Quotes & Sayings About Taking Too Seriously

The art of winning in business is in working hard - not taking things too seriously. — Elbert Hubbard

Poetic words are usually more stimulating than accurate. Taking them too seriously is a mistake. — Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Life is supposed to be fun! When you're having fun, you feel great and you receive great things! Having fun brings the life you want, and taking things too seriously brings a life you have to take seriously. — Rhonda Byrne

His joy was a release of Paul's conversion, not the heavy backslapping practical-joking humor of the Victorians, nor the cynical satire or the flippancy of the twenty first century mass media, just the gift of not taking himself or his adversaries too seriously. — John Charles Pollock

I think always staying focused and not taking things too seriously, but taking the important things seriously. — Chris Colfer

I, personally, think there is a really danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture. — Anthony Bourdain

Humor and laughter - not necessarily derogatory derision - are my pet tools. This may come from my general philosophy of never taking the world too seriously - for fear of dying of boredom. — Marcel Duchamp

I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense... Schopenhauer's saying, 'A man can do what he wants, but not will what he wants,' has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life's hardships, my own and others', and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in part, gives humour its due. — Albert Einstein

I'm afraid of being lazy and complacent. I'm afraid of taking myself too seriously. — Barbara Hershey

I need to be casual but not too casual. Dressy but not too dressy. I need him to think I just threw on the first thing I found and that I'm not taking this too seriously or overthinking it or even that I was thinking about it at all. Because I'm not. I'm totally not thinking about him, and I don't want him to think I was thinking about him, but I don't want him to think that I'm not thinking about him, because clearly he thought about me enough to ask me out and it would be mean not to be thinking about him at all, so I need just the right amount of thinking, and I'm not sure if that means boots and a skirt or skinny jeans and ballet flats. Help! — Gemma Halliday

They stared at each other, and Alessandro seriously considered turning away from his father's wishes and just taking this woman and running off somewhere with her. He could imagine being happy with her. He felt free, easy. The feeling was heady. But dangerously so. He could never just toss aside his father's demands that way, even if he wanted to. There would be too much at stake. — E. Jamie

One thing a girl has to have is a good sense of a humor. I'm a really laid back guy who can find humor in just about anything, so my girlfriend would need to be a little like that too. She doesn't have to be a big jokester, but to me finding humor in things and not taking too much too seriously is a way of enjoying life, so that is important to me. — Logan Lerman

There has to be irony, both in design and in the objects. I see around me a professional disease of taking everything too seriously. One of my secrets is to joke all the time — Achille Castiglioni

You sound like a college freshman taking his first philosophy class way too seriously, but that's good. — Michael Grant

When you feel the need to moan and groan, laugh with woeful recognition and eat flaky pastries. If you hear yourself taking the art of complaining a little too seriously, ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish, exactly. — Amity Gaige

Nothing very new. By taking good care of yourselves you are of service to me and my family as well as yourselves, no matter what you do, even if you don't think so at present. But if you neglect yourselves and are unwilling to live, as though following tracks, in accordance with what we now say and have said in the past too, then no matter how much or how seriously you agree with me at present you will accomplish next to nothing. — Socrates

I've always said that sexy is having a really strong sense of yourself and never taking yourself too seriously. — Rebecca Romijn

Not taking yourself too seriously, that's the important thing. — Chris Colfer

Mr. Purty has cheered me up. The task he has chosen for himself, of wooing my mother with a bright red pickup truck, a Patsy Cline tape, and a string of malapropisms, is ample justification to me for not taking the world too seriously, its relentless heartbreak notwithstanding ... (Richard Russo, Straight Man) — Richard Russo

It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously. — H.L. Mencken

I suppose I could be accused of taking acting too seriously and losing the fun of it. I do take my work very seriously; I take on the responsibility of it. — David Suchet

Give us this day our daily Faith, but deliver us, dear God, from Belief.
Faith is something very different from belief. Belief is the systematic taking of unanalyzed words much too seriously. Paul's words, Mohammed's words, Marx's words, Hitler's words
people take them too seriously, and what happens? What happens is the senseless ambivalence of history
sadism versus duty, or (incomparably worse) sadism as duty; devotion counterbalanced by organized paranoia; sisters of charity selflessly tending the victims of their own church's inquisitors and crusaders. Faith, on the contrary, can never be taken too seriously. For Faith is the empirically justified confidence in our capacity to know who in fact we are, to forget the belief-intoxicated Manichee in Good Being. — Aldous Huxley

The Art of Self, I've learned, is indispensable to material success but corrosive to the human spirit. What's more, much of the misery in the world, I've decided, is caused by people who take themselves too seriously. Certainly, most of the unhappiness I've brought on myself has come from trying to impress others.

The people I find most appealing nowadays are those so secure in who they are, so lacking in ego, pretense, and guile, that they can allow others simply to be themselves. It is, I think, the rarest of privileges, the freedom to be completely oneself in the company of others. — Lionel Fisher

No matter how you cut them, paste them, rotate them, or distort them, lip syncing and air-guitar playing are fundamentally foolish activities, and anyone seen to be engaging in them with anything approaching a straight face is, by definition, taking herself or himself much too seriously. — Walter Kirn

Good work and joyous play go hand in hand. When play stops, old age begins. Play keeps you from taking life too seriously. — Lord Byron

Elise, you're taking this too seriously. We're men. If we have a problem, we punch one another. It's just how we handle things. — K.M. Shea

Most of the world's wrongs are caused by people taking themselves and their ideas too seriously. — Paul Murray

Viewing Adam and Eve as priestly representatives in sacred space who brought the alienation of humanity from God's presence may lead us to frame differently our questions about our current status in the present. This will be explored in the next chapter. At the same time, it changes nothing about the need we have for salvation and the importance of the work of Christ on our behalf. Perhaps, however, it will help us to remind ourselves that salvation is more importantly about what we are saved to (renewed access to the presence of God and relationship with him) than what we are saved from. This point is significant because too many Christians find it too easy to think only that they are saved, forgiven and on their way to heaven instead of taking seriously the idea that we are to be in deepening relationship with God day by day here and now. — John H. Walton

I've really turned a corner recently in terms of not taking work too seriously, so it is much easier for me to not take my work home. — Julia Stiles

I'm drawn to girls with a certain self-effacing, humorous quality and an innate independence and point of view. I love the notion of never taking yourself too seriously or being too put together. — Chris Benz

Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously'? — Leonard Ravenhill

I think one thing I do pretty well is not taking myself too seriously. — Linus Torvalds

A lot of people view science as dull or boring, and I think the stance we take, using humour, not taking ourselves too seriously ... I think people enjoy that. I think it's quite refreshing. — Elise Andrew

I don't consider myself a funny girl, but I do have a sense of humor because I don't take myself too seriously. Taking yourself too seriously, I think, is not right. Life is supposed to be funny. Because if you can laugh about yourself when you made a mistake or when you did something wrong, you can learn from it. — Stephanie Sigman

After 'The Hobbit,' I have no idea if things will change. I suspect if I still want to act I will have to put in the hard yards, not rest on my laurels. A lot of it is right place, right time, but I enjoy the challenge, constantly refining my craft, not taking it too seriously but never taking it for granted. — Mark Hadlow

If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe. — Joe Rogan

I am never usually taking myself too seriously and I think that people when they read stuff from me, they have to realise that I'm having fun. — Katy Perry

Do you think pandas know they're Chinese and they're taking the one child policy a bit too seriously? — Jim Jefferies

A few of the other Traders who dispute that the dragons are anything but animals said that she was taking the matter too seriously, that creatures that can only communicate with some people rather than everyone should not be treated as if they are equal to humans. And then, of course, the arguments degenerated. Some demanded to know if that meant speakers of foreign languages were not full humans. Someone else quipped that surely — Robin Hobb

When we take ourselves too seriously, we are at the risk of taking other things, including God, too lightly, — James Martin

My desire was no less than before, you understand, but I no longer identified with the desire. Perhaps that is why taking them too seriously, we not only increase our susceptibility to disappointment, we actually create a climate inhospitable to the free and easy fulfillment of those desires. — Tom Robbins

..i'd like to take my professional life, my career, my writing, my family and my friends seriously, but please, please protect me from ever taking myself too seriously.... Seumas — Seumas Gallacher

I think that comedians, more than any other type of celebrity, have to keep their humour and keep their feet on the ground. If they start taking themselves too seriously, they're heading for a fall. — Jimmy Carr

I want to look classy and sophisticated. For the "Running" video, I wanted to make a bit of a statement and to be slightly over-the-top. I'm not taking the piss out of myself, but I'm not taking myself too seriously, either. I'm just having fun and trying to pretend I'm a pop star, really. — Jessie Ware

I have always been accused of taking the things I love - football, of course, but also books and records - much too seriously, and I do feel a kind of anger when I hear a bad record, or when someone is lukewarm about a book that means a lot to me. — Nick Hornby

The central attitudes driving Mr. Right are:
You should be in awe of my intelligence and should look up to me intellectually. I know better than you do, even about what's good for you.
Your opinions aren't worth listening to carefully or taking seriously.
The fact that you sometimes disagree with me shows how sloppy your thinking is.
If you would just accept that I know what's right, our relationship would go much better. Your own life would go better, too.
When you disagree with me about something, no matter how respectfully or meekly, that's mistreatment of me.
If I put you down for long enough, some day you'll see. — Lundy Bancroft

We don't talk about anything substantial, it's just the introductory session, the getting-to-know-you stuff; he asks me what the trouble is and I tell him about the panic attacks, the insomnia, the fact that I lie awake at night too frightened to fall asleep. He wants me to talk a bit more about that, but I'm not ready yet. He asks me whether I take drugs, drink alcohol. I tell him I have other vices these days, and I catch his eye and I think he knows what I mean. Then I feel as if I ought to be taking this a bit more seriously, so I tell him about the gallery closing and that I feel at a loose end all the time, my lack of direction, the fact that I spend too much time in my head. — Paula Hawkins

The trick is to be grateful for our good moods and graceful in our low moods
not taking them too seriously. — Richard Carlson

Kids keep getting wiser younger, which is dangerous, and adults need to stop taking themselves too seriously. — Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

I used to do films for money earlier. I never knew what perception meant. I didn't give too much attention to scripts. It was either to buy a house or to buy a car. There was a certain frivolity to the way I used to pick up things. I wasn't taking my career seriously. — Emraan Hashmi

I took some voice lessons here and there as a teenager but nothing too serious. I started taking it more seriously when I was in Miss Saigon. I needed to improve my technique in order to survive doing that show as many time a week as I was doing it. It's not an easy show to sing, so I needed all the help I could get. — Lea Salonga

The original 'Scream' is one of those classic things, but it totally pokes fun at itself too. It's never taking itself too seriously, which is why I think it's such a cult classic. — Shenae Grimes

I started singing about three years ago, I entered a local singing competition called Stratford Idol. The other people in the competition had been taking singing lessons and had vocal coaches. I wasn't taking it too seriously at the time, I would just sing around the house. I was only 12 and I got second place. — Justin Bieber

I think today there are too many directors taking themselves seriously; the only one capable of saying anything really new and interesting is Luis Bunuel. He's a very great director. — Luchino Visconti

When you focus on the positive, the blessings and the humor and just do your thing and you stop worrying SO much about what every one else is thinking and doing and STOP taking life way too seriously ... Awesomeness happens! — Tanya Masse

For me, acting is all about the aesthetic. I just want to keep honing my craft. Not that I'm taking myself too seriously, but every artist should consider himself Picasso. Otherwise, you're doing yourself an injustice. — Giovanni Ribisi

It was funny. The adults taking all this so seriously, and the children playing
along, playing along, believing it too until suddenly the adults went too far, tried too hard, and the children
could see through their game. — Orson Scott Card

I always have this red nose in my pocket, and if it looks like I'm taking things too seriously, or the person I'm talking to is taking them too seriously, I put the nose on. It doesn't matter what we're doing or talking about, it doesn't matter if we agree or disagree, the nose changes everything. — Bernie Glassman

Hollywood, young or otherwise, is a very trend-driven town, and that can get a little out of hand at times. I just try to stay true to my own personal taste - incorporating my personality while not taking myself too seriously. — Skylar Astin

Much of the present difficulty in industrial relations arises from the fact that too many employers as well as too many legislators take the Labor Leader more seriously than he deserves to be taken, while taking the ordinary, everyday, middle-of-the-road wage-earner less seriously than he deserves to be taken. — Whiting Williams

You've got a great ass," he said, never taking his eyes from mine as we walked, oblivious to anyone watching us. "Your screams when I fuck you? I like that shit, too. The noises you make when I drive my cock balls deep and you ask for more? Fuck, I seriously like it ... a lot. — Amelia Hutchins

The task he has chosen for himself, of wooing my mother with a bright red pickup truck, a Patsy Cline tape, and a string of malapropisms, is ample justification to me for not taking the world too seriously, its relentless heartbreak notwithstanding. — Richard Russo

I think too, Jay Lethal being apart of Ring of Honor and being in that role where he's one of the guys who has the company on his back, he's taking that very seriously, and you can see it n his work. So it's been really cool to see. — Adam Cole

It would have been better to do what everyone else does, neither taking life too seriously nor seeing it as merely grotesque, choosing a profession and practicing it, grabbing one's share of the common cake, eating it and saying, "It's delicious!" rather than following the gloomy path that I have trodden all alone; then I wouldn't be here writing this, or at least it would have been a different story. The further I proceed with it, the more confused it seems even to me, like hazy prospects seen from too far away, since everything passes, even the memory of our most scalding tears and our heartiest laughter; our eyes soon dry, our mouths resume their habitual shape; the only memory that remains to me is that of a long tedious time that lasted for several winters, spent in yawning and wishing I were dead — Gustave Flaubert

I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper. — Albert Einstein

Victory will be ours!roared Joe Bob the Cannibal. "We will feast on your bones!"
I wanted to tell him he was taking the dodgeball game way too seriously,but before I could,he hefted another ball. — Rick Riordan

The aesthetic came along the way, I think - just through experimenting, and going on tour, and trying stuff out on stage, having fun with it, and not taking it too seriously. If I had a ballgown at home, I'd wear it onstage. If I found something in a charity shop, I'd wear it. That's where it grew from - just wanting to play dress-up. — Florence Welch

They think it's what we need to hear, but it's the opposite. Inviting glamorous people to school, asking them to parade their glamorous lives onstage, getting them to inspire us with their message that anything is possible if only we believe. Dream. Reach for the stars. Well, no thanks. That's not for me. I'm not going to get there, and neither are most people that I know, and that's fine by me. It is. It really is. When did it stop being fine for everyone else? The normal stuff. Sunday dinners and, I don't know , taking a walk in the park and listening to music and working in an ordinary job for an ordinary wage that will allow you to maybe go on holiday once a year, and really look forward to it too because you're are not a greedy bastard wanting more, more, more all the time. That's who should be doing a talk at school. Seriously. Show me someone happy with a life like that, because it's enough. It should be enough. All that other stuff is meaningless. — Annabel Pitcher

Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. We need to be lighthearted in what we do to avoid taking ourselves too seriously. It is a cheerful revolt against self and pride. Our work is jubilant, carefree, merry. Utter abandonment to God is done freely and with celebration. And so I urge you to enjoy this ministry of self-surrender. Don't push too hard. Hold this work lightly, joyfully. — Richard J. Foster

BECAUSE OF PIETY'S PENCHANT for taking itself too seriously, theology does well to nurture a modest, unguarded sense of comedy. Some droll sensibility is required to keep in due proportion the pompous pretensions of the study of divinity. I invite the kind of laughter that wells up not from cynicism about reflection on God but from the ironic contradictions accompanying such reflection. Theology is intrinsically funny. This comes from glimpsing the incongruity of humans thinking about God. I have often laughed at myself as these sentences went through their tortuous stages of formation. I invite you to look for the comic dimension of divinity that stalks every page. — Thomas C. Oden

Living simply means concentrating on what's important in light of eternity. And not taking the rest of life too seriously. — Annie Chapman

I jumped as Finn seemingly materialized next to me. I couldn't tell if he was talking about the ocean or my desire to be close to him. I lost all train of thought as he fixed his blue eyes on me.

"What are you doing here?" I said, a little too spastic.

"Baking cookies," he smirked at me.

"You shouldn't tease me like that, it's dangerous. I take baked goods very seriously." A slow smile formed on his lips.

"Dangerous happens to be my specialty," he said in a low voice, taking a step closer to me. My entire body warmed. He was like my own personal bonfire. — Kristen Day

A low mood is not the time to analyze your life. To do so is emotional suicide. If you have a legitimate problem, it will still be there when your state of mind improves. The trick is to be grateful for our good moods and graceful in our low moods - not taking them too seriously. The next time you feel low, for whatever reason, remind yourself, "This too shall pass." It will. — Richard Carlson