“Nothing is more surprising than the surprises of history, and nothing more untrustworthy than the uncritical extrapolation of the tendencies of the recent past.”

— Lancelot Law Whyte

Essay on Atomism: From Democritus to 1960 (1961), p.8

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Lancelot Law Whyte 62

Scottish industrial engineer 1896–1972

Charles Morgan (1894–1958) British writer

“History as inspiration and ideology has a built-in tendency to become self-justifying myth. Nothing is a more dangerous blindfold than this, as the history of modern nations and nationalisms demonstrates.”

Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) British academic historian and Marxist historiographer

Chap. 3 : What Can History Tell Us about Contemporary Society?
On History (1997)

“Human history is in truth nothing but the history of the slow, uncertain, and surprising fulfillment of the Promise.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928) Peruvian theologian

Source: A Theology of Liberation - 15th Anniversary Edition, Chapter Nine, Liberation And Salvation, p. 91-92

“In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.”

Alexander Smith (1829–1867) Scottish poet and essayist

"The Fear of Dying".
City Poems (1857)

“Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life that is more fun than a surprise party or surprise gift or surprise romance. In fact, prayer turns life into a party, into a gift, into a romance.”

Mark Batterson (1969) American pastor and writer

Source: Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge

“There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.”

Charles Baudelaire book Le Spleen de Paris

Il n'est pas de plaisir plus doux que de surprendre un homme en lui donnant plus qu'il n'espère.
XXVIII: "La Fausse Monnaie" http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Petits_Po%C3%A8mes_en_prose_-_XXVIII._La_Fausse_Monnaie
Le Spleen de Paris (1862)

“Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.”

Voltaire book L'Ingénu

En effet, l'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs.
L'Ingénu, ch.10 (1767)
Quoted in The End, part 13 of A Series of Unfortunate Events
Citas