Wit is an unexpected explosion of thought. [ Whipple ]

Good unexpected, evil unforeseen,
Appear by turns, as fortune shifts the scene;
Some rais'd aloft, come tumbling down amain
And fall so hard, they bound and rise again. [ Lord Lansdowne ]

Unexpected kindnesses or injuries make great impression. [ Proverb ]

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. [ Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband ]

To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit? [ Goldsmith ]

Poverty treads close upon the heels of great and unexpected wealth. [ Rivarol ]

Good and evil come unexpected to man; even if foretold, we believe it not. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Susceptible persons are more affected by a change of tone than by unexpected words. [ George Eliot ]

The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights. [ Samuel Johnson ]

If the profession you have chosen has some unexpected inconveniences, console yourself by reflecting that no profession is without them. [ Johnson ]

The chance meeting, the unplanned outing, and the unexpected diversion that so often come unsought in the passing days, afford the common channels of happiness. [ Henry D. Chapin ]

Whatever professes to benefit by pleasing must please at once. The pleasures of the mind imply something sudden and unexpected; that which elevates must always surprise. [ Dr. Johnson ]

When Anaxagoras was told of the death of his son, he only said, I knew he was mortal. So we in all casualties of life should say I knew my riches were uncertain, that my friend was but a man. Such considerations would soon pacify us, because all our troubles proceed from their being unexpected. [ Plutarch ]