“There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.”
Source: The Charioteer
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Mary Renault 31
English novelist 1905–1983Related quotes

“Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked.”
Not Browning, but a misquotation from Pearl Buck's China, Past and Present: "Ah well, perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked".
Misattributed

"More Noise Than Funk", The New Republic (3/4/1996) - review of the George C. Wolfe / Savion Glover musical production Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk at the Public Theatre in New York

Source: The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers. Vol. 1, 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

“Ah well, perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked.”
China, Past and Present (1972) Ch. 6

“One can have only as much preparation as he has foresight.”
Source: Changes