“History is merely a list of surprises,' I said. 'It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down.”

“I addressed the scribes directing, speaking over his head. "History is merely a list of surprises," I said. "It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down.”

“Because' I repeated, as a breeze blew over us, "sometimes things just happen. That aren't expected. Or on the list." "Such as?" he asked"I don't know," I said, frustrated. "That's the point. It would be out of the blue, taking us by surprise. Something we might not be prepared for.""But we will be prepared," he said, confused. "We'll have the list.”

“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.”

“The challenge for all of us in this day and age is to distinguish between the merely surprising and the truly amazing.”