Earnest

Famous quotes containing the word earnest:

    His [the President’s] earnest desire is, that you may perpetuated and preserved as a nation; and this he believes can only be done and secured by your consent to remove to a country beyond the Mississippi.... Where you are, it is not possible you can live contented and happy.
    Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)

    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.
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)

    You said that my manner in that book was not serious enough—that I made people laugh in my most earnest moments. But why should I not? Why should humor and laughter be excommunicated? Suppose the world were only one of God’s jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)