Ever need a fact or quotation on earnest? Designed for speechwriters, journalists, writers, researchers, students, professors, teachers, historians, academics, scrapbookers, trivia buffs and word lovers, this is the largest book ever created for this single word. It represents a compilation from a variety of sources with a linguistic emphasis on anything relating to the term “earnest,” including non-conventional usage and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities. The entries cover all parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb or adjective usage) as well as use in modern slang, pop culture, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in many unexpected examples for earnest, since the editorial decision to include or exclude terms is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster’s Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org).

Familiar Quotations

Earnest

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.–John Anster

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.–George Baer

Life is an earnest business, and no one every became good or great on a diet of broad grins.–William Garden Blaikie

There is always hope in a man who actually and earnestly works. In idleness alone is there perpetual despair.–Thomas Carlyle

There is perennial nobleness and even sacredness in work. There is always hope in a man who actually and earnestly works. There is perpetual despair in idleness alone.–Thomas Carlyle

A man in earnest finds means, or, if he cannot find, creates them.–William Channing

There is no way to penetrate the surface of life but by attacking it earnestly at a particular point.–Charles Horton Cooley

Many times a day I realize how much my own life is built on the labors of my fellowmen, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.–Albert Einstein

Men in earnest have no time to waste in patching fig leaves for the naked truth.–Max Fuller

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

• Preface viii
• Familiar Quotations 1
• Earnest 1
• Earnest – "Eager" 2
• Earnest – "Eagerly" 2
• Earnest – "Enthusiastic" 3
• Earnest, as opposed to "Insincere" 3
• Earnest, as opposed to "Uncertainty" 3
• Use in Literature 5
• Earnest 5
• Earnest – "Above" 19
• Earnest – "Action" 19
• Earnest – "Answer" 20
• Earnest – "Appearance" 20
• Earnest – "Attention" 21
• Earnest – "Beautiful" 22
• Earnest – "Beg" 23
• Earnest – "Begin" 24
• Earnest – "Behind" 25
• Earnest – "Believe" 25
• Earnest – "Best" 26
• Earnest – "Bravely" 27
• Earnest – "Business" 27
• Earnest – "Character" 28
• Earnest – "Child" 28
• Earnest – "Clearly" 29
• Earnest – "Close" 30
• Earnest – "Came" 31
• Earnest – "Companion" 34
• Earnest – "Conversation" 34
• Earnest – "Day" 35
• Earnest – "Dead" 37
• Earnest – "Deep" 37
• Earnest – "Desire" 39
• Earnest – "Devoted" 41
• Earnest – "Discussing" 42
• Earnest – "Done" 42
• Earnest – "Doubt" 43
• Earnest – "Early" 43
• Earnest – "Efforts" 44
• Earnest – "Entreaty" 45
• Earnest – "Evening" 46
• Earnest – "Events" 46
• Earnest – "Excited" 46
• Earnest – "Expression" 47
• Earnest – "Eyes" 48
• Earnest – "Faithful" 51
• Earnest – "Far" 51
• Earnest – "Father" 52
• Earnest – "Feeling" 53
• Earnest – "Felt" 54
• Earnest – "Few" 55
• Earnest – "Found" 57
• Earnest – "Friends" 58
• Earnest – "Gaze" 59
• Earnest – "Go" 60
• Earnest – "Grave" 61
• Earnest – "Great" 61
• Earnest – "Hand" 64
• Earnest – "Happiness" 65
• Earnest – "Having" 66
• Earnest – "Head" 67
• Earnest – "Hear" 67
• Earnest – "Heart" 68
• Earnest – "Herself" 69
• Earnest – "Hope" 69
• Earnest – "Hours" 70
• Earnest – "Idea" 71
• Earnest – "Interesting" 71
• Earnest – "Jest" 72
• Earnest – "Kept" 72
• Earnest – "Kindness" 73
• Earnest – "King" 73
• Earnest – "Large" 74
• Earnest – "Leaned" 75
• Earnest – "Learning" 75
• Earnest – "Life" 76
• Earnest – "Little" 78
• Earnest – "Looked" 79
• Earnest – "Lover" 85
• Earnest – "Made" 86
• Earnest – "Men" 90
• Earnest – "Manner" 96
• Earnest – "Matter" 98
• Earnest – "Means" 99
• Earnest – "Mind" 99
• Earnest – "Moment" 101
• Earnest – "Mother" 102
• Earnest – "Nothing" 103
• Earnest – "Old" 104
• Earnest – "Once" 105
• Earnest – "Order" 106
• Earnest – "Others" 107
• Earnest – "People" 107
• Earnest – "Place" 109
• Earnest – "Pleasure" 110
• Earnest – "Pointed" 110
• Earnest – "Poor" 111
• Earnest – "Practice" 111
• Earnest – "Prayer" 112
• Earnest – "Presently" 113
• Earnest – "Pressed" 114
• Earnest – "Protested" 115
• Earnest – "Purpose" 115
• Earnest – "Question" 115
• Earnest – "Quiet" 116
• Earnest – "Read" 117
• Earnest – "Real" 118
• Earnest – "Reason" 119
• Earnest – "Requested" 120
• Earnest – "Room" 121
• Earnest – "Round" 121
• Earnest – "Searching" 122
• Earnest – "Seek" 122
• Earnest – "Seriously" 123
• Earnest – "Showed" 124
• Earnest – "Silent" 125
• Earnest – "Simple" 125
• Earnest – "Sat" 126
• Earnest – "Soon" 127
• Earnest – "Sound" 128
• Earnest – "Spoke" 129
• Earnest – "Speech" 132
• Earnest – "Spiritual" 133
• Earnest – "Stands" 134
• Earnest – "Strangely" 134
• Earnest – "Strong" 135
• Earnest – "Study" 136
• Earnest – "Subjects" 137
• Earnest – "Surprised" 137
• Earnest – "Sympathy" 138
• Earnest – "Taking" 138
• Earnest – "Talking" 139
• Earnest – "Tears" 141
• Earnest – "Things" 141
• Earnest – "Think" 142
• Earnest – "Thus" 145
• Earnest – "Tone" 145
• Earnest – "Touching" 146
• Earnest – "True" 147
• Earnest – "Truth" 148
• Earnest – "Understood" 148
• Earnest – "View" 149
• Earnest – "Voice" 149
• Earnest – "Walked" 151
• Earnest – "White" 151
• Earnest – "Wife" 152
• Earnest – "Wish" 152
• Earnest – "Woman" 153
• Earnest – "Words" 153
• Earnest – "Work" 155
• Earnest – "World" 158
• Earnest – "Years" 159
• Earnest – "Young" 159
• Nonfiction Usage 163
• Script Usage 163
• Historical Usage 163
• Presidential Usage 163
• Bible Usage 165
• Qur'anic Usage 166
• Journalism Usage 167
• Governmental Usage 179
• Patent Usage 180
• Bibliographic Usage 185
• Encyclopedic Usage 295
• Lexicographic Usage 311
• Index 331