Dumbstruck Quotes & Sayings

Eloquence in public assemblies is not the surest road to fame and preferment, at least unless it be used with great caution, very rarely, and with great reserve. — John Adams

My songs can make you cry, take you by surprise at the same time, can make you dry your eyes with the same rhyme — Eminem

What's success? Having lots of money? No, this is part of the practicalities of life. It is not success. Success is having two daughters who grow into fine ladies, two boys who grow into fine gentlemen. Success is waking up next to the loved one dumbstruck at your luck of meeting them. — Carol Vorvain

Hey, Tate. Do you just screw in the locker room or do you do blowjobs as well?" Hannah Forrest, queen bee of the mean girls, shouted to my back while I walked to Calculus. Her drones laughed with her. I spun around to face them and held my hand to my heart. "And steal all of your business?" I took the time to enjoy their dumbstruck looks before I twisted on my heel and headed to class. — Penelope Douglas

After I pull my eyes away from her, I realize that I'm not the only one dumbstruck. Many of the young men around me sneak glances at her. She doesn't seem to notice, which, of course, makes her all the more intriguing. — Sabaa Tahir

All things which greatly hurt me greatly teach me — Karen Salmansohn

I should have realized, when Cathal kissed me in the hallway, that my response was the first raindrop heralding a storm. — Juliet Marillier

As one sits here in summertime and listens to the cuckoo and all the other bird songs, the crackling and buzzing of insects, as one gazes at the shining colors of flowers, doth one become dumbstruck before the Kingdom of the Creator. — Carl Linnaeus

The boy was silent as we went. Unsurprising, this - he had seldom left London in his life before. I guessed him to be gazing about in dumbstruck admiration.
"What an appalling place," he [Nathaniel] said. - Bartimaeus — Jonathan Stroud

Against such a background one can easily imagine the shock that must have gripped readers of The Times of London, who turned to their paper one morning in January 1882 and found a lengthy report on a parliamentary speech by the attorney general concluding with the unexpectedly forthright statement: "The speaker then said he felt inclined for a bit of fucking." Not surprisingly, it caused a sensation. The executives of The Times were so dumbstruck by this outrage against common decency that four full days passed before they could bring themselves to acknowledge the offense. — Anonymous

That was the thing about Ben. He could get away with saying shit like that. I totally couldn't. I wasn't big or masculine enough. In my mind, anyway. But Ben could get all agape on your ass, and you'd just sit there like, huh. Agape. Interesting. — Bill Konigsberg

Jocelyn was dumbstruck. She couldn't think of a single thing
she'd done that might give that impression. "I don't. — Karen Joy Fowler

I grew up hardcore. I learned to be more responsible - and fiscally responsible - you know, I just wanna be a kid again! Do a musical, have tons of time or something. — Lee Daniels

Another lesson is that smart professionals might give an instruction to a program based on a sensible-seeming and normally sound assumption (e.g. that trading volume is a good measure of market liquidity), and that this can produce catastrophic results when the program continues to act on the instruction with iron-clad logical consistency even in the unanticipated situation where the assumption turns out to be invalid. The algorithm just does what it does; and unless it is a very special kind of algorithm, it does not care that we clasp our heads and gasp in dumbstruck horror at the absurd inappropriateness of its actions. This is a theme that we will encounter again. — Nick Bostrom

He smiles and takes his index finger and presses it to my lips, leaves it there until my heart lands on Jupiter: three seconds, then removes it, and heads back into the living room. Whoa - well, that was either the dorkiest or sexiest moment of my life, and I'm voting for sexy on account of my standing here dumbstruck and giddy, wondering if he did kiss me after all. — Jandy Nelson

The whole idea of boys being people you would actually choose to spend time with was pretty much totally incomprehensible to me. i could never think of anything to say to them, and they seemed equally dumbstruck by my presence. — Ellen Wittlinger

[M]ere knowledge of the truth will not give you the art of persuasion. — Plato

It was possible to be struck dumb by all sorts of emotions, not only surprise, and as they drove back toward Pittsford, Amina thought that there ought to be a whole set of words to encompass all those different varieties of silence. — Nell Freudenberger

Law looked dumbstruck, almost angry. He breathed, "Son of a bitch." And to Tom's surprise, Law got down on one knee and took his hand. "Tom, you beloved bastard, I love you. I need you in my life forever. I cannot imagine existence without you. Will you-God please say yes-grant me the honor and the privilege and save my life and marry me? — Jez Morrow

Russell didn't reply. He was dumbstruck by — David Downing

Justin, please, you're annoying the nice man."
Justin blinked at the dumbstruck object of his attention as the breeze puffed a lock of shiny dark hair across the man's brow. "Nice man, please tell me your name so I know who to dream about tonight. — Jet Mykles

SECRETS ARE LIES SHARING IS CARING PRIVACY IS THEFT — Dave Eggers

This is a crucial job of being an organizer. You leave a dark basement and try to explain to people in the sunshine what it's like to live down there. I've learned this is best done by bringing these different groups of people together. Those with extra money discover how much more satisfying it is to see talent and fairness grow then to see objects accumulate. Those without money learn the valuable lesson that money doesn't cure all woes. Instead, it may actually insulate and isolate. — Gloria Steinem

I'm gonna give one of 'em my virginity one day." She preened. I was momentarily dumbstruck. I couldn't begin to enumerate all the things that were appalling about that possibility. "We so have to talk," I finally managed. — Karen Marie Moning

The worst thing about cynicism is its truth. — Ethel Mumford

I stare at her, as dumbstruck as if she'd just admitted she's a Scientologist with an invitation to join Tom and Katie on the spaceship when it shows up. — Meg Cabot

Waldo was not alone by any means in trembling over an unjust plight. With the recent uproar over drunk driving, arrests had skyrocketed and detention centers all around the country were overflowing with bewildered motorists. Many of these dumbstruck, inebriated souls had been transferred and thoughtfully placed behind the same bars that held back murderers and rapists. Unfortunately for our heroes, they now joined the ranks of these luckless citizens. — Donald Jeffries

Fifty years ago, people went without clothes in order to eat. Today, people gladly go without food in order to buy clothes. And they do it again to fit inside them! — Sinclair Dumontais

When Dr. King was murdered, I had no idea who he was. But as soon as I heard his words on television that night when I was 9 years old, I was dumbstruck, awestruck by their power. — Michael Eric Dyson

The man who can speak acceptably is usually given credit for an ability out of all proportion to what he really possesses. — Lowell Thomas

We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen. — Kodo Sawaki

For me, one of the most disturbing elements of the right wing's political agenda is that it believes that there is one correct spiritual and moral path for all people to follow. The danger inherent in this is its explicit refusal to accept anyone who happens to lead a different lifestyle, and the condemnation of those who differ. — Barbra Streisand

Nonbelievers like myself stand beside you, dumbstruck by the Muslim hordes who chant death to whole nations of the living. But we stand dumbstruck by you as well
by your denial of tangible reality, by the suffering you create in service to your religious myths, and by your attachment to an imaginary God. — Sam Harris

Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die. — John Green

Julia was a physically affectionate person and had always been. She had always loved the warmth and vibrancy of skin and for some reason; Julia couldn't take her eyes off his neck. It was thick with muscle and looked vital, and very delicious. In her momentarily dumbstruck state she wanted nothing else but to touch, oh she wanted to lay both her hands there, on his skin right above the crew neckline of his tee. She wanted to touch it with her fingers and feel it throbbing with life. She wanted it, yearned for it, more than she wanted to take her next breath. His other hand touched her elbow and sanity returned to her in degrees. She shook her head, dislodging the uncharacteristic vampiric tendency and tried to extricate herself from his confining arms. — Anonymous

You can see desperation in people who are too eager to laugh because they're in such a hurry not to look at what's confronting them in their lives and that's kind of sad because there's a kind of pornographic aspect to it, of making some sort of pain go away, of hovering around a pain, making yourself numb, not feel anything. — Dylan Moran

Standing before costly objects of technological beauty, we may be tempted to reject the possibility of awe, for fear that we could grow stupid through admiration. We may feel at risk of becoming overimpressed by architecture and engineering, of being dumbstruck by the Bombardier trains that progress driverlessly between satellites or by the General Electric GE90 engines that hang lightly off the composite wings of a Boeing 777 bound for Seoul. And yet to refuse to be awed at all might in the end be merely another kind of foolishness. — Alain De Botton

He was halfway to the house, thinking to set the cabbage inside the kitchen door,when a brown blur thundered past him.
Joanna Robbins tore out of the barn astride a magnificent chestnut quarter horse. She leaned forward in the saddle,hat flopping against her back, hair streaming out behind her in a wild curly mass as she urged her mount to a full-out gallop. Unable to do anything but stare, Crockett stood dumbstruck as she raced past.
She was the most amazing horsewoman he'd ever seen. Joanna Robbins. The shy creature who claimed painting and reading were her favorite pastimes had just bolted across the yard like a seasoned jockey atop Thoroughbred. She might have inherited her mother's grace and manners, but the woman rode like her outlaw father.Maybe better. — Karen Witemeyer

Sarah's father's shoulders began to shake. Tears poured down his cheeks. He took first one hand, and then the other, off the steering wheel to mop his eyes. He drove, weeping and groaning, at 140 kilometres an hour. Sarah's mother would not look at him. Sarah and Saffron stared, dumbstruck. Then it gradually dawned on them that he was laughing. — Hilary McKay