Sincerity

“When we have intelligence resulting from sincerity, this condition is to be ascribed to nature; when we have sincerity resulting from intelligence, this condition is to be ascribed to instruction. But given the sincerity, and there shall be the intelligence; given the intelligence, and there shall be the sincerity.”

“Truth of a modest sort I can promise you, and also sincerity. That complete, praise-worthy sincerity which, while it delivers one into the hands of one's enemies, is as likely as not to embroil one with one's friends.”

“Denial of one's better self seals the lips or pollutes them. Fidelity to conviction opens them and truth blossoms in eloquence.”

“Good manners without sincerity are like a beautiful dead lady.”

“Over the years they had developed a layer of sincerity over the irony over the sincerity. It was an irony sandwich, then, which tasted mostly like sincerity, like a cheap, bad sandwich.”

“The temper I am of requires me to keep away from court. Heaven, when it sent me into the world, did not give me a soul suited to the air of courts. I do not find in myself the virtues necessary to succeed, and make my fortune there. My chief talent is to be frank and sincere.”

“How can a man know himself? He is a thing dark and veiled; and if the hare has seven skins, man can slough off seventy times seven and still not be able to say: “this is really you, this is no longer outer shell.””

“You seem to be going in for sincerity today. It isn't becoming to you, really — except as an obvious pose. Be as artificial as you are, I advise. There's a sort of sincerity in that, you know. And, after all, you must confess you like that better.”

“One who is serious all day will never have a good time, while one who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.”

“Sentir mon Cœur is a privilege only granted to the exceptional man—the one who has the ability to find words that exactly (or, to himself, convincingly) express his feelings. ... The value of words help to define the feeling itself. ... The common failure is to allow habitual words and phrases, flowing spontaneously from the memory, to determine and deform the feelings.”

“Bashful sincerity and comely love.”

“Men should be what they seem; Or those that be not, would they might seem none!”

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”

“Of all the evil spirits abroad at this hour in the world, insincerity is the most dangerous.”

“Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character.”

“There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.”

“Sincerity and truth form the basis of every virtue. Let the great Master's steps be thine.”

“Let every man examine his own sincerity, for every man must bear his own burden — the burden of his own sin —unless he has transferred it to the appointed Saviour.”

“Try how much of the word of God you can understand, and what is more, try how much you can practice. A sincere wish and purpose to do the will of God, will be your best way to know the mind of God.”

“True emotions and sincere words never perish. The great heart of humanity gladly receives and embalms every true utterance of the humblest of its offspring.”

“Judge thyself with the judgment of sincerity, and thou wilt judge others with the judgment of charity.”

“I cannot find in Scripture that any one ever got to heaven merely by sincerity, or was accepted with God if he was only earnest in maintaining his own views. Sincerity cannot put away sin.”

“The surest, as the shortest way, to make yourself beloved and honored, is to be, indeed, the very man you wish to appear.”