“What surprises you in life? The marvel of consciousness -- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being.”

—  Vladimir Nabokov

Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What surprises you in life? The marvel of consciousness -- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amids…" by Vladimir Nabokov?
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Vladimir Nabokov 193
Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor 1899–1977

Related quotes

Isabel Allende photo

“Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape…. For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

“Landscape, at its best, is not a narrow category. It is a source of surprise. It allows for the sudden assertion of a place, like an unexpected time signature within a melody.”

An-My Lê (1960) American photographer

Interview with the Art Newspaper (August 13, 2020)

Ernest Flagg photo

“Many women do not like to sleep on the ground floor, being afraid to leave their windows open at night. With ridge-dormers standing open, the lower windows may be kept closed and locked, while the room will be perfectly ventilated without them.”

Ernest Flagg (1857–1947) American architect

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Daniel Kash photo

“I promised myself in life that I would not stop myself from being surprised and you never know what’s going to surprise you. Some things that seem dull turn out to be the most interesting things so I just open doors and say let’s do it!”

Daniel Kash (1959) Canadian actor

Daniel Kash Interview https://entertainment-focus.com/2013/06/17/daniel-kash-interview/ (June 17, 2013)

Henry Moore photo

“I find myself lined up with the surrealists because Surrealism means freedom for the creative side of man, for surprise & discovery & life, for an opening out & widening of mans consciousness, for changing life & against conserving worn out traditions, for variety not a uniformity, for opening not closing.”

Henry Moore (1898–1986) English artist

Source: 1925 - 1940, Unpublished notes' for 'The Sculptor Speaks' (1937), p. 123

Gottfried Leibniz photo

“This miracle of analysis, this marvel of the world of ideas, an almost amphibian object between Being and Non-being that we call the imaginary number.”

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) German mathematician and philosopher

Ce miracle de l'Analyse, prodige du monde des idées, objet presque amphibie entre l'Être et le Non-être, que nous appelons racine imaginaire.
Quoted in Singularités : individus et relations dans le système de Leibniz (2003) by Christiane Frémont

Ernest Hemingway photo

“we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Variant: Where we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright. That was where we could go.
Source: A Moveable Feast

David Levithan photo

“.

I spent all this time building a relationship. Then one night I left the window open and it started to rust.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Elizabeth von Arnim photo

“He had the effect on her of a window being thrown open and fresh air and sunlight being let in”

Elizabeth von Arnim book Vera

Source: Vera

Related topics