Solemn Quotes - Page 11

• The gay will laugh When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care Plod on, and each one as before will chase His favourite phantom; yet all these shall leave Their mirth and their employments, and shall come, And make their bed with thee.

  William C. Bryant

  Art, Gay, Laughing

  William Cullen Bryant, “Thanatopsis”

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• Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity.

  Olusegun Obasanjo

  People, Humanity, Energy

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• A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one.

  Queen Victoria

  Love, Marriage, Amusement

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• To sit in solemn silence on a dull, dark dock in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Block, Dark, Long

  The Mikado act 1 (1885)

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• Have not Manet and Monet, Cézanne and Matisse, rendered to painting something of the same service which Keats and Shelley gave to poetry after the solemn and ceremonious literary perfections of the eighteenth century? They have brought back to the pictorial art a new draught of joie de vivre; and the beauty of their work is instinct with gaiety, and floats in sparkling air. I do not expect these masters would particularly appreciate my defence, but I must avow an increasing attraction to their work.

  Winston Churchill

  Art, Air, Appreciate

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• Too many people confuse being serious with being solemn.

  John Cleese

  People, Serious

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• Real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.... The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.

  Jane Austen

  Kings, Real, War

  'Northanger Abbey' (1818) ch. 14 (Catherine Morland)

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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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• He types his labored column - weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn these dry leaves of his autumn.

  Robertson Davies

  Autumn, Editors, Fudge

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• There is a beautiful spirit breathing now Its mellowed richness on the clustered trees, And, from a beaker full of richest dyes, Pouring new glory on the autumn woods, And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds. Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird, Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned, And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved, Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits down By the wayside a-weary.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Beautiful, Summer, Sweet

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.70, Delphi Classics

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• Golf is not sacred, and there is no use getting so gosh-darned solemn about it.

  Don Herold

  Golf, Use, Sacred

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• No higher duty, or more solemn responsibility, rests upon this Court than that of translating into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately planned and inscribed for the benefit of every human being subject to our Constitution - of whatever race, creed or persuasion.

  Hugo Black

  Life, Responsibility, Race

  "Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227". Writing for the court, 1940.

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• The citizens of America have too much discernment to be argued into anarchy. And I am much mistaken, if experience has not wrought a deep and solemn conviction in the public mind, that greater energy of government is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the community

  Alexander Hamilton

  America, Government, Community

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2014). “The Federalist Papers”, p.121, Courier Corporation

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• Oh, Wax has always been solemn, but when he's at his best, there's a smirk underneath.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Smirk

  Brandon Sanderson (2011). “The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel”, p.175, Macmillan

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• It's much easier to write a solemn book than a funny book. It's harder to make people laugh than it is to make them cry. People are always on the verge of tears.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Book, Writing, People

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• We catched fish, and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed, only a kind of low chuckle. We had mighty good weather, as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all, that night, nor the next, nor the next.

  Mark Twain

  Stars, Night, Drifting Off

  Mark Twain (2010). “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The Only Authoritative Text Based on the Complete, Original Manuscript”, p.78, Univ of California Press

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• Yes, this life is passing swiftly; our days
  seem to fade quickly; and
  death appears frightening at times.
  Nevertheless, our spirit will continue
  to live and will one day be united with
  our resurrected body to receive immortal glory. I bear solemn witness
  that because of the merciful Christ,
  we will all live again and forever.

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  Forever, One Day, Body

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• Death is a solemn event for everyone. It is the winding up of all earthly plans and expectations. It is a separation from all we have loved and lived with. It is often accompanied by much bodily pain and distress. It opens the door to judgement and eternity - to heaven or to hell. It is an event after which there is no change, or space for repentance.

  J. C. Ryle

  Pain, Doors, Space

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• We have to have an aggressive, long-term plan to tackle our nation’s debt, but attempting to balance the budget on the backs of veterans who have risked life and limb in service of our country is unacceptable. I believe we can and should work together to find reasonable and common-sense cuts that will reduce our debt, but as a generation of warriors returns from two wars, our most solemn responsibility is to make sure they have the care and benefits they have earned.

  Tim Walz

  Country, War, Believe

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• Comfort me by a solemn Assurance, that when the little Parlour in which I sit at this Instant, shall be reduced to a worse furnished Box, I shall be read, with Honour, by those who never knew nor saw me, and whom I shall neither know nor see.

  Tom Jones

  Comfort, Littles, Saws

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• But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn't know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly.

  C. S. Lewis

  Spiritual, Children, Eye

  C. S. LEWIS (1950). “THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE”

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• In the evening, I walked alone down to the Lake by the side of Crow Park after sunset and saw the solemn coloring of night draw on, the last gleam of sunshine fading away on the hilltops, the seep serene of the asters, and the long shadows of the mountains thrown across them, till they nearly touched the hithermost shore. At distance hear the murmur of many waterfalls not audible in the day-time. Wished for the moon, but she was dark to me and silent, hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

  Thomas Gray

  Distance, Sunset, Dark

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• My friends, history, history calls us to this time and to this place. A solemn choice rests with us - where do we go from here? Do we move slowly and incrementally? Or do we seize the challenge of our time and tackle the great issues of our day.

  Tom Vilsack

  Friends, Moving, Issues

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• The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
  There's a dance in Billy Brennan's barn to-night,
  And there's the half-talk code of mysteries
  And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
  Half-past eight and there is not a spot
  Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
  That might turn out a man or woman, not
  A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.
  I have what every poet hates in spite
  Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
  Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
  Of being king and government and nation.
  A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king
  Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

  Patrick Kavanagh

  Kings, Hate, Past

  Patrick Kavanagh (2000). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Classics

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• We know that this nation entered into solemn treaties [with Indian tribes] which have been continuously violated for more than 250 years. It's a disgrace. It's an outrage. We must do everything in our power to keep those treaties. Otherwise, the word of the United States government is no good.

  John McCain

  Years, Government, Tribes

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