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21 " Your fear is a blessing. It is giving you an opportunity to disidentify from your mind and learn to trust the unknown. The mind can never trust or surrender. Trust always happens through intelligence and consciousness. The mind always asks for guarantees, but life never offers any. Life unfolds moment to moment, and each moment arises as a result of the moment that was surrendered before it. Life is a surprise that always arises out of the unknown. You can either embrace the unknown and live it fully and joyously, or resist it and live in pain, fear, and struggle. "
22 " Then we had the irises, rising beautiful and cool on their tall stalks, like blown glass, like pastel water momentarily frozen in a splash, light blue, light mauve, and the darker ones, velvet and purple, black cat's ears in the sun, indigo shadow, and the bleeding hearts, so female in shape it was a surprise they'd not long since been rooted out. There is something subversive about this garden of Serena's, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to point, to say: Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently. "
― Margaret Atwood , The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
23 " We have barely emerged from centuries of barbarism. It's not a surprise that there are shocking inequities in this world. It is hard work to climb down out of the trees and walk upright,and build a viable global civilization when you start with technology that is made of rocks and sticks and fur. This is a project, and progress is dificult. "
― Sam Harris
24 " Almost all religions from Buddhism to Islam feature either a humble prophet or a prince who comes to identify with the poor, but what is this if not populism? It is hardly a surprise if religions choose to address themselves first to the majority who are poor and bewildered and uneducated. "
― Christopher Hitchens , God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
25 " You’re right. The fact that the entire party of fifty guests caught you and Jill Moench kissing in the closet was a complete misunderstanding." Theo snorted, turning to Penny, " His girlfriend certainly got a surprise at her party. And it wasn’t the kind where everyone jumps out from behind the couch to yell, ‘Surprise! "
26 " The universe will never 'take away' something that is for our highest and greatest good so when we 'lose' something, or our lives shift, it is always for our benefit. It’s unwrapping a surprise present from the universe. "
27 " It is not a surprise that a person would want to be a prophet. What's ridiculous is that other people let him. "
― Bill Maher
28 " What was a surprise was when the dog answered his que "
29 " Love is always a surprise and you never get it right. "
― John Dufresne , Love Warps the Mind a Little
30 " For under scrutiny you will find that even an open book can have a surprise scribbled in its margins. "
― Violet Haberdasher , The Secret Prince (Knightley Academy, #2)
31 " It is not a surprise that there are people we love and hate at the same time. Not as though we hate them, but we hate how they don't love us. "
― Michael Bassey Johnson
32 " Every full bottle of alcohol has a message in it, a surprise that one will not discover until one drinks it "
― Viet Thanh Nguyen , The Sympathizer
33 " New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and Gomorrah, the end of the world. The end wouldn't come as a surprise here. Many people already bank on it. "
― Saul Bellow
34 " The advantages of a losing team: (i) There is everything to hope for and nothing to fear (2.) Defeats do not disturb one's sleep. (3) An occasional victory is a surprise and a delight. (4) There is no danger of any club passing you. (5) You are not asked fifty times a day " What was the score?" people take it for granted that you lost. "
35 " What gives me the most hope every day is God's grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God. "
36 " Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore. "
37 " We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts. "
38 " 'Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto' is a surprise and a fresh way of looking at Harlem, connecting the black district with the architecture of its historical past. "
39 " When I did 'Bird,' it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn't in it and second because most of the films I'd been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me. "
40 " Each one seems to be, in some way, essentially different from the others, and each is a surprise to me. I think that making books, or any kind of art, might also be like mining. The artist digs into his or her life and imagination and never knows what they'll find. That's the adventure. "
