Quotessence
Home / Topics / Astonishment Quotes

Astonishment Quotes

Browse 192 quotes about Astonishment.

Related topics

MenPeopleIfsMomentsKnowsSaidThinkingFirstsLooksWayWonderHas BeensScienceWholeWorldEyeFeelsFeltLittlesMindSoulUniverse

Astonishment Quotes

“Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.”

ThinkingTruthUnderstandingNatureWonderKnowledgeIgnoranceAuthorityPhilosopherFoolishPreservationGodsMiraclesAdorationHeresyPietyAstonishmentCauseFoolsMobCausationStareInterpretThe GodsHereticalImpious
Book:Ethics
Create image

“Very few, even among those who have taken the keenest interest in the progress of the revolution in natural knowledge set afoot by the publication of the 'Origin of Species'; and who have watched, not without astonishment, the rapid and complete change which has been effected both inside and outside the boundaries of the scientific world in the attitude of men's minds towards the doctrines which are expounded in that great work, can have been prepared for the extraordinary manifestation of affectionate regard for the man, and of profound reverence for the philosopher, which followed the announcement, on Thursday last, of the death of Mr Darwin.”

ScienceInterestKnowledgeProgressRegardAffectionPhilosopherManifestationReverenceAstonishmentObituaryOrigin Of SpeciesScientificDarwinCharles DarwinDoctrines
Book:Collected Essays of Thomas Henry Huxley
Create image

“Flash after flash across the horizon: Tourists trying to take the Grand Canyon By night. They don’t know Every last shot will turn out black. It takes Rothko sixty years to arrive At the rim of his canyon. He goes there only after dark. As he stands at the railing, his pupils open Like a camera shutter at the slowest speed. He has to be patient. He has to lean Far over the railing To see the color as of darkness: Purple, numb brown, mud-red, mauve -an abyss of bruises. At first, you’d think it was black on black Something you son’t want to look at, he says As he waits, The colors vibrate in the chasm Like voices: You there with the eyes, Bring back something from The brink of nothing to make us see.”

ArtLightWonderPaintingAweAstonishmentGrand CanyonCanyon
Author:Chana Bloch
Create image

“I have been so great a lover: filled my days So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise, The pain, the calm, and the astonishment, Desire illimitable, and silent content, And all dear names men use, to cheat despair, For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear Our hearts at random down the dark of life.”

MenLifeHeartHas BeensUsePainDesireNamesDarkBearsLoversDespairPraiseFilledSilentCalmDearStreamsCheatAstonishmentSplendourPerplexed
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Rupert Brooke (Illustrated)
Create image

“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.”

WholeInstanceFlamesAweAdmirationLightningIrresistibleAssemblyEloquenceAstonishmentOpposers
Book:The Miscellaneous Works: The bee. Essays. An inquiry into the present state of polite learning in Europe. Prefaces and introductions
Create image

“You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing the law; I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of its antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which was intended from the first, else why does no Nebraska man express astonishment or condemnation? Poor Reeder is the only public man who has been silly enough to believe that anything like fairness was ever intended, and he has been bravely undeceived.”

MenWayFirstsBelieveDoeHas BeensEnoughLawPoorOughtSillyFairnessHungPreciseCondemnationAstonishmentExecutingNebraska
Book:LINCOLN – Complete 7 Volume Edition: Biographies, Speeches and Debates, Civil War Telegrams, Letters, Presidential Orders & Proclamations: Including the Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt & 3 Biographies: The Every-day Life of the President, Lincoln by Carl Shurz and Abraham Lincoln by Joseph H. Choate
Create image

“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.”

MenWorldHeartLittlesBeautifulLyingDesireParentSidesGriefCompassionMankindKingsMy HeartSorrowHolyCompetitionWitDebateVanityGrievingDividedContestsDisputesRivalsTombsFactionsAstonishmentEpitaphTombstoneHoly ManHeart Melt
Book:The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...
Create image

“The unphilosophical and philosophical attitudes can be very sharply distinguished (with scarcely any intermediate forms) by the fact that the first accepts everything that happens as regards its general form, and finds occasion for surprise only in that special content by which something that happens here today differs from what happened there yesterday; whereas for the second, it is precisely the common features of all experience, such as characterise everything we encounter, which are the primary and most profound occasion for astonishment.”

FirstsFactsHappensTodayFormCommonAttitudeAcceptingHappenedSpecialPhilosophicalRegardSurpriseProfoundYesterdayOccasionsPrimariesFeaturesEncountersDistinguishedAstonishment
Author:Erwin Schrodinger
Create image

“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.”

PeopleHas BeensIdeasUseCausesDifficultSimpleAbilityLevelsProgressAcceptanceHigherFundamentalsComplicatedAcceptedMechanismInabilityAstonishingHigher LevelAstonishmentSimple Ideas
Book:A History of Science: Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece
Create image

“There are some women who seem to be born without fear, just as there are people who are born without the ability to feel pain. The painless ones go around putting their hands on hot stoves, freezing their feet to the point of gangrene, scalding the lining of their throats with boiling coffee, because there is no warning anguish. Evolution does not favour them. So too perhaps with the fearless women, because there aren't very many of them around. ... Providence appears to protect such women, maybe out of astonishment.”

PeopleFeelsDoeHandsSeemsPainFearBornAbilityFeetEvolutionProtectHotCoffeeFearlessThroatWarningProvidenceAnguishFavourAstonishmentFreezingBoilingStovesPainless
Book:Bluebeard's Egg
Create image

“once, when I was a young lady and on a night express ... I was awakened by a man coming in from the corridor and taking hold of my leg ... Quite as much to my own astonishment as his, I uttered the most appalling growl that ever came out of a tigress. He fled, poor man, without a word: and I lay there, trembling slightly, not at my escape but at my potentialities.”

MenYoungNightMy OwnPoorConfidenceLaysLegsAwakenedTremblingPoor ManAstonishmentCorridorsYoung LadiesTigress
Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'”

KnowsInspirationalPlayHumorMotivationalFunnyScienceInterestInspiringEducationCreativityLearningResearchDiscoveryScientistExcitingHearingPhysicsPhrasesProgrammingSkepticismScience And ReligionSkepticalSkepticComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceProgramming LanguagesScience And TechnologySerendipityScientific MethodModern ScienceAstonishmentComputer LanguageScientific ResearchNewnessProclamationScientific DiscoveryScience ReligionNew DiscoveriesGreat ScienceScientific FactsScience PhysicsScience TechnologyFunny ScienceScience ResearchWork PlayDiscovery In ScienceScience LifeAdvances In ScienceSimple SolutionsScience ClassMotivational EducationProgress In ScienceDiscovering The TruthInspirational ScienceAcademic LifeScientist LifeEarth ScienceScience Fair
Author:Isaac Asimov
Create image

“Man feels the urge to run up against the limits of language. Think for example of the astonishment that anything at all exists. This astonishment cannot be expressed in the form of a question, and there is also no answer whatsoever. Anything we might say is a priori bound to be nonsense. Nevertheless we do run up against the limits of language. Kierkegaard too saw that there is this running up against something, and he referred to it in a fairly similar way (as running up against paradox). This running up against the limits of language is ethics.”

ThinkingMenWayFeelsMightRunningFormLanguageAnswersSawsExampleLimitsEthicsBoundsNonsenseUrgesParadoxNeverthelessAstonishment
Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein
Create image

“Thus, cases of injustice, and oppression, and tyranny, and the most extravagant bigotry, are in constant occurrence among us every day. It is the custom to trumpet forth much wonder and astonishment at the chief actors therein setting at defiance so completely the opinion of the world; but there is no greater fallacy; it is precisely because they do consult the opinion of their own little world that such things take place at all, and strike the great world dumb with amazement.”

WorldLittlesActorsWonderOpinionCasesGreaterWords Of WisdomConstantInjusticeStrikesTyrannySettingOppressionSettingsChiefsDumbBigotryCustomsDefianceTrumpetsFallacyExtravagantAmazementAstonishmentInjustice And Oppression
Book:Nicholas Nickleby: Easyread Edition
Create image

“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.”

GivingLooksChildrenSeemsEyeTogetherHeavenStarsPerfectHumilityHumourThousandHumorousAll ThingsDignityOptimismHeavyAbsenceKingdomsNosesCosmosFascinatingTouchingHintsKingdom Of HeavenAstonishmentCarnivalsEndearingSolemnity
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter theunion, the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret soul, he will go up and down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke.”

IfsMenSoulDoneSidesHoursSecretMembersProportionSpokesConcertsIndividualismUp And DownAstonishmentPitiful
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
Create image