Jest not in earnest. [ Motto ]
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,A Psalm Of Life ]
Earnest and sport go well together. [ Danish Proverb ]
An Arab, by his earnest gaze,
Has clothed a lovely maid with blushes;
A smile within his eyelids plays
And into words his longing gushes. [ Wm. R. Alger ]
Jest so that it may not become earnest. [ Spanish Proverb ]
Nature is in earnest when she makes a woman. [ Holmes ]
His eloquence is classic in its style,
Not brilliant with explosive coruscations
Of heterogeneous thoughts, at random caught.
And scattered like a shower of shooting stars,
That end in darkness: no; - his noble mind
Is clear, and full, and stately, and serene.
His earnest and undazzled eye he keeps
Fixed on the sun of Truth, and breathes his words
As easily as eagles cleave the air,
And never pauses till the height is won;
And all who listen follow where he leads. [ Mrs. Hale ]
Many that are wits in jest, are fools in earnest. [ Proverb ]
Honour acquired is an earnest of that which is to follow. [ La Roche ]
Leave jesting while it pleaseth, lest it turn to earnest. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Earnest activity always reconciles us with life in the end. [ Jean Paul ]
Share not pears with your master either in jest or in earnest. [ Proverb ]
The man who is earnest and diligent is prepared for all things. [ Thomas à Kempis ]
The surest way to have redress is to be earnest in pursuit of it. [ Goldsmith ]
A man in earnest finds means, or, if he cannot find, creates them. [ William Ellery Channing ]
No earnest man, in any time, ever spoke what was wholly meaningless. [ Carlyle ]
Earnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts may be errors. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
The superior man wishes to be slow in his words and earnest in his conduct. [ Confucius ]
Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves. [ Hazlitt ]
Friend, howsoever thou earnest by this book, I will assure thee thou wert least in my thoughts when I writ it. [ Bunyan ]
Earnest is the aspect of necessity. Not without a shudder is the hand of man thrust into the mysterious urn of fate. [ Friedrich Schiller ]
Nonsense, when earnest, is impressive, and sometimes takes you in. If you are in a hurry, you occasionally mistake it for sense. [ Beaconsfield ]
Those green-robed senators of mighty woods, tall oaks, branchcharmed by the earnest stars, dream, and so dream, all night without a stir. [ Keats ]
From my father inherit I stature and the earnest conduct of life; from motherkin my cheerful disposition and pleasure in fanciful invention. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, of himself ]
No earnest thinker is a plagiarist pure and simple. He will never borrow from others that which he has not already, more or less, thought out for himself. [ C. Kingsley ]
Some things will not bear much zeal; and the more earnest we are about them, the less we recommend ourselves to the approbation of sober and considerate men. [ Tillotson ]
Mirth is a Proteus, changing its shape and manner with the thousand diversities of individual character, from the most superfluous gayety to the deepest, most earnest humor. [ E. P. Whipple ]
Ponder the lives of the glorious in art; or literature through all ages. What are they but records of toils and sacrifices, supported by the earnest hearts of their votaries? [ Henry T. Tuckerman ]
Let us recognize the beauty and power of true enthusiasm; and whatever we may do to enlighten ourselves and others, guard against checking or chilling a single earnest sentiment. [ H. T. Tuckerman ]
O brave poets! keep back nothing, nor mix falsehood with the whole; look up Godward; speak the truth in worthy song from earnest soul; hold, in high poetic duty, truest truth the fairest beauty! [ Mrs. Browning ]
How dear the sure counsel of a present friend, whose heavenly power failing, the lonely one sinks in silence; for earnest thought and resolution, locked within his breast, are slowly ripened; the presence of the loved one soon warms them into being. [ Goethe ]
Poetry can make even the thought of death beautiful, and the sadness of bereavement not without a certain pleasure. Great poets have elicited from the sternest suffering a principle of enjoyment. Sublime faith and earnest love can conjure spirits the most lovely from the darkest abyss. [ Tuckerman ]
An inoffensive pleasantness is a good quality to improve friendship. It enlivens conversation, relieves melancholy, and conveys advice with better success than naked reprehension. This gilding the pill reconciles the palate to the prescription, without weakening the force of the ingredients, and he who can cure by recreation, and make pleasure the vehicle of health, is a doctor in good earnest. [ R. Hall ]
Do you wish to become rich? You may become rich, that is, if you desire it in no half way, but thoroughly. A miser sacrifices all to his single passion; hoards farthings and dies possessed of wealth. Do you wish to master any science or accomplishment? Give yourself to it and it lies beneath your feet. Time and pains will do anything. This world is given as the prize for the men in earnest; and that which is true of this world is truer still of the world to come. [ F. W. Robertson ]
There are chords in the human heart - strange varying strings - which are only struck by accident; which will remain mute and senseless to appeals the most passionate and earnest, and respond at last to the slightest casual touch. In the most insensible or childish minds there is some train of reflection which art can seldom lead or skill assist, but which will reveal itself, as great truths have done, by chance, and when the discoverer has the plainest and simplest end in view. [ Dickens ]
If thy mother be a widow, give her double honor, who now acts the part of a double parent; remember her nine month's burden, and her tenth month's travel; forget not her indulgence, when thou didst hang upon her tender breast; call to mind her prayers for thee before thou earnest into the world; and her cares for thee when thou wert come into the world; remember her secret groans, her affectionate tears, her broken slumbers, her daily fears, her nightly frights; relieve her wants, cover her imperfections, comfort her age, and the widow's husband will be the orphan's father. [ F. Quarles ]