Astonishment Quotes - Page 7

• 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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• 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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• To my astonishment, when Wolf Hall came out, people asked if I made it up - [Thomas More] burning of heretics. It was well documented. And he was proud of it! The Brits love lost causes.

  Hilary Mantel

  Lost Love, People, Burning

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• HELPED are those who are shown the existence of the Creator's magic in the Universe; they shall experience delight and astonishment without ceasing.

  Alice Walker

  Magic, Delight, Existence

  Alice Walker (1990). “The Temple of My Familiar”

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• The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon connected with terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me.

  Olaudah Equiano

  Eye, Anchors, Sea

  Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Solomon Northup, Willie Lynch, Nat Turner (2017). “BREAKING THE CHAINS – The Essential & Powerful Narratives that Shook the Roots of Slavery (17 Books in One Volume): Memoirs of Frederick Douglass, Underground Railroad, 12 Years a Slave, Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom and many more”, p.1171, e-artnow

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• The Astonishment Tapes will now take its place within the growing field of international research about postwar American poetry's important contribution to world literature. Miriam Nichols has once again done exceptional scholarship.

  Peter Gizzi

  Important, Fields, Tape

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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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• 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 shortness of life, which we all discuss, but which is very clear to me at the moment, makes keeping and spreading a joyful peace more crucial than ever before. Let us keep our minds on what matters, which is our work, which is astonishment and gratitude. From this quiet magic comes a power for all other new years wishes to come true.

  Martha Beck

  New Year, Gratitude, What Matters

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• Why do you never find anything written about that idiosyncratic thought you advert to, about your fascination with something no one else understands? Because it is up to you. There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain because you have never read it on any page; there you begin. You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.

  Annie Dillard

  Inspirational, Voice, Interesting

  Annie Dillard (2016). “The Abundance”, p.82, Canongate Books

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• The worthless and offensive members of society, whose existence is a social pest, invariably think themselves the most ill-used people alive, and never get over their astonishment at the ingratitude and selfishness of their contemporaries.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Thinking, People, Selfishness

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures”, p.14

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• Every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought.

  John Gould

  Book, Sky, Two

  John Gould (1873). “An Introduction to the Birds of Great Britain”, p.4

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• When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.

  Joseph Addison

  Beautiful, Kings, Tombstone

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.83

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• The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted [in the federal convention], and surmounted with a unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

  James Madison

  Real, Reflection, Men

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.173, Cambridge University Press

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• To my utter astonishment I saw an airship descending over my cow lot. It was occupied by six of the strangest beings I ever saw. They were jabbering together, but we could not understand a word they said.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Together, Cows, Saws

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• A writer lives, at best, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all.

  William Sansom

  Lying, Writing, Evil

  Blue Skies, Brown Studies (1961) "From a Writer's Notebook"

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• ...there is a fine line between wishing to produce child-like astonishment and treating people like infants.

  Derren Brown

  Children, People, Magic

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• Almost one half of our time is spent in telling and hearing evil of one another ... and every hour brings forth something strange and terrible to fill up our discourse and our astonishment.

  Laurence Sterne

  Evil, Hearing, Half

  Laurence Sterne (1853). “Works ...”, p.588

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• In alarming proportions the following words have disappeared from architectural publications: beauty, inspiration, magic, sorcery, enchantment, and also serenity, mystery, silence, privacy, astonishment. All of these have found a loving home in my soul.

  Luis Barragan

  Inspiration, Home, Silence

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• The habits of craft, developed day in and day out over a working lifetime, create moments of astonishment, sublime and magical effects, precisely because the writer is not thinking overtly about making art.

  Philip Gerard

  Art, Writing, Thinking

  Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

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• The humorous look of children is perhaps the most endearing of all the bonds that hold the Cosmos together. Their top-heavy dignity is more touching than any humility; their solemnity gives us more hope for all things than a thousand carnivals of optimism; their large and lustrous eyes seem to hold all the stars in their astonishment; their fascinating absence of nose seems to give to us the most perfect hint of the humour that awaits us in the kingdom of heaven.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Stars, Children, Humorous

  "The Defendant". Book by G. K. Chesterton, A Defence of Baby-Worship, 1901.

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• I prayed hard and only gradually became aware that this fierce praying was a way of finding prologue and entrance into my own writing. This came as both astonishment and relief. When I thought God had abandoned me, I discovered that He had simply given me a different voice to praise the inexhaustible beauty of the made world.

  Pat Conroy

  Writing, Voice, World

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• How a regulation so unjust in itself, so foreign to the authority of Congress, and so hurtful to the sale of public land, and smelling so strongly of an antiquated bigotry, could have received the countenance of a committee is truly a matter of astonishment.

  James Madison

  Land, Hurtful, Atheism

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.154

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• One day, to everyone’s astonishment, someone drops a match in the powder keg and everything blows up.

  James A. Baldwin

  Blow, One Day, Kegs

  "Fifth Avenue, Uptown" by James A. Baldwin, www.esquire.com. July 1960.

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• I have a professional acquaintance whose recent eyelid job has left her with a permanent expression of such poleaxed astonishment that she looks at all times as if she had just read one of my books.

  Florence King

  Jobs, Book, Expression

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