Surface Quotes

“It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice. But the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped

“I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not want to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take. Forgive me, O Gracious One; for I have been closing my ears and eyes for too long. I have learned that miracles are only called miracles because they are often witnessed by only those who can can see through all of life's illusions. I am ready to see what really exists on other side, what exists behind the blinds, and taste all the ugly fruit instead of all that looks right, plump and ripe.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“He was like one of those pictures full of small errors, the kind you could only pick out by searching the image from every angle, and even then, a few always slipped by. On the surface, Eli seemed perfectly normal, but now and then Victor would catch a crack, a sideways glance, a moment when his roommate's face and his words, his look and his meaning, would not line up. Those fleeting slices fascinated Victor. It was like watching two people, one hiding in the other's skin. And their skin was always too dry, on the verge of cracking and showing the color of the thing beneath.”
― Victoria Schwab, Vicious

“The desert and the ocean are realms of desolation on the surface.

The desert is a place of bones, where the innards are turned out, to desiccate into dust.

The ocean is a place of skin, rich outer membranes hiding thick juicy insides, laden with the soup of being.

Inside out and outside in. These are worlds of things that implode or explode, and the only catalyst that determines the direction of eco-movement is the balance of water.

Both worlds are deceptive, dangerous. Both, seething with hidden life.

The only veil that stands between perception of what is underneath the desolate surface is your courage.

Dare to breach the surface and sink.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“She thought of Aziza's stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.”
― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

“As people like sharing pieces of their history, let us listen to how they speak, what they say, but precisely what they “mean.” By diving under the surface of their words and following the sound of their intonation, we can get to the bones of their story and, at the same time, a better understanding of oneself. ("Everybody his story" )”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“You never know what lurks just beneath the surface of my fragile sanity.”
― Ashly Lorenzana

“I can be an arrogant people If I have to,
or when the situation demands me to act so.
It is one way for me to make arrogance useful.
So if I know not people well, I don't judge them.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“People won't admit it, they're too busy grabbing to see that the lights have fused. They can't see the darkness and the spider-face beyond and the great web of it all. That there's always this if you scratch at the surface of happiness and goodness.
The black and the black and the black.”
― John Fowles, The Collector

“A man does not try to find out what is inside.
He does not try to scratch the surface.
If he did he might find something much more beautiful than the shape of a nose or the color of an eye.”
― Hedy Lamarr

“This was the geography around which my reality revolved: it did not occur to me, ever, that people were good or that a man was capable of change or that the world could be a better place through one’s taking pleasure in a feeling or a look or a gesture, of receiving another person’s love or kindness. Nothing was affirmative, the term “generosity of spirit” applied to nothing, was a cliche, was some kind of bad joke. Sex is mathematics. Individuality no longer an issue. What does intelligence signify? Define reason. Desire—meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead. Fear, recrimination, innocence, sympathy, guilt, waste, failure, grief, were things, emotions, that no one really felt anymore. Reflection is useless, the world is senseless. Evil is its only permanence. God is not alive. Love cannot be trusted. Surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in … this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jagged …”
― Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho

“i am not what i seem
look past my surface and
you might scream”
― Anastasia wild

“Deep in the vagrant waters
I fail to recognize
my own image.
but out of the piecemeal
surface, too
how could you come
intact, and whole ?”
― Geeta Tripathee, Nrishamsa Parkhalharu

“Look beneath the surface. Things are usually very different from how they initially appeared, and ignorance, which didn't look beneath the surface, turns to disillusion when it penetrates to the interior. Falsehood always arrives first; it drags along fools with their endless vulgarity. Truth always arrives last, and late, limping along with Time.”
― Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom

“Sometimes he would think of those moments and feel a sort of disorientation: Was that them, really, those people back then? Where had those people gone? Would they reappear? Or were they now other people entirely? And then he would imagine that those people weren't so much gone as they were within them, waiting to bob back up to the surface, to reclaim their bodies and minds; they were identities now in remission, but they would always be with them.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Architecture’s most kissable aspect is its surface. Space is hard to get a hold on. Structure has historically been inadequately pliant. Geometry—well, who really wants to kiss a square? Architecture also has more surface and more kinds of surface than anything else: outside, inside, soft and hard, there’s a surface for everyone. Finally, surfaces are where architecture gets close to turning into something else and therefore exactly where it becomes vulnerable and full of potential.”
― Sylvia Lavin, Kissing Architecture

“Long since, the standard way of understanding surface has been as an abstract and undifferentiated plane that functions above all to veil or delimit a depth. From the face that mirrors the soul, to the magic writing tablet that reveals subconscious drives, the surface, any surface, all surfaces, have been considered worthy of attention insofar as they are the top layer, the outermost skin, the merely visible envelope of more particularized and specific under or inner depths.”
― Sylvia Lavin, Kissing Architecture

“There were natural electrical currents running through the surface of the Earth until electrical utilities short circuited them with electrical ground rods.”
― Steven Magee

“But now, discontinuity ruled. Yesterday meant nothing and could not help you build tomorrow. Life had become a series of vanishing photographs, posted every day, gone the next. One had no story anymore. Character, narrative, history, were all dead. Only the flat caricature of the instant remained, and that was what one was judged by. To have lived long enough to witness the replacement of the depth of her chosen world's culture by its surfaces was a sad thing.”
― Salman Rushdie, Quichotte

“Don’t undermine your self-confidence by comparing your path to those who move quickly because they travel on the surface. Each person is unique and requires a special place in the world.”
― Collette O'Mahony, In Quest of Love: A Guide to Inner Harmony and Wellbeing in Relationships

“Everything that ever was always will be and is always present to discover if you have the will to look beyond surface appearances.”
― Clifford Thurlow, Operation Jihadi Bride: My Covert Mission to Rescue Young Women from ISIS - The Incredible True Story

“Distribution of weight is preferable to balancing everything on the head of a pin.”
― Psixaristw

“If my vision comes to a halt at the surface of a thing, I have missed the whole of the thing.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“It is well known that humans cannot survive long term in any environment that is not on the surface of planet Earth.”
― Steven Magee

“I believe that beauty is something that can be felt, inasmuch as it can be seen deep below sight's surface, the supernatural way those who are pure in heart, can divinely touch their dreams.”
― Dr. Tracey Bond

“Bodies that drown in warm and shallow water usually surface within a few days.”
― Steven Magee

“Bodies that drown in deep water may never surface.”
― Steven Magee

“The surface world may be as much a myth to the subterraneans as the underworld is to us.”
― Priscilla Vogelbacher, Testament of the Hollow

“If you draw the full length of the blade through the fish in one gentle sweep, the resulting cross section is smooth and the cells are cleanly cut.
But if you force the blade down on the fish to cut it, the cross section becomes ragged and the cells are squashed.
If the surface of the slice is rough, more of the fish is exposed to air, and so it oxidizes faster and its flavor deteriorates.
This becomes even more apparent with water-chilled sashimi. The ragged surface of the slices allows the water to penetrate the fish and leech out its flavor."
"That's why the sashimi becomes watery and tasteless.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Japanese Cuisine