Puzzled Quotes - Page 3

• My first degree was in mathematics. That was great, but it didn't help with many of the things that puzzled me. I became a philosopher because I wanted to understand everything, especially those things that didn't make sense. And that has continued to be my philosophical motivation. That's one reason I have such a roving philosophical eye - once I have figured out a philosophical topic to my satisfaction, I find myself moving on to new problems.

  David Papineau

  Motivation, Moving, Philosophical

  "Physical". Interview with Richard Marshall, www.3ammagazine.com. April 8, 2013.

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• I love the puzzled look on people's faces when I mention I grew up telling time according to television.

  Joe Zee

  People, Looks, Television

  Source: www.elle.com

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• In 1966, while working on a feature about a Picasso exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, I recorded the pre-opening preparations and observed a moment: One of the cleaners stopped, puzzled, in front of the Picassos. I think that this is an image that can be universally understood, but with a grain of salt. I never chose this image in edits before because it seemed to me that it felt posed-the composition was a little too perfect. But, believe me, it was a lucky moment.

  Micha Bar-Am

  Art, Believe, Thinking

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• While forced to dwell apart from thy dear face, Love, robed like sorrow, led me by the hand And taught my doubting heart to understand That which has puzzled all the human race.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Love, Heart, Race

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox (2016). “Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)”, p.1095, Delphi Classics

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• It has always puzzled me, in my business, that people think they have to answer questions, no matter how disagreeable or dangerous, just because they were asked. Of course, we journalists would be out of business if they didn't.

  Judith Martin

  Thinking, People, Would Be

  Judith Martin (1986). “Style and substance: a comedy of manners”, Scribner

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• Strangers with puzzled looks were amazingly cooperative in letting me into their rooms with my photographic gear. They let me take down the curtains, wash the windows, and rearrange the furniture. Often, too, they expressed their desire to share their view with others, as if it were a non-depletable treasure. I liked the idea that my photographic vantage points were not solely determined by myself. They were predetermined by others, sometimes years earlier, and patiently waited for me to discover them.

  John Pfahl

  Views, Years, Ideas

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• It is good to pray for the repair of mistakes, but praying earlier would keep us from making so many. When puzzled, go to prayer and listen.

  J. C. Macaulay

  Prayer, Mistake, Praying

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• I am still puzzled why those in the United States who truly believe in liberty should not only have allowed the left to appropriate this almost indispensable term but should even have assisted by beginning to use it themselves as a term of opprobrium. This seems to be particularly regrettable because of the consequent tendency of many true liberals to describe themselves as conservatives.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Believe, Liberty, United States

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• Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is that I'm a Gemini.

  Raymond Smullyan

  Astrology, Reason, Ifs

  Raymond Smullyan (1983). “Five Thousand B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies”, p.31, Macmillan

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• For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize... They were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Ignorance, Knowledge

  "Metaphysics". Book by Aristotle (982b10), later published in "The Basic Works of Aristotle" edited by Richard McKeon (p. 692), 1941.

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• But mark, madam, we live amongst riddles and mysteries--the most obvious things, which come in our way, have dark sides, which thequickest sight cannot penetrate into; and even the clearest and most exalted understandings amongst us find ourselves puzzled and at a loss in almost every cranny of nature's works.

  Laurence Sterne

  Knowledge, Loss, Dark

  Laurence Sterne (1847). “Works, Containing the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent: A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Sermons, Letters and C”, p.185

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• Ironic and jittery, we are puzzled by the old heroes with their fighting, boasting, and cocksure lovemaking.

  Mason Cooley

  Hero, Fighting, Ironic

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• The law rarely hesitates in declaring its own meaning; but the Judges are frequently puzzled to find out the meaning of others.

  William Blackstone

  Law, Judging, Declaring

  Sir William Blackstone, John Fletcher Hargrave, George Sweet, Sir Richard Couch, William Newland Welsby (1852). “Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books : with an Analysis of the Work”, p.303

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• If, at any time, it comes into my head, that a present is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Opportunity, Giving, Gone

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1481, Delphi Classics

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• There is required for the composition of a great commander not only massive common sense and reasoning power, not only imagination, but also an element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten.

  Winston Churchill

  Common Sense, Imagination, Enemy

  Winston Churchill (2005). “The World Crisis, 1911-1918”, p.293, Simon and Schuster

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• That's where Time magazine lives ... way out there on the puzzled, masturbating edge, peering through the keyhole and selling what they see to the big wide world of chamber of commerce voyeurs who support the public prints.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Support, Magazines, World

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.97, Simon and Schuster

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• We are puzzled and bewildered whenever we see suffering in this world because we have become accustomed to the mercy and the long-suffering of God. Amazing grace is no longer amazing to us.

  R. C. Sproul

  Faith, Religious, Long

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• When I go out, people look at me with a puzzled expression on their faces thinking, "You're Jackie Chan?". When people stare at me, it makes me uncomfortable. More and more I find that I just stay in my hotel when I am working.

  Jackie Chan

  Thinking, Expression, People

  "Jackie Chan proves he can". www.tribute.ca.

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• Chevrolet was puzzled when they discovered that their sales for the Chevy Nova were off the charts everywhere but in Latin America. They finally realized that "Nova" in Spanish translates to "no go." Not the best name for a car... anywhere "no va."

  Tom Waits

  Latin, Names, America

  "Tom Waits Spills the Beans to Tom Waits". Interview with Joan Anderman, www.boston.com. May 22, 2008.

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• Sometimes a neighbor whom we have disliked a lifetime for his arrogance and conceit lets fall a single commonplace remark that shows us another side, another man, really; a man uncertain, and puzzled, and in the dark like ourselves.

  Willa Cather

  Forgiveness, Fall, Dark

  Willa Cather (1938). “The novels and stories of Willa Cather ...”

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• Bridget who is crazy said that sometimes she thought about suicide when commercials come on during TV. She was sincere and this puzzled the guidance counselors.

  Stephen Chbosky

  Suicide, Crazy, Tvs

  Stephen Chbosky (2013). “The Perks of Being a Wallflower YA edition”, p.12, Simon and Schuster

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• In any case, fire burns; that's its nature, and you can't expect to change that. You can use it to cook your meat or to burn down your neighbor's house. And is the fire you use for cooking any different from the one you use for burning? And does that mean you should eat your supper raw?" Maddy shook her head, still puzzled. "So what you're saying is . . . I shouldn't play with fire," she said at last. Of course you should," said One-Eye gently. "But don't be surprised if the fire plays back.

  Joanne Harris

  Eye, Mean, Fire

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• Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable," said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, "Emerson." "Lake and Palmer?" "Ralph and Waldo.

  Louise Penny

  Men, Lakes, Expression

  Louise Penny (2007). “A Fatal Grace: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel”, p.145, Macmillan

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• I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all.

  Jeannette Walls

  Thinking, Rushing, Feelings

  Jeannette Walls (2009). “Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel”, p.34, Simon and Schuster

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• He leaned over to kiss the top of my head, and then groaned. I looked at him, puzzled. "You smell so good in the rain," he explained. "In a good way, or in a bad way?" I asked cautiously. He sighed. "Both, always both.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Rain, Kissing, Smell

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