Earnest Quotes

• 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

  Children, Blood, Sweat

  "2008: The year in review" by Decca Aitkenhead, www.theguardian.com. December 26, 2008.

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Luck, Style, Matter

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.14, Oscar Wilde

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Relationship, Essence

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.104, Wordsworth Editions

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

  Oscar Wilde

  Birthday, Witty, Time

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.1389, GENERAL PRESS

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The chin a little higher, dear. Style largely depends on the way the chin is worn. They are worn very high, just at present.

  Oscar Wilde

  Style, Littles, Way

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.133

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Fear, Long, Judgement

  Walter Bagehot (1986). “The Collected Works of Walter Bagehot: Miscellany”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Philosophical, Animal, Squirrels

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.92, BookBaby

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• My chief concern is to try to be an humble, earnest Christian.

  Robert E. Lee

  Christian, Humble, Civil War

  15 Copy quote

• You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter - a girl brought up with the utmost care - to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?

  Oscar Wilde

  Girl, Daughter, Dream

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.39

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

  Oscar Wilde

  Truth, Lying, Simple

  Oscar Wilde (2000). “The Plays of Oscar Wilde”, p.368, Wordsworth Editions

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

  Oscar Wilde

  Reading, Culture, Half

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.10

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hate, People, Meals

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.19

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.

  Oscar Wilde

  Ignorance, Upper Class, Gone

  1895 Lady Bracknell. The Importance of Being Earnest, act 1.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.

  Oscar Wilde

  Firsts, Importance Of Being Earnest, First Time

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.60, Xist Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.

  Oscar Wilde

  Women, Making Love, Way

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.21, Wordsworth Editions

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Sports, Trying, Literature

  Dave Barry (2009). “Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus”, p.88, Ballantine Books

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Really, if the lower orders don't set a good example, what on earth is the use of them?

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Order

  'The Importance of Being Earnest' (1895) act 1

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean linen in public.

  Oscar Wilde

  Flirty, Husband, Flirting

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.17

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hypocrisy, Wicked, Would Be

  'The Importance of Being Earnest' (1895) act 2

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

  Winston Churchill

  Business, Insperational, Games

  Winston Churchill (1973). “Liberalism and the Social Problem”, p.249, Library of Alexandria

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Inspirational, Heart, Literature

  "David Copperfield". Book by Charles Dickens, 1850.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.

  Oscar Wilde

  Girl, Engagement, May

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “The Importance of Being Earnest: Revised Edition”, p.25, Bloomsbury Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Views, Praise, Said

  7 Copy quote

• This man is frank and earnest with women. In Fresno, he's Frank and in Chicago he's Ernest.

  Henny Youngman

  Funny, Women, Humor

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  Magic, Mind, Genius

  7 Copy quote