{"quotes":[{"text":"A spirit of satirical frivolity so dominated Britain in the 1960s that one critic feared the country 'would sink giggling into the sea.","author":"John O'Sullivan","tags":["maturity","satire","seriousness"],"id":20325,"author_id":"John+O%27Sullivan"},{"text":"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.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["experience","growth","hard-times","hardship","jail","jailbird","learning","literature","novels","prison","roman-payne","serious","seriousness"],"id":23955,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"What are humans? They are unserious creatures in this serious universe! And because they are unserious, they appear and disappear quickly!","author":"Mehmet Murat ildan","tags":["appear","disappear","humans","murat-ildan","serious","serious","seriousness","universe","universe","unserious"],"id":44266,"author_id":"Mehmet+Murat+ildan"},{"text":"Only an atmosphere of quiet hard work and dull, serious conversation were appropriate to him.","author":"Anthony Powell","tags":["hard-work","seriousness","widmerpool"],"id":76259,"author_id":"Anthony+Powell"},{"text":"Seriousness is too boring to the playful human condition. A heart of stone that has a long face can never express love.","author":"Michael Bassey Johnson","tags":["austerity","bore","boring","disappointment","expression","funny","grudge","hard","heartless","human-condition","humor","i-love-you","laughter","long-face","long-faced","love","pain","playful","sadism","serious-minded","serious-mindedness","seriousness","stone","worries"],"id":81583,"author_id":"Michael+Bassey+Johnson"},{"text":"And where,' Socrates smiled, 'is the universe?'The universe is well, there are theories about how it's shaped...'That's not what I asked. Where is it?'I don't know - how can I answer that?'That is the point. You cannot answer it, and you never will. There is no knowing about it. You are ignorant of where the universe is, and thus, where you are. In fact, you have no knowledge of where anything is or of What anything is or how is came to be. Life is a mystery.'My ignorance is based on this understanding. Your understanding is based on ignorance. This is why I am a humorous fool, and you are a serious jackass.","author":"Dan Millman","tags":["humour","ignorance","seriousness","understanding"],"id":83393,"author_id":"Dan+Millman"},{"text":"But the answer isn't just to intimidate people into consuming more 'serious' news; it is to push so-called serious outlets into learning to present important information in ways that can properly engage audiences. It is too easy to claim that serious things must be, and can almost afford to be, a bit boring. The challenge is to transcend the current dichotomy between those outlets that offer thoughtful but impotent instruction on the one hand and those that provide sensationalism stripped of responsibility on the other.","author":"Alain de Botton","tags":["boredom","engagement","interest","news","presentation","responsibility","sensationalism","seriousness","thoughtfulness"],"id":88735,"author_id":"Alain+de+Botton"},{"text":"Who put the S in comic to make cosmic? / The Self, which is the self of all beings - / choosing to disguise from themselves / that everything is just a game. // With a laugh we could turn / from all the seriousness we learned / and connect with every atom to create / breathtaking beauty with graceful ease.","author":"Jay Woodman","tags":["atom","beauty","beings","breathtaking","comic","cosmic","create","ease","game","graceful","laugh","learned","self","seriousness"],"id":108746,"author_id":"Jay+Woodman"},{"text":"During the whole time consumed in the slow growth of this family tree, the house of Smallweed, always early to go out and late to marry, has strengthened itself in its practical character, has discarded all amusements, discountenanced all story-books, fairy-tales, fictions, and fables, and banished all levities whatsoever. Hence the gratifying fact that it has had no child born to it and that the complete little men and women whom it has produced have been observed to bear a likeness to old monkeys with something depressing on their minds.","author":"Charles Dickens","tags":["character","family-tree","heritage","seriousness"],"id":123876,"author_id":"Charles+Dickens"},{"text":"The men who made the joke saw something deep which they could not express except by something silly and emphatic.","author":"G.K. Chesterton","tags":["humanity","humor","humour","language","seriousness"],"id":126507,"author_id":"G.K.+Chesterton"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":30,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}