Earnest quotes:

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Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business. -- Winston Churchill
The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. -- Henry David Thoreau
Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences. -- Marcus Garvey
My chief concern is to try to be an humble, earnest Christian. -- Robert E. Lee
I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest. -- Oscar Wilde
This man is frank and earnest with women. In Fresno, he's Frank and in Chicago he's Ernest. -- Henny Youngman
Have you noticed that whatever sport you're trying to learn, some earnest person is always telling you to keep your knees bent? -- Dave Barry
I will be as harsh as truth, and uncompromising as justice... I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard. -- William Lloyd Garrison
That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head. -- Charlie Chaplin
Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest. -- Charles Dickens
It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today. -- Barack Obama
Earnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts may be errors. -- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
The Importance of Being Earnest' is important, but it says nothing about anything. -- Tom Stoppard
I started doing regional theater. My first job was 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at Dallas Theater Center. -- Anna Camp
The first professional play I ever saw was The Importance Of Being Earnest, and I just fell in love. -- Kim Cattrall
Earnest people are often people who habitually look on the serious side of things that have no serious side. -- Van Wyck Brooks
I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term. -- Randy Pausch
True freedom is to share All the chains our brothers wear, And, with heart and hand, to be Earnest to make others free! -- James Russell Lowell
I've seen the most remarkable thing. It's in the New York Public Library. They've got the original typescript of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' - all four acts of it. -- Peter Shaffer
Earnest is our dog. She senses instantly that something is wrong, and guided by that timeless and unerring nurturing instinct that all female dogs have, she tries to lick my ears off. -- Dave Barry
I would love to do a western. I would love to play an explorer. That is always something that has really captured my imagination since I was a kid, like James Cook or Magellan or Earnest Shackleton. -- John C. Reilly
Earnest Freethinkers need not worry themselves so much about the persecutions of the past . Before the Liberal idea is dead or triumphant we shall see wars and persecutions the like of which the world has never seen. -- Gilbert K. Chesterton
Earnest in practicing the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them, if, in his practice, he has anything defective, the superior man dares not but exert himself; and if, in his words, he has any excess, he dares not allow himself such license. -- Confucius
My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers - it's what my children call my 'dead author wall.' I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few. -- Debbie Macomber
My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers - it's what my children call my 'dead author wall.' I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few." -- Debbie Macomber
I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
By definition, I believe I am unapologetically optimistic and I am unapologetically earnest. -- Emilio Estevez
It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest. -- Chuck Berry
It is a fine thing to see people in hot earnest about anything. -- John Muir
When he speaks to you he speaks with an earnest vibe and an earnest energy. -- Dwayne Johnson
What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth. -- Benjamin Disraeli
I feel an earnest and humble desire, and shall do till I die, to increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness. -- Charles Dickens
Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The dangers which threaten us are twofold: First, from the Confederate forces, composed of men whose earnest convictions and reckless bravery it is idle to deny. -- Robert Dale Owen
I know of no greater work for humanity than in the cause of peace, which can only be achieved by the earnest efforts of nations and peoples. -- Frank B. Kellogg
I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - and I will be heard! -- William Lloyd Garrison
I don't know why, but audiences are often sympathetic to thieves. Sometimes they are more sympathetic to thieves then they are to earnest people. What does that say about society? -- Matt Dillon
To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view. -- James Whistler
My most earnest prayer is that every man and every woman will get it into his or her heart that they are in very deed the architects of their lives. -- Heber J. Grant
The Lord's appearing, His coming back, is a warning, an encouragement, and an incentive to us; we should love His appearing and look forward to it with earnest expectation and joy. -- Witness Lee
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed. -- Jean Anouilh
You can't get there alone. People have to help you, and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth, by being earnest. -- Randy Pausch
It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man -- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong. -- Walter Bagehot
There has not been a war in South America for fifty years, and I have every confidence that the countries of Central and South America are deeply in earnest in the maintenance of peace. -- Frank B. Kellogg
If we don't make earnest moves toward real solutions, then each day we move one day closer to revolution and anarchy in this country. This is the sad, and yet potentially joyous, state of America. -- Louis Farrakhan
To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow. -- Georg C. Lichtenberg
I think the word 'earnest' kind of has a negative connotation on some level. I think one of the things that's happened is that being cynical is somehow conflated with being sophisticated. I think that's problematic, to say the least. -- Josh Radnor
In the matter of learning, the difference between the earnest and the careless student stands out clearly. The same holds true in the mastering of passion and the weaknesses to which our nature is subject, as in the acquiring of virtue. -- Saint Ignatius
In God's world, for those who are in earnest, there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain (as long as it was done out of love, not personal glory) -- Frederick William Robertson
My most earnest of all pleas to singles is abandonment of the self, surrender to Christ of all unfulfilled longings, an unequivocal willingness to receive whatever God assigns, and a determination to practice the sacrificial principle of Isaiah 58:10-11. Life becomes not only far simpler, but surprisingly joyful and free. -- Elisabeth Elliot
A youth, when at home, should be filial and, abroad, respectful to his elders. He should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow in love to all and cultivate the friendship of the good. When he has time and opportunity, after the performance of these things, he should employ them in polite studies. -- Confucius
Laurence Olivier said in an interview once that when he plays a tragedy he always aims for the funny parts, and the other way around. Because in a comedy you look for what's serious. I think that's true. Sometimes things are really funny if you're absolutely earnest. If you're really serious, it's hilarious. -- Christopher Walken
There are two men in Tolstoy. He is a mystic and he is also a realist. He is addicted to the practice of a pietism that for all its sincerity is nothing if not vague and sentimental; and he is the most acute and dispassionate of observers, the most profound and earnest student of character and emotion. -- William Ernest Henley
Life is earnest, art is gay. -- Friedrich Schiller
It would be terribly boring to be earnest. -- Adrien Brody
At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest. -- Samuel Johnson
The hope of all earnest souls must be realized. -- John Greenleaf Whittier
Prayer is an earnest and familiar talking with God. -- John Knox
Leave jesting whiles it pleaseth, lest it turne to earnest. -- George Herbert
About my career I was serious and earnest, sometimes impatient. -- Gene Tierney
Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. -- Herman Melville
A word in earnest is as good as a speech. -- Charles Dickens
We hunger in earnest for that which we cannot consume. -- Nenia Campbell
It's so easy in these cabaret venues to get earnest. -- Ana Gasteyer
The universe does not jest with us, but is in earnest. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
History - a biography of a few stout and earnest persons -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Joking decides great things, Stronger and better oft than earnest can. -- John Milton
Be an earnest student of yourself. Study your leading desires and tendencies. -- Grenville Kleiser
Importunate praying is the earnest inward movement of the heart toward God. -- Edward McKendree Bounds
The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. -- Annie Dillard
Meditation is earnest prayer, and when prayer progresses, it becomes true meditation. -- Ilchi Lee
This world is given as the prize for the man in earnest. -- Frederick William Robertson
What Is Mathematics? This question, if asked in earnest, has no answer. -- Salomon Bochner
May your convictions be deep, your love real, and your desires earnest -- Charles Spurgeon
Deemest thou laborOnly is earnest?Grave is all beauty,Solemn is joy. -- William Watson
We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us. -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What is amusing now had to be taken in desperate earnest once. -- Virginia Woolf
Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do. -- William James
Actually," Alan said, earnest and clear-eyed, "this is my first time playing poker. -- Sarah Rees Brennan
There are no perfect answers. The earnest search is all we can expect. -- Pietro Belluschi
A man in earnest finds means or, if he cannot find, creates them. -- William Ellery Channing
The superior man is slow in his words and earnest in his conduct. -- Confucius
There is ever a slight suspicion of the burlesque about earnest good men. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think I'm much too earnest to be as cool as 'Boyd Crowder'. -- Walton Goggins
All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh. -- Reinhold Niebuhr
Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves. -- William Hazlitt
The world's people all share the earnest aspiration to have peace, stability, justice and cooperation. -- Tran Duc Luong
The world's people all share the earnest aspiration to have peace, stability, justice and cooperation. -- Tran Duc Luong
TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person. -- Daniel Quinn
You see so many earnest characters in movies all the time, everyone has a purpose. -- Joaquin Phoenix
He was one of those earnest, persevering dancers--the kind that have taken twelve correspondence lessons. -- P. G. Wodehouse
Every dream is a prophecy: every jest is an earnest in the womb of Time. -- George Bernard Shaw
If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest. -- Plautus
We are always on stage, even when we are stabbed in earnest at the end -- Georg Buchner
The boys throw rocks at the frogs in jest. But the frogs die in earnest. -- Bion of Borysthenes
Education in the understanding of citizenship is a short-term affair if we are honest and earnest. -- Mahatma Gandhi
The weirdest thing in the world is to see some guy who is just super earnest. -- Johnny Depp
I wasn't a hippie and I wasn't even a bohemian. I was extremely earnest and serious. -- Jane Fonda
Much earnest philosphical thought is born of the life which springs from close association with nature. -- Laura Gilpin
Here's a confession: I hate parenting books. I hate the ones that are earnest and repetitive. -- Bruce Feiler
Speak not injurious words, neither in jest nor earnest. Scoff at none though they give occasion. -- George Washington
For men in earnest have no time to waste In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth. -- James Russell Lowell
You're so earnest about morality that I hate to think how essentially immoral you must be underneath. -- Sinclair Lewis
Good intentions and earnest effort are not enough. Only Jesus can make an otherwise futile life productive. -- Charles R. Swindoll
Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world's a sage. -- Marshall McLuhan
All honor to the noble women that have devoted earnest lives to the intellectual needs of mankind! -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it. -- Don DeLillo
No-one wants to hear anything spoken in earnest anymore, unless it happens to involve unrequited, teenage love. -- Colin Meloy
Tall oaks branch charmed by the earnest stars Dream and so dream all night without a stir. -- John Keats
The trouble with men of sense is that they are so dreadfully in earnest all the while. -- Christian Nestell Bovee
Since the civil war in Laos was resumed in earnest in 1963, American participation has been veiled in secrecy. -- Noam Chomsky
Taking fun as simply fun and earnestness in earnest shows how thoroughly thou none of the two discernest. -- Piet Pieterszoon Hein
There's a tradition in American fiction that is deadly serious and earnest - like the Steinbeckian social novel. -- John Hodgman
It is always interesting to see people in dead earnest, from whatever cause, and earthquakes make everybody earnest. -- John Muir
Mr. Gilbert had the earnest mania for self-improvement which has blighted the lives of so many young men. -- Christopher Morley
Jesus Christ opposed with earnest eloquence the panic fears and hateful superstitions which have enslaved mankind for ages. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that thou wilt keep the United States in thy holy protection... -- George Washington
Our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered. -- Oswald Chambers

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