Solemn Quotes - Page 14

• He who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen . . . should share with him. . . . Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust.

  Grover Cleveland

  Patriotic, Exercise, United States

  Grover Cleveland, United States. President (1885-1889 : Cleveland), United States. President (1893-1897 : Cleveland) (1968). “Grover Cleveland, 1837-1908: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I once told you that I am not a saint, and I hope never to see the day that I cannot admit having made a mistake. So I will close with another confession. Frequently, along the tortuous road of recent months from this chamber to the Presidents House, I protested that I was my own man. Now I realize that I was wrong. I am your man, for it was your carefully weighed confirmation that changed my occupation. The truth is I am the peoples man, for you acted in their name, and I accepted and began my new and solemn trust with a promise to serve all the people and do the best that I can for America.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Mistake, Men, Names

  United States. President (1974-1977 : Ford), Gerald R. Ford (1975). “Gerald R. Ford: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind is the creature of its environment, following the fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment. He is sometimes learned, frequently prosperous, commonly clean and always solemn.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Fashion, Learning, Feelings

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.93, Courier Corporation

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mont Blanc yet gleams on high: the power is there, The still and solemn power of many sights And many sounds, and much of life and death. In the long glare of day, the snows descend Upon that Mountain; none beholds them there, Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun, Or the sunbeams dart through them.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Sight, Long, Life And Death

  1816 'Mont Blanc'.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The joining of the whole congregation in prayer has something exceedingly solemn and affecting in it.

  Karl Philipp Moritz

  Prayer, Joining, Congregation

  Karl Philipp Moritz (2010). “Travels in England in 1782”, p.79, BoD – Books on Demand

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not love the Sabbath, The soapsuds and the starch, The troops of solemn people Who to Salvation march. I take my book, I take my stick On the Sabbath day, In woody nooks and valleys I hide myself away. To ponder there in quiet God's Universal Plan, Resolved that church and Sabbath Were never made for man.

  Robert Graves

  Book, Men, People

  Robert Graves, Beryl Graves, Dunstan Ward (1999). “Complete poems”, Carcanet Pr

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face. ... It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth ... into a liar - that I call an achievement.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Art, Liars, Believe

  "Aphorisms" by Georg C. Lichtenberg, ("Notebook E", E 59), (1775 - 1776).

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensibl e earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see.

  Annie Dillard

  Secret, Done, Divinity

  ANNIE DILLARD (1974). “PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The groves and thickets of smaller trees are full of blooming evergreen vines. These vines are not arranged in separate groups, or in delicate wreaths, but in bossy walls and heavy, mound-like heaps and banks. Am made to feel that I am now in a strange land. I know hardly any of the plants, but few of the birds, and I am unable to see the country for the solemn, dark, mysterious cypress woods which cover everything.

  John Muir

  Country, Wall, Dark

  John Muir (2015). “John Muir’s Incredible Travel Memoirs: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Travels in Alaska, Steep Trails… (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs & Wilderness Studies from the Naturalist, Environmental Philosopher and Early Advocate of Preservation of Wilderness, the Author of The Yosemite and Picturesque California”, p.38, e-artnow

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• He [the artist] ought to have 'these powerful organs of expression' - colour and chiaroscuro - entirely at his command, that he may use them in every possible form, as well as that he may do with the most perfect freedom; therefore, whether he wishes to make the subject of a joyous, solemn, or meditative character, by flinging over it the cheerful aspect which the sun bestows, by a proper disposition of shade, or by the appearances that beautify its arising or its setting, a true "General Effect" should never be lost sight of.

  John Constable

  Powerful, Character, Artist

  72 Copy quote

• To fall for," "to be fallen for"--I feel in these words something unspeakably vulgar, farcical, and at the same time extraordinarily complacent. Once these expressions put in an appearance, no matter how solemn the place, the silent cathedrals of melancholy crumble, leaving nothing but an impression of fatuousness. It is curious, but the cathedrals of melancholy are not necessarily demolished if one can replace the vulgar "What a messy business it is to be fallen for" by the more literary "What uneasiness lies in being loved.

  Osamu Dazai

  Love, Lying, Fall

  Osamu Dazai (1973). “No Longer Human”, p.47, New Directions Publishing

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is the work of a Master?" said a solemn-faced visitor. "To teach people to laugh ," said the Master gravely.

  Anthony de Mello

  People, Laughing, Visitors

  4 Copy quote

• Let's make it clear for the dimmest bulbs among you: the kids at Columbine High didn't die from too many guns, they died from too few. I'm not suggesting that the teachers should have carried guns not as franchised agents of the state. They should have carried guns as ordinary individuals, exercising a sacred right, and in performance of a solemn duty to protect the young lives that were placed very foolishly, as it turned out in their hands.

  L. Neil Smith

  Teacher, Kids, Exercise

  "Murder by Gun Control". The Libertarian Enterprise, www.ncc-1776.org. March 31, 2000.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have achieved the 'sacred' pilgrimage to Ktaadn MT - exceeding all my expectations so far that I am sort of helpless with words. I feel as if I have seen God for the first time, and find him so nonchalantly solemn.

  Marsden Hartley

  Expectations, Sacred, Firsts

  Letter to Adelaide Kuntz; as cited in "Marsden Hartley", by Gail R. Scott, 1988, p. 130, October 24, 1939.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Safeguarding the interests of our Taiwan compatriots and expanding their well-being is the mainland's oft-repeated pledge and solemn promise of the new leaders of China's Communist Party central committee.

  Xi Jinping

  Party, Leader, Promise

  "China's Xi to tread peaceful, patient path on Taiwan", www.reuters.com. February 25, 2013.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dream and solemn vision Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape.

  John Milton

  Dream, Angel, Soul

  John Milton, Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay, Arthur Montague D'Urban Hughes (1962). “Milton: Poetry & Prose”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have been told . . . that this life is a necessary part in the course of progression designed by our Father. We have been taught . . . to look upon these bodies of ours as gifts from God. . . . It has been declared in the solemn word of revelation, that the spirit and the body constitute the soul of man; and, therefore, we should look upon this body as something that shall endure in the resurrected state, beyond the grave, something to be kept pure and holy.

  James E. Talmage

  Life, Father, Men

  14 Copy quote

• To strive for the common prosperity and happiness of all nations, as well as the security and wellbeing of our subjects, is the solemn obligation which has been handed down by our imperial ancestors and which lies close to our heart.

  Hirohito

  Lying, Heart, Common

  82 Copy quote

• I stood checked for a moment - awe, not fear, fell upon me - and whist I stood, a solemn wind began to blow, the most mournful that ever ear heard. Mournful! That is saying nothing. It was a wind that had swept the fields of mortality for a hundred centuries.

  Thomas de Quincey

  Blow, Wind, Ears

  Thomas De Quincey (1852). “Confessions of an English Opium-eater: And Suspiria de Profundis”, p.175

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Your touch has still its ancient power, No word from You can fruitless fall; Hear, in this solemn evening hour, And in Your mercy heal us all.

  Henry Twells

  Fall, Health, Evening

  4 Copy quote

• Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

  Thomas de Quincey

  Long, Laughing, Pleasure

  Thomas De Quincey, Robert Morrison (2013). “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings”, p.39, Oxford University Press

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tonight - by taking this solemn oath - I am no longer a private citizen but the Mayor of the City of Chicago.

  Jane Byrne

  Cities, Chicago, Citizens

  7 Copy quote

• If I were to disclose all their rituals, I think that it would be easy to prove that witches are not diabolists; but the oaths are solemn and the witches are my friends. I would not want to hurt their feelings. They have secrets which to them are sacred. They have good reason for their secrecy.

  Gerald Gardner

  Hurt, Thinking, Feelings

  24 Copy quote

• In truth, one of our company, the solemn warrior Ecthgow, was so demented from liquor that he was drunk while still upon his horse, and he fell attempting to dismount. Now the horse kicked him in the head, and I feared for his safety, but Ecthgow laughed and kicked the horse back.

  Michael Crichton

  Strength, Horse, Warrior

  Michael Crichton (2012). “Eaters of the Dead”, p.56, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to luminous chaos. Loving the power of grammar and the fine distinctions of language, I seek the part of the mind I didn't know was there, the part 'sheer,' 'no-manfathomed,' 'cliffs of fall.

  Janet Burroway

  Girl, Fall, Musical

  4 Copy quote