Solemnity Quotes - Page 3

• There is no solemnity so deep, to a right-thinking creature, as that of dawn.

  John Ruskin

  Thinking, Dawn, Creatures

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• Laughter is a holy thing. It is as sacred as music and silence
  and solemnity, maybe more sacred. Laughter is like a prayer, like
  a bridge over which creatures tiptoe to meet each other. Laughter
  is like mercy; it heals. When you can laugh at yourself, you are
  free.

  Ted Loder

  Laughter, Prayer, Fun

  Ted Loder (2004). “Tracks in the Straw: Tales Spun from the Manger”, p.73, Augsburg Books

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• If we were to live here always, with no other care than how to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, life would be a very sorry business. It is immeasurably heightened by the solemnity of death.

  Alexander Smith

  Death, Sorry, House

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.55

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• I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the station to which I have been called.

  John Quincy Adams

  Religious, Heaven, Faithful

  John Quincy Adams, Kenneth V. Jones, United States. President (1825-1829 : Adams) (1970). “John Quincy Adams, 1767-1848; chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

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• The natural equipment to accomplish some small part of the meaner ambitions distinguishing able men from dead ones. In the last analysis ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Ambition, Men, Degrees

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.7, University of Georgia Press

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• As to those other things which we hold on the authority, not of Scripture, but of tradition, and which are observed throughout the whole world, it may be understood that they are held as approved and instituted either by the apostles themselves, or by plenary Councils, whose authority in the Church is most useful, e.g. the annual commemoration, by special solemnities, of the Lord's passion, resurrection, and ascension, and of the descent of the Holy Spirit from heaven, and whatever else is in like manner observed by the whole Church wherever it has been established.

  Saint Augustine

  Passion, Heaven, Special

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• Jokes are generally honest. Complete solemnity is always dishonest.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Honesty, Honest, Jokes

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• We must sometimes get away from the Authorized Version, if for no other reason, simply because it is so beautiful and so solemn. Beauty exalts, but beauty also lulls. Early associations endear, but they also confuse. Through that beautiful solemnity, the transporting or horrifying realities of which the Book tells may come to us blunted and disarmed, and we may only sigh with tranquil veneration when we ought to be burning with shame, or struck dumb with terror, or carried out of ourselves by ravishing hopes and adorations.

  C. S. Lewis

  Beautiful, Bible, Book

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• Each night the black sky and the bright stars were my stunning companions; occasionally Id see their beauty and solemnity so plainly that I'd realize in a piercing way that my mother was right. That someday I WOULD be grateful and that in fact I was grateful now, that I felt something growing in me that was strong and real.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Mother, Strong, Stars

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• I stood beside Van Helsing, and said;- "Ah, well, poor girl, there is peace for her at last. It is the end!" He turned to me, and said with grave solemnity:- "Not so; alas! not so. It is only the beginning!

  Bram Stoker

  Girl, Lasts, Poor

  Bram Stoker (2007). “Dracula”, p.258, Book Jungle

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• Am I horny enough to hump a bedpost?" Mica asked. "Not quite yet. Should I consult with you first, Doctor?" Sarcasm lay thick and heavy in her voice. "I believe a consult would be a good idea." Ely nodded with mocking solemnity as Mica lifted herself onto the gurney. "You never know what you may end up hurting if the act isn't done properly.

  Lora Leigh

  Hurt, Believe, Sarcasm

  Lora Leigh (2011). “Navarro's Promise”, p.141, Penguin

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• When she had gone upstairs, he walked to a window and stood looking up at the sky. His head thrown back, he felt the pull of his throat muscles and he wondered whether the peculiar solemnity of looking at the sky comes, not from what one contemplates, but from that uplift of one's head.

  Ayn Rand

  Uplifting, Sky, Peculiar

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.713, Penguin

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• There's a very generous donation in the parish's future if you make this fast. Ten minutes, at the most." Frowning, the man fumbled open his liturgy. "There's an established rite, Your Grace. Marriage must be entered into with solemnity and consideration. I don't know that I can rush--" "Ten minutes. One thousand guineas." The liturgy snapped closed. "Then again, what do a few extra minutes signify to an eternal God?" He beckoned Amelia with a fluttering, papery hand. "Make haste, child. You're about to be married.

  Tessa Dare

  Children, Men, Hands

  Tessa Dare (2010). “One Dance with a Duke”, p.95, Ballantine Books

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• The children would remember for the rest of their lives the august solemnity with which their father, devastated by his prolonged vigil and by the wraith of his imagination, revealed his discovery to them: 'The world is round, like an orange.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Children, Father, Discovery

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• If you're serious, you really understand that it's important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you're the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you're funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

  Maya Angelou

  Laughing, Important, Serious

  "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" with Anderson Cooper, transcripts.cnn.com. August 28, 2013.

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• Philosophy dwells aloft in the Temple of Science, the divinity of its inmost shrine; her dictates descend among men, but she herself descends not : whoso would behold her must climb with long and laborious effort, nay, still linger in the forecourt, till manifold trial have proved him worthy of admission into the interior solemnities.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Science

  Thomas Carlyle (1864). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays ...”, p.32

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• Ponder the significance of the responsibility the Lord has given to us. The Lord has counseled, "Let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds." (D&C 43:34.) You cannot do that when your minds are preoccupied with the cares of the world.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Responsibility, Mind, Balance

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• The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.

  Garrett Hardin

  Essence, Tragedy, Dramatic

  Garrett James Hardin (1995). “The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons”, F A I R-Federation for American Immigration Reform

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• Because finally, 'the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his religion according to the dictates of conscience' is held by the same tenure with all his other rights. If we recur to its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be less dear to us; if we consider the 'Declaration of those rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis and foundation of government,' it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather studied emphasis.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Rights, Government

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel

  Plutarch

  Men, Elephants, Bigger

  Plutarch (1898). “Plutarch's Miscellanies and Essays”

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• Somehow this literary genre, which most people condemned, acted as a sort of counterbalance to Charles's soul; it was the ballast that prevented him from lurching into the serious or melancholy, unlike Andrew, who had been unable to adopt his cousin's casual attitude to life, and to whom everything seemed so achingly profound, imbed with that absurd solemnity that the transience of of existence conferred upon even the smallest act.

  Félix J. Palma

  Cousin, Attitude, Literary Genre

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• The horrors of Vivisection have supplanted the solemnity, the thrilling fascination, of the old unetherized operation upon the human sufferer. Their recorded phenomena, stored away by the physiological inquisitor on dusty shelves, are mostly of as little present use to man as the knowledge of a new comet or of a tungstate of zirconium ... -contemptibly small compared with the price paid for it in agony and torture.

  Henry Jacob Bigelow

  Knowledge, Science, Men

  "Surgical Anaesthesia: Addresses and Other Papers". P. 309. Book by Henry Jacob Bigelow, 1894.

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• In proportion to the value of this revolution; in proportion to the importance of instruments, every word of which decides a question between power and liberty; in proportion to the solemnity of acts, proclaiming the will authenticated by the seal of the people, the only earthly source of authority, ought to be the vigilance with which they are guarded by every citizen in private life, and the circumspection with which they are executed by every citizen in public trust.

  James Madison

  People, Liberty, Citizens

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• No doubt they rose up early to observe the rite of May; and, hearing our intent, Came here in grace of our solemnity.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Up Early, Rose

  William Shakespeare (2012). “3 by Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Richard III”, p.56, Courier Corporation

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• Most men are followers, and implicitly rely upon the judgment of others. They mistake solemnity for wisdom, and regard a grave countenance as the title page and Preface to a most learned volume. So they are easily imposed upon by forms, strange garments, and solemn ceremonies. And when the teaching of parents, the customs of neighbors, and the general tongue approve and justify a belief or creed, no matter how absurd, it is hard even for the strongest to hold the citadel of his soul. In each country, in defence of each religion, the same arguments would be urged.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Country, Wisdom, Mistake

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.773, Library of Alexandria

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