surprise Quotes

“Sir,” she said, “you are no gentleman!” “An apt observation,” he answered airily. “And, you, Miss, are no lady.”

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

I couldn’t believe it. Among other things, the Herdmans were famous for never sitting still and never paying attention to anyone—teachers, parents (their own or anybody else’s), the truant officer, the police—yet here they were, eyes glued on my mother and taking in every word. ‘What’s that?’ they would yell whenever they didn’t understand the language, and when Mother read about there being no room at the inn, Imogene’s jaw dropped and she sat up in her seat. ‘My God!’ she said. ‘Not even for Jesus?’”

“Leave it to me: I’m always top banana in the shock department.”

“You have become clever all of a sudden.”

“When seasoned by the subtleties of accident, harmony, favor, wisdom, and inevitability, luck takes on the cast of serendipity. Serendipity happens when a well-trained mind looking for one things encounters something else: the unexpected.”

“Really, though, what do I know about what another person is capable of? I still don’t have a clue what I’m capable of. I keep surprising even myself.”

“My breathing suddenly went still. I looked at Jamie, then up to the ceiling and around the room, doing my best to keep my composure, then back to Jamie again. She smiled at me and I smiled at her and all I could do was wonder how I’d ever fallen in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan.”

″‘This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!’ thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. ‘I wonder is that more moth balls?’ she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hands. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. ‘This is very queer,’ she said, and went on a step or two further.”

“The air at Base Camp seemed thick and rich and voluptuously saturated with oxygen compared to the brutally thin atmosphere of the camps above.”

“Without warning, the statue squirmed and bit the side of his thumb. Yelling in surprise, Seth dropped the figurine and the flashlight onto the carpeted floor.”

“It took me by surprise how much I wanted to be kissed by him, to realize that I’d thought about it so often that I’d memorized the exact shape of his lips, that I’d imagined running my finger down the cleft of his chin.”

“I just don’t like my world disturbed without some warning.”

“Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are in which the ending is a surprise.”

″‘If you were coming along here when it was half dark, you could easily think those piles of rock were giants. Look at that one, now! You could almost imagine that the lump on top was a head […] And the things sticking out on each side are quite like ears. They’d be horribly big, but then I daresay giants would have big ears, like elephants. And—o-o-o-h!‘”

“It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between excitement and disappointment, doubt and revelation, to such an extreme that no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay. ”

“If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep”

“You’d be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are.”

“O, welcome, father. Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence Here to unfold (though lately we intended To keep in darkness what occasion now Reveals before ‘tis ripe) what thou dost know Hath newly passed between this youth and me.”

“One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!”

“Peter Quint — you devil!”

“Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish? does the early red start twittering through the woods? Do I astonish more than they?”

“I recognize the desire to surprise your own life. ‘You must change your life,’ as the poet Rilke said.”

“The ending is always a surprise.”

I am Abhorsen...” He looked at the baby again and added, almost with a note of surprise, “Father of Sabriel

“Best friends can also be full of surprises.”

″ ‘Well, what would you have me do instead, Gabriel? The more I give in to him, the more I want him.’ My confession appeared to surprise him, but not as much as it surprised me.”

“No one she knew had seen a can of peaches in years. She looked at the other one. It was just as amazing- ‘Creamed Corn,’ it said.”

″‘Doon!’ cried Lina. ‘More lights!’ She pointed at the sky. He looked up and saw them—hundreds and hundreds of tiny flecks of light, strewn like spilled salt across the blackness. ‘Oh!’ he whispered. There was nothing else to say. The beauty of these lights made his breath stop in his throat.”

″[Ammu] was surprised at the extent of her daughter’s physical ease with him. Surprised that her child seemed to have a sub-world that excluded her entirely.”

“Walsh hugs me, taking me by surprise. ‘I don’t know how,’ she mutters, ‘but I hope you become queen one day. Imagine what you could do then? The Red queen.‘”

“The attackers had used one of the oldest and most potent weapons of warfare: surprise.”

“Without warning, Hugo wrapped his arms around Isabelle’s neck and gave her a big hug. He could tell she was surprised.”

“‘Died? He’s not dead...’ Hugo said out loud. ‘Who isn’t dead?’ said Etienne, who had been reading over Hugo’s shoulder. ‘Georges Méliès.‘”

“The edges of the drawings were yellowed and brittle, but they were all beautiful, and they were all by Georges Méliès.”

“I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it.”

“One of the delights of the fair was never knowing who might turn up beside you.”

“I noticed that my fear never changed, never delighted, never offered a surprise twist or an unexpected ending.”

“But the wonderfullest trick of all was the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without removing one nail. . . . There is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two-by-four situation! . . . You know it don’t take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?”

“As she reached for it she realized for the first time, and with a small shock, that she had learned enough from her father over the years to become a doctor herself.”

“If you make a deal with a fool, don’t be surprised when they act foolishly.”

“God is preparing you for greater things. He’s going to take you further than you thought possible, so don’t e surprised when He asks you to think better of yourself and act accordingly.”

“One does not know love until it arrives, and it’s arrival will always surprise.”

This books has a touch of mystery, a healthy dose of coming of age and a surprising amount of introspection.

“Life was going along okay when my mother and father dropped the news. Bam! Just like that.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Little often discussed Stuart quietly between themselves when he wasn’t around, for they had never quite recovered from the shock and surprise of having a mouse in the family. He was so very tiny and presented so many problems to his parents.”

“For the first time since the crash he was not thinking of himself, or his own life. Brian was wondering if the bear was as surprised as he to find another being in the berries.”

“But the biggest surprise by far- on her stomach was a scar!”

“Such a grand house. These must be rich folks. But I must get to work. Here I stand just looking. And me with a whole list of things to do. I think I’ll make a surprise for them. I’ll make lemon-meringue pie. I do make good pies.”

“Who will take care of us out there?” Klaus said, looking out on the flat horizon. “Nobody,” Violet said. “We’ll have to take care of ourselves. We’ll have to be self-sustaining.” “Like the hot air mobile home,” Klaus said, “that could travel and survive all by itself.” “Like me,” Sunny said, and abruptly stood up. Violet and Klaus gasped in surprise as their baby sister took her first wobbly steps, and then walked closely beside her, ready to catch her if she fell. But she didn’t fall. Sunny took a few more self-sustaining steps, and then the three Baudelaires stood together, casting long shadows across the horizon in the dying light of the sunset.”

″‘Hello, Mr. Popper, up there in Stillwater. Thanks for your nice letter about the pictures of our last expedition. Watch for an answer. But not by letter, Mr. Popper. Watch for a surprise.‘”

“Long distance is expensive!”

“Poor Henry was so surprised he almost fell over! That kind man his grandfather.”

″‘Thank you for the surprise, Grandfather,’ said Violet. ‘We’ll never go away from you again.’ ‘I hope not, my dear,’ said Mr. Alden. ‘We’ll all live happily ever after.’ And so they did.”

“The old monk winced in surprise and narrowed his eyes as he looked around at the manuscripts piled on the shelves around him.”

“We’ll work and we’ll work up so many surprises you’d never see half if you had forty eyes!”

“You’ll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond Z and start poking around!

″ ‘MY TED!’ gasped the bear. ‘A BEAR!’ screamed Eddie. ‘A BOY!’ yelled the bear. ‘MY TEDDY!’ cried Eddie.”

“A giant teddy bear! ‘Is that Freddie?’ said Eddie. ‘What a surprise! How did you get to be this size?’ ”

“Afterward, there was that long, crowded pause in which everyone decides that although they are very shaken, and possibly upside down, they are, to their surprise, still alive.”

“Once more on his bicycle The Postman rode To a beautiful palace, so we’ve been told, Where nightingales sang And a sign said ‘SOLD’, With a letter for...Cinderella. (There’s a surprise!)”

“Suddenly, Percy hears a knock at the door. “Who can be at this time of night?”. Percy goes to the door and looks out. It’s a squirrel. “it’s too cold outside, may I come in?. Percy replies: “Never mind, my bed is big” and the squirrel goes into Percy’s bed. It’s warm now.”

“It pleased Ethan to have surprised a pair of lovers on the spot where he and Mattie had stood with such a thirst for each other in their hearts; but he felt a pang at the thought that these two need not hide their happiness.”

“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”

“A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit.”

“She meowed her biggest meow, very sudden and very, very loud. The man was surprised He dropped his bag. It made a big noise and everyone in the house woke up.”

“What we call cowardice is often just another name for being taken by surprise, and courage is seldom any better than simply being well prepared.”

″‘Oh, it’s you.’ Mrs. Wexler always seemed surprised to see her other daughter, so unlike golden-haired, angel-faced Angela.”

″‘Chrestomanci!’ she exclaimed. And, as soon as she said it, she clapped on hand over her mouth and mumbled behind it. Her face was red. Cat could see she was surprised, frightened, and greedy, all at the same time.”

“Anastasia went home. She wanted to tell her parents about her decision to become a Catholic, but she knew that she had to tell them at the right moment, in the right way, because if would be something of a surprise. They might even be a little upset, she suspected, that she was changing her name.”

″‘Blow me down,’ he says. ‘It ain’t no police cars, it’s a...baby!‘”

″‘Well blow me down,’ says Burglar Betty. ‘That baby’s mine!‘”

“Sid Parker crouched on the floor, in front of a cage in which two mouse-like creatures had frozen into stillness on the instant. One had been working a little treadmill fastened to the inside of a cage wall. The other had been gnawing at one of the bars of the cage.”

“It’s a noise that Burglar Bill has heard before; the noise of someone opening a window and climbing carefully in. ‘Blow me down,’ says Burglar Bill. ‘I’m being burgled!‘”

“Drac and the Gremlin spring before General Min can attack. The General is caught by surprise. With a howl of despair she flees deep into the jungle.”

“Hari went to her and said, “Let me get the medicine for you. Let me hold the baby.” She looked at him in surprise, then shook her head, saying, “No, no—I can do that,” and he turned away, knowing he could not help her.”

“Erica stayed at the window and wondered about the surprise. It was only half a surprise now, because she knew it was coming, but she was glad in a way of the warning.”

“Magic. It was all real.”

“The infinite-minded player, in contrast, expects surprises, even revels in them, and is prepared to be transformed by them.”

“There was a Young Lady whose eyes Were unique as to color and size; When she opened them wide, people all turned aside, And started away in surprise.”

“The hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.”

“But- ‘I started to say, looking from one to the other of these strangers. Who were they? What was going on? There was another man in the living room, half of head shorter than the first, with a bushy moustache that spread across his cheeks.”

“But I was kind of surprised that God would send a saver to me in such raggedy clothes.”

“The horsemen swept across the corn-yellow grasses of the hinterland screaming and shouting to arouse fear. The clans people dispersed like scuttling roaches to be run down and either killed or captured.”

“One day the Little House was surprised to see a horseless carriage coming down the winding country road...Pretty soon there were more of them on the road and fewer carriages pulled by horses.”

“This is the way I used to feel in Barbados, Kit thought with surprise. Light as air somehow. Here I’ve been working like a slave, much harder than I’ve ever worked in the onion fields, but I feel as though nothing mattered except just to be alive right at this moment.”

“Life had already dealt her some cruel surprises, and the present surprise had yet to reveal its nature, cruel or otherwise.”

″‘Fancy that!’ said Teddy Robinson to himself, and he felt half surprised and half cross to think he wasn’t quite the dearest person in the whole world.”

“The sky grew darker and darker blue, and soon the stars came out. Teddy Robinson lay and stared at them without blinking, and they twinkled and shone and winked at him as if they were surprised to see a teddy bear lying in the garden.”

“He was surprise to see Barbapapa, but they became friends at once. Francois’ mother said that Barbapapa was too big to stay with them.”

“Several walnuts grew in the park, though none were very close. She went to look at the shell- but looked with great astonishment. There was a baby in it.”

“It would be a lovely surprise, and at the same time a way of showing what she could do once she really had a free hand.”

“It was like exploring a place that you have seen in a dream, where everything is just where you expect it and yet everything is a surprise.”

“If the elephant had been able to get out, Father and Mother would certainly have been surprised at finding him wandering round the house, because there was no such animal in the village.”

“And the five little Stigginses sat up in bed with their eyes nearly starting out of their heads, and Mrs. Stiggins sat bump upon a chair, because she said it gave her quite a turn, when Ameliar-anne took the cover off the basket.”

“This little baby was the funniest wee creature. He was only about an inch long and covered with soft baby fur, had two big ears, compared to the size of the rest of him, a tiny black nose, and two beady eyes. His mother and father always had a surprised look on their faces, but they looked more surprised than ever now as they gazed at their baby.”

“Blinky Bill had water from the stream sprinkled on his head, much to his surprise, and the ceremony ended without any more interruptions. He was carried home again on his mother’s back, feeling very important after all the fuss and petting.”

“Mr. Jeremy shoved the boat out again a little way, and dropped the bait. There was a bite almost directly; the float gave a tremendous bobbit! ‘A minnow! a minnow! I have him by the nose!’ cried Mr. Jeremy Fisher, jerking up his rod. But what a horrible surprise! Instead of a smooth fat minnow, Mr. Jeremy landed little Jack Sharp the stickleback, covered with spines!”

“One day there is a horse standing in front of the house and there’s a man sitting in the living room. ”

“Some have quirkier quirks and deeper secrets than others, but all of them, including one’s own parents, have two or three private habits hidden up their sleeves that would probably make you gasp if you knew about them.”

“You know Fezzik, you finally did something right.”

“You know Fezzik, you finally did something right.”

“I’m not a complete idiot, you know. You don’t have to look so surprised that I know some big words.”

Why, you could have knocked her over with a feather. Feathers, indeed, were a perpetual menace to Audrey.

Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt. She thought in exclamation points. A boy! Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy! From an orphan asylum! Well, the world was certainly turning upside down! She would be surprised at nothing after this! Nothing!

“I positively opened my eyes at this new development. Here was my own pet lunatic—the most pronounced of his type that I had ever met with—talking elemental philosophy, and with the manner of a polished gentleman.

They say joy never hurts, and so I came to you without any warning.

“Well, well,” said Monte Cristo, “such an innocent looking person as you are to do those things, M. Bertuccio, and to a king’s attorney at that!”

“You!” cried Franz, whose hair stood on end; “you, M. Noirtier—you killed my father?”

“This is a bank-note,” said I, “for five hundred pounds.” “That is a bank-note,” repeated Mr. Jaggers, “for five hundred pounds. And a very handsome sum of money too, I think. You consider it so?” “How could I do otherwise!” “Ah! But answer the question,” said Mr. Jaggers. “Undoubtedly.” “You consider it, undoubtedly, a handsome sum of money. Now, that handsome sum of money, Pip, is your own. It is a present to you on this day, in earnest of your expectations. ”

“But, Ellen,” cried she, staring fixed in astonishment, “how dare he speak so to me? Mustn’t he be made to do as I ask him? You wicked creature, I shall tell papa what you said.—Now, then!”

She did not see him straight away, but when she did notice him under the couch—he had to be somewhere, for God’s sake, he couldn’t have flown away—she was so shocked that she lost control of herself and slammed the door shut again from outside. But she seemed to regret her behaviour, as she opened the door again straight away and came in on tip-toe as if entering the room of someone seriously ill or even of a stranger.

“Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!”

He is a clever man, a reading man; and I confess, that I do consider his attaching himself to her with some surprise.

“You can talk to me of other women being charming, and of Patti singing divinely, before the girl you loved has even the quiet of a grave to sleep in?”

“Aunt Polly placed small trust in such evidence. She went out to see for herself; and she would have been content to find twenty per cent. of Tom’s statement true. When she found the entire fence white-ashed, and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated, and even a streak added to the ground, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.”