Earnest Quotes - Page 11

• Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do.

  William James

  Truth, Honesty, Integrity

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• It’s a strange sort of attack, to be sure: a wonderfully pacific attack, a supportive attack, an attack without the slightest intention or capacity to cause harm, consisting, as it does, of the earnest wish of certain loving couples to join themselves to that very institution and thus to feel themselves, and be accepted as, full members of the American (and human) family.

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  Couple, Gay, Supportive

  "Distraction" by Hendrik Hertzberg, www.newyorker.com. June 19, 2006.

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• It is my earnest hope - indeed the hope of all mankind - that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Peace, Military, War

  Opening and Closing Statements at the Japanese Surrender Ceremony, delivered 2 September 1945, USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay, Japan

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• It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity, making an earnest attempt.

  Mikhail Baryshnikov

  Dance, Simplicity, Legs

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• The strongest wish of a vast number of earnest men and women to-day is for a basis of religious belief which shall rest, not upon tradition or external authority or historical evidence, but upon the ascertainable facts of human experience. The craving for immediacy, which we have seen to be characteristic of all mysticism, now takes the form of a desire to establish the validity of the God-consciousness as a normal part of the healthy inner life.

  William Ralph Inge

  Religious, Men, Numbers

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• It is by translating your fine sense of aspiration into actual lofty deeds that you grow toward your ideal. Link your lofty thoughts to earnest, active effort, and good results will inevitably follow. The great things you intend to do some time must have a beginning if they are ever to be done, so begin something worthwhile today.

  Grenville Kleiser

  Effort, Done, Links

  Grenville Kleiser (1917). “Inspiration and Ideals: Thoughts for Every Day”

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• The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field - the object is attained - and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.

  George Washington

  Wise, Religious, Freedom

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson (1784). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.249

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• We will stand by our friends and administer a stinging rebuke to men or parties who are either indifferent, negligent, or hostile, and, wherever opportunity affords, to secure the election of intelligent, honest, earnest trade unionists, with clear, unblemished, paid-up union cards in their possession.

  Samuel Gompers

  Party, Intelligent, Opportunity

  Samuel Gompers, John McBride, William Green (1906). “The American Federationist”

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• Our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered.

  Oswald Chambers

  Jesus, Prayer, Suffering

  Oswald Chambers (2013). “If You Will Ask: Reflections on the Power of Prayer”, p.15, Discovery House

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• True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Country, Spring, Patriotic

  Eleanor Roosevelt (1962). “Book of common sense etiquette”

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• I who all the Winter through,
  Cherished other loves than you
  And kept hands with hoary policy in marriage-bed and pew;
  Now I know the false and true,
  For the earnest sun looks through,
  And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Life, Winter, Hands

  Robert Louis Stevenson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated)”, p.3716, Delphi Classics

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• Instruction, and advice, and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel... Think not your children will practise what they do not see you do. You are their model picture, and they will copy what you are... will seldom learn habits which they see you despise, or walk in paths in which you do not walk yourself.

  J. C. Ryle

  Children, Believe, Learning

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• I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Senior, Learning

  'Walden' (1854) 'Economy'

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• Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Women, People, History

  Lynn Sherr, Susan B. Anthony (1995). “Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words”, Crown

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• Meditation is earnest prayer, and when prayer progresses, it becomes true meditation.

  Ilchi Lee

  Prayer, Meditation, Progress

  Ilchi Lee (2012). “The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart”, p.89, Simon and Schuster

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• Please don't take him away from this world. Please don't let him die here in my arms, not after everything we've been through together, not after You've taken so many others. Please, I beg You, let him live. I am willing to sacrifice anything to make this happen- I'm willing to do anything You ask. Maybe you'll laugh at me for such a naive promise, but I mean it in earnest, and I don't care if it makes no sense or seems impossible. Let him live. Please. I can't bear this a second time. Tell me there is still good in this world. Tell me there is still hope for all of us.

  Marie Lu

  Taken, Mean, Sacrifice

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• If we are in earnest about giving the Union energy and duration we must abandon the vain project of legislating upon the States in their collective capacities.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Giving, Energy

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.105

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• A sensational event was changing from the brown suit to the gray the contents of his pockets. He was earnest about these objects. They were of eternal importance, like baseball or the Republican Party.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Baseball, Party, Pockets

  Sinclair Lewis (2015). “Babbitt”, p.19, Penguin

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• When I look at him, I don't see the cowardly young man who sold me out to Jeanine Matthews, and i don't hear the excuses he gave afterward. When I look at him, I see the boy who held my hand in the hospital when our mother broke her wrist and told me it would be all right. I see the brother who told me to make my own choices, the night before the Choosing Ceremony. I think of all the remarkable things he is--smart and enthusiastic and observant, quiet and earnest and kind.

  Veronica Roth

  Mother, Brother, Smart

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• Never use an adverb to modify the verb 'said' . . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange.

  Elmore Leonard

  Writing, Verbs, Use

  "Elmore Leonard's rules for writer" by Elmore Leonard, www.theguardian.com. February 24, 2010.

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• With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things to let the love of our country soar above all minor passions, I tender you the assurance of my affectionate esteem and respect.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Love, Country, Prayer

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.597

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• Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, but people and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws.

  Thomas Huxley

  Education, Moving, Law

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1880). “On the Origin of Species; Or, The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature. A Course of Six Lectures ...”

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• There is ever a slight suspicion of the burlesque about earnest good men.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Truth, Honesty, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

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• How we shall earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk it, as is usually done.It is the most important and practical question which is put to man. Let us not answer it hastily. Let us not be content to get our bread in some gross, careless, and hasty manner. Some men go a-hunting, some a-fishing, some a-gaming, some to war; but none have so pleasant a time as they who in earnest seek to earn their bread.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, War, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Familiar Letters - The Writings of Henry David Thoreau”, p.101, Read Books Ltd

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• If I meet someone and discover that they're an absolute, very earnest nationalist, it's unlikely that I'm going to get much closer to them. I don't understand them. It doesn't matter where they're from, I just don't get it. I'm a multi-national kind of guy.

  William Gibson

  Guy, Matter, Kind

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. August 22, 2007.

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