Serious Quotes

“Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville

“That is the curse of lying, Sister. Once you place that crown of the liar upon your head, you can take it off again, but it leaves a stain for all time.”
― Terry Goodkind, Soul of the Fire

“There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them.”
― Werner Heisenberg

“Love may be harder to find in some people, but when they do love you know it must be something marvelous.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“You all have your own distinct personal backgrounds. Of course some of you come from rich families, some from poor families. But circumstances beyond your control like that shouldn’t determine who you are. You must all realize what you’re worth on your own.”
― Koushun Takami, Battle Royale

“What did you do?” This time the question tears from my throat like a growl. I throw myself toward him… “What did you do?” I scream.

“You die, I die too…I asked you not to do this. You made your decision. These are the repercussions.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.”
― John Adams

“I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long …arousing and persuading and reproaching…You will not easily find another like me.”
― Plato, Apology

“Severus, please fetch me the strongest truth potion you posess, then go down to the kitchen and bring up the house elf called Winky. Minerva, kindly go down to Hagrids house where you will find a large black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. Take the dog up to my office, tell him I will be with him shortly, then come back here.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“I am so tired.
I have grown old from being serious.
I have grown ill from being serious.
I want to laugh at myself.
I want to forget myself.
I am so tired.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“Those who are serious in ridiculous matters will be ridiculous in serious matters.”
― Cato the Elder

“Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind.”
― Mario Puzo, The Last Don

“Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan.”
― Naval Ravikant

“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing. A writer who appreciates the seriousness of writing so little that he is anxious to make people see he is formally educated, cultured or well-bred is merely a popinjay. And this too remember; a serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“I like to prowl ordinary places.
I feel sorry for us all or glad for us
all
caught alive together
and awkward in that way.

there's nothing better than the joke
of us
the seriousness of us
the dullness of us”
― Charles Bukowski, Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit

“I regard it (the Constitution) as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesman that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benign Providence; it almost appears a "Divine interposition in our behalf... the hand that destroys our Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.”
― Daniel Webster

“Nothing is more comical than seriousness understood as a virtue that has to precede all important literature”
― Julio Cortázar, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

“I only wrote prose before I met you.
My musings were superfluous and serious as well.
But now the words dance with me.
I sing with them
and we create poetry.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“I’ve only been to jail a few times, but in several different countries, at that. No, I've only been to jail a few times. But I still claim the ability to write a "serious" novel.”
― Roman Payne

“At home I was raped by a guy i thought I loved' Trixie said, because thats what it was to her and always would be.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle

“I suppose one must be serious sometimes.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“There are only two styles of portrait painting: the serious and the smirk.”
― Charles Dickens

“Serious affairs and history are carefully laid snares for the uninformed.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

“We are all agents of the same supreme power, the people”
― Daniel Webster

“If we keep telling that life is unfair but do nothing serious about it, then life will forever continue to remain unfair!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“People who don't smile are not serious”
― Dhillon Lee MW

“I want to be bullied.
But in again and you'll pay."

"She... wants to be bullied...?”
― Yuna Kagesaki, AiON Volume 1

“When the situation is serious, don’t be funny; and when the situation is funny, don’t be serious!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“That's why you should never plan. If you don't have a plan, you can't fail. You can't do anything wrong. Doesn't matter if you kill someone or commit fucking treason. Nothing fucking matters. You understand?”
― Bong Joon-ho, Parasite