Solemn Quotes

Of the concept of God: "I don`t seem to get solemn about it, and some people might not understand. That`s why I never talk about it. I think it`s all here -- in the mountains and the desert. I don`t think God is a softie, either. In the end, it`s better if people are forced back into -- well -- into being right, before they`re too far gone. I think your temple is your everyday living."

God, how I hate solemn funerals. When I die, take me into a room and burn me. Then my family and a few good friends should get together, have a few good belts, and talk about the crazy old time we all had together.

(After winning her second Oscar in 1950) When I won the first award in 1947, I was terribly thrilled. But this time I felt solemn, very serious and . . . shocked. Yes, shocked! It`s a great responsibility to win the award twice.

On how to take the violence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) (re: The final duel with Lucy Liu): "It`s supposed to be kind of amusing and poetic at the same time. And also just a teeny-tiny bit solemn. When you see her head, it`s funny. And then her line, `that really was a Hattori Hanzo sword,` that`s funny. But then, the next shot is not funny, when she tips over and Meiko Kaji is singing about revenge on the soundtrack. So, it`s all together. Funny. Solemn. Beautiful. Gross. All at the same time."

My Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fans: My physicians have recently told me I may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer`s disease. So ... I wanted to prepare a few words for you now, because when the time comes, I may not be able to. I`ve lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I`ve found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor there`s no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can`t part with you, which is why I won`t exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I`m not changing anything. I`ll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you`ll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway. I`m neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I`m still the fighter that Dr. King and JFK and Ronald Reagan knew, but it`s a fight I must someday call a draw. I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure. Please feel no sympathy for me. I don`t. I just may be a little less accessible to you, despite my wishes. I also want you to know that I`m grateful beyond measure. My life has been blessed with good fortune. I`m grateful that I was born in America, that cradle of freedom and opportunity, where a kid from the Michigan Northwoods can work hard and make something of his life. I`m grateful for the gift of the greatest words ever written, that let me share with you the infinite scope of the human experience. As an actor, I`m thankful that I`ve lived not one life, but many. Above all, I`m proud of my family ... my wife Lydia, the queen of my heart, my children, Fraser and Holly, and my beloved grandchildren, Jack, Ridley and Charlie. They`re my biggest fans, my toughest critics and my proudest achievement. Through them, I can touch immortality. Finally, I`m confident about the future of America. I believe in you. I know that the future of our country, our culture and our children is in good hands. I know you will continue to meet adversity with strength and resilience, as our ancestors did, and come through with flying colors - the ones on Old Glory. William Shakespeare, at the end of his career, wrote his farewell through the words of Prospero, in The Tempest". It ends like this: `Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp`d towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.` Thank you, and God bless you, everyone." (9 August 2002)

(It caught on and has stuck, to musicians` amusement and American audiences` unfazed pleasure.) I`d like to say it`s used because of its air of solemn ceremony, ... But honestly, I think it`s the cannon and the bells.

One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.

I`m tired of being this solemn poet of the masses, the enigma shrouded in a mystery.

You will reciprocally promise love, loyalty and matrimonial honesty. We only want for you this day that these words constitute the principle of your entire life and that with the help of divine grace you will observe these solemn vows that today, before God, you formulate.

Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever, and in something of a solemn expectancy, the two animals passed through the broken tumultuous water and moored their boat at the flowery margin of the island.

A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one.

A judge can`t have any preferred outcome in any particular case. The judge`s only obligation - and it`s a solemn obligation - is to the rule of law.

In short, it may be said that on paper the obligations to settle international disputes peacefully are now so comprehensive and far-reaching that it is almost impossible for a state to resort to war without violating one or more solemn treaty obligations.

I tell you the solemn truth, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not so difficult to accept for a working proposition as any one of the axioms of physics.

The oath of renunciation and allegiance is a solemn vow taken by thousands of immigrants each year to become a United States citizen. The oath is the fundamental statement of allegiance to the United States, and this allegiance is what unites America.

Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity.

I, Philip Kearny, an old soldier, enter my solemn protest against this order for retreat.

Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

The elementary school must assume as its sublime and most solemn responsibility the task of teaching every child in it to read. Any school that does not accomplish this has failed.

One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one`s head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one`s heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun'”which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so...

Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.