Surprise, an unexpected event, piece of information, etc., or denoting a class of complex methods of change-ringing.

Planning is excellent but better than what comes with surprises. Surprise is a vital aspect of our lives as it makes life interesting. Not knowing what happens on a given timeline makes life more enjoyable.

To celebrate the power of surprises, we have collected some of the best surprise quotes by the world’s greatest minds. We hope you enjoy and learn from the surprise quotes we have put together for you.

160 Surprise Quotes

Top 10 Surprise Quotes

“You have become clever all of a sudden.” – Noel Streatfeild

“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.” – Brandon Mull

“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.” – Elizabeth George Speare

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

“Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.” – Jimmy Buffett

“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.” – Val Emmich

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

“Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.” – John Keats

“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.” – Jeanne DuPrau

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – George S. Patton

Love Surprise Quotes

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“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” – Ellen Burstyn

“There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved: It is God’s finger on man’s shoulder.” – Charles Morgan

“Love withers with predictability; its very essence is surprise and amazement. To make love a prisoner of the mundane is to take its passion and lose it forever.” – Leo Buscaglia

“I love surprises and coincidences. I love them, even more, when I don’t pass them off as luck, but rather recognize them as a sign that my life’s course is right on track.” – Jason Mraz

“My love for the theater has always been a priority. That hasn’t changed. I got into acting that way. The film work that came up was really a surprise.” – Philip Seymour Hoffman

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

“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.” – Nicholas Sparks

“Maybe I don’t like people as much as the rest of the world seems to…But occasionally, people will pleasantly surprise me and I’ll fall in love with them, so go figure.” – Mark Oliver Everett

“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.” – Eve Garnett

“Defying expectations to open us up for surprises.”

“Change sometimes comes as a surprise.”

“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.” – Terry Pratchett

“Accepting the truth is the first step toward making decisions.”

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

“Peter Quint — you devil!” – Henry James

“Perhaps the safest prediction we can make about the future is that it will surprise us.” – George Leonard

“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.” – Henry Ford

“Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel

Funny Surprise Quotes

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“Scratch an artist and you surprise a child.” – James Huneker

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

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” – Ashley Montagu

“The last thing people want is a surprise, these days.” – Gregory Heisler

“The joy of living, its beauty, is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you.” – Frank Herbert

“The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.” – Voltaire

“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.” – Joan G. Robinson

“The secret to humor is surprise.” – Aristotle

“The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.” – Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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

“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.” – Peggy Parish

“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.” – Nick Butterworth

“My divorce came to me as a complete surprise. That’s what happens when you haven’t been home in eighteen years.” – Lee Trevino

“There is no greater evidence of superior intelligence than to be surprised at nothing.” – Josh Billings

“There is fun in surprises.”

“There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.” – Henry James

“I believe such illumination comes if you’re open to the surprises the universe throws at you. You must be able to let go of the past, whatever success you may have seen, whatever your comfort, whatever your habits. To me, that’s the key to loving life: Enabling yourself to step bravely into the unknown. Only there will you find yourself again.” – Juliette Binoche

“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.” – Joseph Addison

“I don’t repeat that many styles if I can help, although some have become classics. I try not to repeat. I’d rather surprise people.” – Christian Louboutin

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

“A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.” – Francis Bacon

“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?” – Tennessee Williams

“Stupefaction, when it persists, becomes stupidity.” – Jose Ortega y Gasset

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

“Some surprises define us.”

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

“Life itself is a surprise.”

Surprise Gift Quotes

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“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” – Boris Pasternak

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

“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.‘” – Victoria Aveyard

“Vulnerability opens us up to tapping into our maximum performance.”

“Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.” – Thomas Hardy

“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.” – Dorothy Wall

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

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

“We should always be prepared for anything.”

“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.” – Spike Lee

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

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

“A rule of thumb for a warrior is that he makes his decisions so carefully that nothing that may happen as a result of them can surprise him, much less drain his power.” – Carlos Castaneda

“There is power in not knowing what will come next.”

“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.” – Roald Dahl

“I am the spirit of the morning sea, I am the awakening and the glad surprise.” – Richard Watson Gilder

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

“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.” – Anita Desai

“Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.” – Alice Walker

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

“Surprising ourselves is more empowering than surprising others.”

“There is power in surprising people with results.”

“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.” – Margot Lee Shetterly

“What would surprise a lot of people about me… I’m a gardener! I have a green thumb. I really like to get into the shrubs, the bushes, and really cultivate.” – Jeffrey Donovan

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

“Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.” – Che Guevara

“When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don’t be surprised if they learn their lesson.” – Will Rogers

“A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens.” – Robert Baden-Powell

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

“The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.” – Carl von Clausewitz

Surprise Visit Quotes

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“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.” – E.B. White

“Moments of happiness come with the unexpected.”

“Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Make the time that you have count.”

“Long distance is expensive!” – Dr. Seuss

“Live your life as if every hour you breathe is unexpected.”

“Like the hot air mobile home,” Klaus said, “that could travel and survive all by itself.”

“We should dwell on the positivity that comes as a surprise.”

“We should always be ready for the unexpected.”

“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.” – Marcel Ayme

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

“I’ve been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.” – Loretta Lynn

“I’m not making any plans. I’m just going to let the universe surprise me.” – John Cusack

“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.” – Joel Osteen

“God is mighty. God is caring. God is worthy of praise. God is loving. God is able. God is in control. Nothing takes God by surprise. Some sweet reminders to soak in before falling asleep tonight.” – Lysa TerKeurst

“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.” – Gary Paulsen

“Expecting nothing opens you up for many possibilities.”

“I was well warned about English food, so it did not surprise me, but I do wonder sometimes, how they ever manage to prise it up long enough to get a plate under it.” – Margaret Halsey

“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.” – Cheryl Strayed

“A laugh is a surprise. And all humor is physical. I was always athletic, so that came naturally to me.” – Chevy Chase

Unexpected Surprise Quotes

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“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!)” – Allan Ahlberg

“Nobody,” Violet said. “We’ll have to take care of ourselves. We’ll have to be self-sustaining.”

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” – Robert Frost

“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.” – Benjamin Hoff

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

“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.” – Paul Collins

“The exciting part of acting, I don’t know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself.” – Tom Cruise

“The ending is always a surprise.” – Daniel Wallace

“Being surprised should be far from the mind of a politician.”

“At the age of 19, you always think you are prepared for everything and you think you have the knowledge of what’s coming ahead.” – Princess Diana

“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.” – Louis De Bernières

“Art must take reality by surprise.” – Francoise Sagan

“Surprising oneself is the greatest form of surprise.”

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

“Which death is preferably to every other? ‘The unexpected’.” – Julius Caesar

“Nature is full for us of seeming inconsistencies and glad surprises.” – Margaret E. Barber

“Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.” – Julia Cameron

“Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“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.” – Philippa Pearce

“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.” – Judith Kerr

“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.” – T.H. White

“Practise wonder today – be present, begin again, know nothing, and allow everything to surprise you, inspire you, excite you, entertain you, teach you. Be fully open to life, today, and let yourself live wonderfully.” – Robert Holden

“Life is full of surprises.” – John Major

“Accepting surprise is a way of having a joyful life.”

“A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.” – Charles de Gaulle

“A surprise assault should be dealt with wit.”

“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.” – Arthur Ransome

“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.” – David McRobbie

“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.” – Dorothy Wall

“Best friends can also be full of surprises.” – Candace Bushnell

“Everybody keeps telling me how surprised they are with what I’ve done. But I’m telling you honestly that it doesn’t surprise me. I knew I could do it.” – Patrick Ewing

“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.” – Jan Mark

Pleasant Surprise Quotes

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“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.” – Virginia Lee Burton

“Surprises never end.”

“Surprises can have better outcomes than what you know.”

“Surprises are infinite.”

“Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.” – Jane Austen

“Surprise the best element of humor.”

“Surprise is one of the ways you find the person that is right for you.”

“Surprise can be a determinant of knowledge.”

“Surprise always goes two ways.”

“My people – before I was changed – they exchanged this as a sign of devotion. It’s a Claddagh ring. The hands represent friendship; the crown represents loyalty… and the heart… Well, you know… Wear it with the heart pointing towards you. It means you belong to somebody. Like this.” – Joss Whedon

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

“Life finds worth in surprises.”

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

“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.” – Gayle Forman

“It is still a surprise when people tell me that I’ve had an influence on them, particularly when it’s someone I really respect.” – Bonnie Raitt

“If you weren’t surprised by your life you wouldn’t be alive. Life is surprise.” – William S. Burroughs

“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. ” – Gabriel García Márquez

“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.” – Constance Heward

“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.” – Lois Lowry

“Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible.” – Stonewall Jackson

“If you train your mind to search for the positive things about other people, you will be surprised at how many good things you can observe in them and comment upon.” – Alan Loy McGinnis

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

“A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise.” – Joyce Carol Oates

“I’m awkward at these things. Just being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Karate Kid was a real surprise and I was a little uncomfortable.” – Pat Morita

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

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

In Conclusion

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If you don’t like surprises, we hope these beautiful and funny quotes have changed your view of them. From these quotes, it’s clear that shocks play a significant role in our lives. Don’t be afraid of surprises. Instead, embrace and harness them to get what you want out of life.

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