkable work, the first inspiration for so many mathematicians of my generation, and learnt for the first time as I read it what mathematics really meant.

  G. H. Hardy

  Inspiration, Science, Firsts

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