Welcome to Earnest Quotes, where words become timeless echoes of wisdom, insight, and inspiration. Within the confines of these digital pages, you’ll find a treasury of quotes that encapsulate the profound essence of earnestness in its myriad forms. Whether you seek motivation to fuel your ambitions, solace to soothe your soul, or simply a moment of reflection, our collection aims to resonate with the depths of your being.
Earnestness, the quality of sincere and serious intention, holds a unique power to uplift spirits, provoke thought, and ignite change. Through the ages, luminaries from all walks of life have graced humanity with their profound musings on this noble virtue. From philosophers to poets, activists to artists, their words transcend time, offering guidance and illumination in our journey through life’s labyrinthine passages.
Below, you’ll find an array of quotes on earnestness that speak volumes in just a few words. Whether you choose to copy them, adorn them on images, or embellish them with stylish fonts, may these quotes serve as beacons of light, guiding you towards a path of authenticity and purpose. Embrace the wisdom they impart, and let them kindle the flame of earnestness within your heart and mind.
The key to doing ‘Harold and Kumar’ movies is you make it earnest. Primarily what we do is make Harold and Kumar’s relationship and friendship believable, and we don’t actually work on being that funny. John Cho
I’ve seen the most remarkable thing. It’s in the New York Public Library. They’ve got the original typescript of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ – all four acts of it. Peter Shaffer
While I appreciated the educational advantages I enjoyed in the school and was proud of what I could show in mental culture, I had an earnest desire for something more than a mere business education… I desired to study for a profession, and this prompted me to leave my native state. Hiram Rhodes Revels
I have rarely seen the face of a mechanic in the action of creation which was not fine, never one which was not earnest and impressive. Thomas Nelson Page
Loser lit antiheroes aren’t well intentioned or earnest; they don’t care whether you like them or not. They’re self-mocking, ironic and inventive; they narrate their downfalls with manic wordplay, rampant metaphors, wisecracks, and escalating flights of spleen-fueled lyricism. Kate Christensen
When he speaks to you he speaks with an earnest vibe and an earnest energy. Dwayne Johnson
I had pretty much raised my kids and my first wife and I were divorced, so I began, in earnest, to start my musical career again. Going for the big record deal and all of that. Jimmy Carl Black
So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong. Walter Bagehot
The Right is incredibly deft at getting earnest about all the wrong things. Mona Eltahawy
I always think I know the way a novel will go. I write maps on oversized art pads like the kind I carried around in college when I was earnest about drawing. I need to have some idea of the shape of the novel, where its headed, so that I can proceed with confidence. But the truth is my characters start doing and saying things I don’t expect. Julianna Baggott
The tech industry – and, more specifically, Silicon Valley – continues to stumble forward in earnest about how few women are represented in its top ranks of management and on its boards. Kara Swisher
It’s so easy in these cabaret venues to get earnest. Ana Gasteyer
A youth, when at home, should be filial and, abroad, respectful to his elders. He should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow in love to all and cultivate the friendship of the good. When he has time and opportunity, after the performance of these things, he should employ them in polite studies. Confucius
I do like my rock stars to be a little larger than life. I don’t mind the earnest ones at all, but I do like a bit of individuality. Elton John
This man is frank and earnest with women. In Fresno, he’s Frank and in Chicago he’s Ernest. Henny Youngman
Nowadays I’d describe myself as earnest, terribly earnest. I’m the person who wants everybody in the room to feel important and happy. America Ferrera
In Los Angeles, people dress with the deep and earnest hope that people will do nothing but stare at them. Ellie Kemper
I know why people lie to themselves in life, but I’ll never understand the appeal of the dishonest theater where the actor doesn’t make some earnest attempt to include their own honest humanity in their collaboration with an author. It’s so ugly to me that it hurts sometimes to see it happen. Jim Parrack
The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. Henry David Thoreau
Personally, if I like someone I’m pretty earnest with that one person. So I’ve dated only a few over the years. Taeyang
It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today. Barack Obama
I have a certain sympathy with politicians having lived with one. I’ve seen how no matter how earnest or driven or energetic they are, it’s still difficult to change things. I have been encouraged to go into politics, but I don’t think I could make a contribution, it suits me better to be sniping from the sidelines. Ardal O’Hanlon
After a long, impartial enquiry of the truth, and after much and earnest calling upon God, to give unto me the spirit and revelation in the knowledge of Him, I find myself obliged, both by the principles of reason and Scripture, to embrace the opinion I now hold forth. John Biddle
I eye ‘Modern Love’ warily between that second and third cup of coffee on Sunday mornings, calculating how much of a push I need to get through the day’s unhurriedly earnest saga of heartbreak and recovery. Sandra Tsing Loh
I don’t know why, but audiences are often sympathetic to thieves. Sometimes they are more sympathetic to thieves then they are to earnest people. What does that say about society? Matt Dillon
It is the earnest hope of our people that the world may see the day when all nuclear weapons are abolished. Eisaku Sato
That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head. Charlie Chaplin
Most period drama is so earnest. A lot of it is about making yourself take seriously things you wouldn’t normally. Joe Thomas
If we incline our wills in true earnest singleness to God, then we go with Christ out of this world, out from the stars and elements, and enter into God; for in the will of reason we are children of the stars and elements, and the spirit of this world ruleth over us. Jakob Bohme
I believe in the fact that to portray a character convincingly, you need to live that character, own that character. You have to be earnest with every line that you deliver. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to cut off your true self. Ayushmann Khurrana
I knew credibility would come only in time and through earnest performances. Dwayne Johnson
I was writing an earnest novel about cruises in the Caribbean and I just started writing ‘Bridget Jones’ to get some money, to finance this earnest work, and then I chucked it out. Helen Fielding
So much comedy comes out of an earnest, deeply rooted need for one thing or another, trying to get it and caring so much that you lose your sense of self-awareness. Jeremy Sisto
‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is important, but it says nothing about anything. Tom Stoppard
When I was pregnant, I had the romantic idea that after the baby was born I would not only take up reading in earnest again, but also write a novel while my daughter slept in her Moses basket. Of course, I barely had time to keep up with my magazines until she started sleeping properly. Kate Beckinsale
The doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient and laborious mind is worthy of respect. In such doubt may be found indeed more faith than in half the creeds. John Lancaster Spalding
We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth. Mahatma Gandhi
Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest. Charles Dickens
Things can be funny only when we are in fun. When we’re ‘dead earnest,’ humor is the only thing that is dead. Flip Wilson
I spent, as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman’s family and heard almost every Tuesday the very best, most earnest and most impressive preacher it has ever been my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect whatever on my mind. Alfred Russel Wallace
Extension work is not exhortation. Nor is it exploitation of the people, or advertising of an institution, or publicity work for securing students. It is a plain, earnest, and continuous effort to meet the needs of the people on their own farms and in the localities. Liberty Hyde Bailey
Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wayfarer is built on the idea that we can actually make a huge difference by creating entertainment and television and digital and branded content with a message. It doesn’t always have to be really, really inspiring or really earnest. We call it chocolate-covered broccoli. Justin Baldoni
There are two men in Tolstoy. He is a mystic and he is also a realist. He is addicted to the practice of a pietism that for all its sincerity is nothing if not vague and sentimental; and he is the most acute and dispassionate of observers, the most profound and earnest student of character and emotion. William Ernest Henley
I think I’m much too earnest to be as cool as ‘Boyd Crowder’. Walton Goggins
Fess up, ‘Hunger Games’ fans: Does anyone care about Peeta or find him attractive? He’s the Ron Weasley of the series: he gets points for callow valor and sympathy for his run of bad luck, but he remains a pasty, earnest bore. Richard Corliss
I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there. Confucius
I’ve only auditioned for one non-culturally specific role. I went through drama school and studied classic texts and played lead roles in ‘Measure for Measure’ and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ alongside a very culturally diverse group of acting students. But as soon as we graduate and enter the industry, all of those roles fall away. Shari Sebbens
He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery. Georg C. Lichtenberg
I would love to do a western. I would love to play an explorer. That is always something that has really captured my imagination since I was a kid, like James Cook or Magellan or Earnest Shackleton. John C. Reilly
I was kind of raised with the suggestion that I had a duty to do; that life was real, life was earnest. And I hated that, actually. I needed to be liberated, to be told that I could live the life that I wanted to live; that I didn’t need a job, or to be shouted at; that I could be myself; that I could be happy. Paul Theroux
The young among us are, as a general thing, allied to the world. But few maintain a special warfare against the internal foe. But few have an earnest, anxious desire to know and do the will of God. Ellen G. White
I’m a comic writer, in some ways, and a comic person when I’m up at a podium, in order to disguise the fact that in my heart I’m disgustingly earnest. Gregory Maguire
By definition, I believe I am unapologetically optimistic and I am unapologetically earnest. Emilio Estevez
I am interested in the notion that people can become so obsessed by their world that they lose sense and awareness of how they appear to other people. They’re so earnest about it. But that’s true of so many things. Christopher Guest
We are always on stage, even when we are stabbed in earnest at the end. Georg Buchner
In God’s world, for those who are in earnest, there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain. Frederick William Robertson
You see so many earnest characters in movies all the time, everyone has a purpose. Joaquin Phoenix
We started focusing on this in earnest late summer and early fall. I can build more power plants. In the 12 years before us, not a single plant of major consequence was built. Gray Davis
It was not any grace in me, but God that put this earnest care into my heart, that I should be one of the hunters or fishers whom long ago God foreshowed would come in the last days. Saint Patrick
Travellers, like poets, are mostly an angry race: by falling into a daily fit of passion, I proved to the governor and his son, who were profuse in their attentions, that I was in earnest. Richard Francis Burton
The dangers which threaten us are twofold: First, from the Confederate forces, composed of men whose earnest convictions and reckless bravery it is idle to deny. Robert Dale Owen
Sprawling, earnest, and ambitious – its modest title is ‘The Future’ – Al Gore’s new book embodies both the virtues and the flaws of its author. But those hardy souls who slog past the weaknesses will be rewarded by a book that is brave, original and often fun. Chrystia Freeland
There’s a tradition in American fiction that is deadly serious and earnest – like the Steinbeckian social novel. John Hodgman
Here’s a confession: I hate parenting books. I hate the ones that are earnest and repetitive. Bruce Feiler
It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
If we don’t make earnest moves toward real solutions, then each day we move one day closer to revolution and anarchy in this country. This is the sad, and yet potentially joyous, state of America. Louis Farrakhan
The erosion of privacy rights under the Fourth Amendment, written to protect us against unreasonable search and seizure, began in earnest under President George W. Bush. Rebecca MacKinnon
My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers – it’s what my children call my ‘dead author wall.’ I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few. Debbie Macomber
We all have goals: We want to matter. We want to be important. We want to have freedom and power to pursue our creative work. We want respect from our peers and recognition for our accomplishments. Not out of vanity or selfishness, but of an earnest desire to fulfill our personal potential. Ryan Holiday
I’m married to Kevin, a photographer whose career has put him on the campaign trail with presidential candidates and sent him on assignment to far-flung places for long periods of time. It was sometimes rough when our children were small, and I was beginning to write in earnest. Nancy Horan
It is true not all has been accomplished that the earnest advocates would desire, but a start has been made. Frank B. Kellogg
Laurence Olivier said in an interview once that when he plays a tragedy he always aims for the funny parts, and the other way around. Because in a comedy you look for what’s serious. I think that’s true. Sometimes things are really funny if you’re absolutely earnest. If you’re really serious, it’s hilarious. Christopher Walken
My earnest hope is that what we started in terms of building partnerships with communities across America will continue, that we will continue our efforts to reduce crime and violence. Janet Reno
I love David Suchet. I’m obsessed with Poirot. Then I saw him in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ where he did Lady Bracknell, and he was amazing – he did it like a dinosaur, like a velociraptor. Noel Fielding
If one’s desire for change is an earnest desire to see things improve, then surely there is a state in which things have been improved to the point where you would hope to conserve a structure rather than alter it. At that point, you become a conservative. Bret Weinstein
I think a lot of us responded intensely to ‘True Detective’ because it was so incredibly earnest. That’s what made it heartbreaking and involving. Annalee Newitz
There’s something really earnest inside me all the time. It’s not a cool or fun way to be. Sometimes I would like to experience being someone who’s not wired the way I’m wired. Zoe Kazan
There has not been a war in South America for fifty years, and I have every confidence that the countries of Central and South America are deeply in earnest in the maintenance of peace. Frank B. Kellogg
It would be terribly boring to be earnest. Adrien Brody
What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth. Benjamin Disraeli
There is nothing cooler than having lines like, ‘Batman, the fate of the world is upon us.’ Who gets to say that? And who gets to say that in a deep, earnest, amazingly sexy way? Maggie Q
Movies make teenagers have quippy answers for every question. Nothing seems to faze them, and they’re like, ‘Oh, whatever.’ You’re not like that when you’re a teenager. You’re really earnest. Things really feel like life or death. And you kind of oscillate between emotions at one time. It’s very emotionally draining being a teenager. Bel Powley
I couldn’t make myself write serious; I was surrounded by serious: in monographs, in articles, in my own dissertation prospectus, in the very earnest e-mails of students telling me just why that paper couldn’t be in on time, cross their hearts and hope to get an A-minus. Lauren Willig
About my career I was serious and earnest, sometimes impatient. Gene Tierney
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed. Jean Anouilh
I think because I am as earnest as I am, people were accepting of my evolving into a certified, legitimate, and grown up and I did take three years off. Claire Danes
Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences. Marcus Garvey
In the matter of learning, the difference between the earnest and the careless student stands out clearly. The same holds true in the mastering of passion and the weaknesses to which our nature is subject, as in the acquiring of virtue. Saint Ignatius
Have you noticed that whatever sport you’re trying to learn, some earnest person is always telling you to keep your knees bent? Dave Barry
Life is earnest – and always has been. Richard Wagner
Insurance companies, whether private or government owned, must be compelled to pay for health-promoting measures. In turn, this will encourage physicians to offer such treatments in earnest. Andrew Weil
You can’t get there alone. People have to help you, and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth, by being earnest. Randy Pausch
Since the civil war in Laos was resumed in earnest in 1963, American participation has been veiled in secrecy. Noam Chomsky
It is only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends, for none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God. Edward McKendree Bounds
To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view. James Whistler
I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard! William Lloyd Garrison
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business. Winston Churchill
I will take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long-term. Randy Pausch
