No Nonsense Quotes

“She took care of evyone with the same no-nonsense air of friendliness and good cheer that made her seem so paradoxically wholesome, as if she were convinced that being a slut and being a really nice person were just two things that naturally went together.”

— Tom Perrotta

“Throughout the most trying phase of the Case, Nixon and his family, and sometimes his parents, were at our farm, encouraging me and comforting my family. My children have caught him lovingly in a nickname. To them, he is always "Nixie," the kind and the good, about whom they will tolerate no nonsense. His somewhat martial Quakerism sometimes amused and always heartened me. I have a vivid picture of him, in the blackest hour of the Hiss Case, standingby the barn and saying in his quietly savage way (he is the kindest of men): "If the American people understood the real character of Alger Hiss, they would boil him in oil.”

— Whittaker Chambers

“Dude, nonsense is actually afraid of you, that's how no-nonsense you are.”

— Tere Michaels

“Through the early 1930s, Barbara Stanwyck established her reputation in a field overflowing with other young Broadway starlets: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Joan Blondell. Barbara was lower-keyed and less mannered than Davis and Hepburn; less glamorous than Colbert. She was "real," and she also proved to be the personification of no-nonsense professionalism, making her popular with directors and coworkers alike.”

— Eve Golden

“For the first time I got a good look at the woman who, despite avowed intentions, had saved my life. I was surprised first to see that she was old. Her hair was silver, tied back behind her head in a no-nonsense bun. Her face was lined with wrinkles. On her head she wore a hat with a very wide brim, a kind of hat I'd never seen before. She also wore tight-fitting black pants and black leather boots and a brown leather jacket. A patch on her shoulder read PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE TROOPER. On the front of her jacket was a nameplate that read CAXTON.”

— David Wellington

“Marena looked at all of them out of her big, calm, shining eyes. "Love is no nonsense," she said. "It has to come.”

— Felix Salten

“For God's sake. In movies, they fix the note to a dog's collar and it trots off obediently, no nonsense.”

— Sophie Kinsella

“There are occasions when girls like Bathsheba will put up with a great deal of unconventional behavior. When they want to be praised, which is often; when they want to be mastered, which is sometimes; and when they want no nonsense, which is seldom.”

— Thomas Hardy

“In summary, the typical educated Roman of this age was orderly, conservative, loyal, sober, reverent, tenacious, severe, practical. He enjoyed discipline, and would have no nonsense about liberty. He obeyed as a training for command. He took it for granted that the government had a right to inquire into his morals as well as his income, and to value him purely according to his services to the state. He distrusted individuality and genius. He had none of the charm, vivacity, and unstable fluency of the Attic Greek. He admired character and will as the Greek admired freedom and intellect; and organization was his forte. He lacked imagination, even to make a mythology of his own. He could with some effort love beauty, but he could seldom create it. He had no use for pure science, and was suspicious of philosophy as a devilish dissolvent of ancient beliefs and ways. He could not, for the life of him, understand Plato, or Archimedes, or Christ. He could only rule the world.”

— Will Durant

“I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.”

— Herman Melville

“But they all recognized the steady, no-nonsense influence Jack had had on Truman; he was the ballast to Truman's airy sails.”

— Melanie Benjamin

“The people of Ankh-Morpork had a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to entertainment, and while they were looking forward to seeing a dragon slain, they'd be happy to settle instead for seeing someone being baked alive in his own armour. You didn't get the chance every day to see someone baked alive in their own armour. It would be something for the children to remember.”

— Terry Pratchett

“Nanny Ogg was sitting out in her back garden in the no-nonsense way of old ladies everywhere, legs wide apart for the healthy circulation of air.”

— Terry Pratchett

“No, when it came to avoiding going to church, the church he stolidly avoided going to was St. Cecil and All Angels, no-nonsense C. of E., and he wouldn't have dreamed of avoiding going to any other.”

— Terry Pratchett

“To a thoughtful biographer, [Ebling Mis's house] was "the symbolization of a retreat from a non-academic reality", a society columnist gushed silkily at its "frightfully masculine atmosphere of careless disorder", a University Ph.D called it brusquely, "bookish, but unorganized", a non-university friend said, "good for a drink anytime and you can put your feet on the sofa", and a breezy newsweekly broadcast, that went in for color, spoke of the "rooky, down-to-earth, no-nonsense living quarters of blaspheming, Leftish, balding Ebling Mis".
To Bayta, who thought of no audience but herself at the moment, and who had the advantage of first-hand information, it was merely sloppy.”

— Isaac Asimov

“There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.”

— Robertson Davies

“My father was a no-nonsense, dedicated, and focused minister, and there was usually a sermon he needed to prepare for or a Scripture he needed to study, and that always came first.”

— Arsenio Hall

“There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.”

— Bertrand Russell

“Thank you," Becky whispered ... "I wouldn't have survived that stool. It would have been 'Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.'"
With rings on your fingers and bells on your toes even, " he said.
"Curious that meeting you is more nursery rhyme than fairy tale. If I see a farmer's wife with a butcher's knife, I'm running and not looking back."
"And I'll have no nonsense from my dish and spoon.”

— Shannon Hale

“My grandfather was a really, really tough no-nonsense factory worker who emigrated from Ireland in about 1900 to Bridgeport, Conn. He had a big effect on me. Those guys who took a great leap out into what they knew not were the ones who were the real stars, the real heroes.”

— Brian Dennehy

“My cosmetic range, easy4Men, is not going that well. It's meant to be for the no-nonsense man, but now I don't know if the no-nonsense man exists.”

— Stelios Haji-Ioannou

“Stand ipecacuanha, and which of them were constitutionally unable to retain that powerful drug.  One who lay dead he ordered to be carried out.  He spoke in the sharp, peremptory manner of a man who would take no nonsense, and the well men who obeyed his orders scowled malignantly.  One muttered deep in his chest as he took the corpse by the feet.  The white man exploded in speech and action.  It cost him a painful effort, but his arm shot out, landing”

— Jack London

“My grandmother raised me. She was a real no-nonsense but very funny lady. I drove tractors, made hay, milked cows, fed the chicken, fed the pigs.”

— Carol Bartz

“The first thing I do each morning is get out of bed and give my dog, Audrey, a hug. She's a Jack Russell. I think having an animal is a wonderful thing, particularly dogs. They are great levelers, there's no nonsense with them, and they just want simple affection.”

— Donatella Versace

“My dad was a longshoreman in the Port of Miami. Tough job. I worked down there in the summer once. One day. Never again. My dad was a no-nonsense guy. As a kid, I hated his rules, but as a man, I understand what he was teaching. He taught me you have to work hard for everything you get.”

— Nick Ferguson

“New Zealand is a pretty no-nonsense place to work, like Australia. I mean it doesn't falter to anyone.”

— Dustin Clare

“I have a real no-nonsense dad who taught me how to be resilient at a very young age.”

— Nicole Ari Parker

“I come from a line of self-motivated, determined folk - not grand, not high society, but no-nonsense, family-minded go-getters.”

— Bear Grylls

“Sometimes I think it's possible to mistake desire for clarity and talking in a no-nonsense way for aggression.”

— Richard Dawkins

“The Americans are an extremely interesting people. They are absolutely reasonable. I think that is their distinguishing characteristic ... I assure you there is no nonsense about the Americans.”

— Oscar Wilde

“The North American intellectual tradition began, I maintain, in the encounter of British Romanticism with assertive, pragmatic North American English - the Protestant plain style in both the U.S. and Canada, with its no-nonsense Scottish immigrants.”

— Camille Paglia

“Are you okay with what we ordered?" Angeline asked him. "You didn't pipe up with any requests."
Neil shook his head, face stoic. He kept his dark hair in a painfully short and efficient haircut. It was the kind of no-nonsense thing the Alchemists would've loved. "I can't waste time quibbling over trivial things like pepperoni and mushrooms. If you'd gone to my school in Devonshire, you'd understand. For one of my sophomore classes, they left us alone on the moors to fend for ourselves and learn survival skills. Spend three days eating twigs and heather, and you'll learn not to argue about any food coming your way."
Angeline and Jill cooed as though that was the most rugged, manly thing they'd ever heard. Eddie wore an expression that reflected what I felt, puzzling over whether this guy was as serious as he seemed or just some genius with swoon-worthy lines.”

— Richelle Mead

“We are four worthy orphans with a no-nonsense nanny."
Like Mary Poppins?" suggested the man, with a pleased look of recognition.
Not one bit like that fly-by-night woman," Nanny said with a sniff. "It almost gives me diabetes just to think of her: all those disgusting spoonfuls of sugar!”

— Lois Lowry

“Oh! Lovely!" said Nanny. "You are an old fashioned family, like us. We are four worthy orphans with a no-nonsense nanny."
"Like Mary Poppins?" suggested the man, with a pleased look of recognition.
"Not one bit like that fly-by-night woman," Nanny said with a sniff. "It almost gives me diabetes just to think of her: all those disgusting spoonfuls of sugar! None of that for me. I am simply a competent and professional nanny ...”

— Lois Lowry

“Sourav's greatest asset is his ability to communicate. He is a naturally very confident person. He encourages his team, is a great motivator and a born captain. He is not the media's blue eyed boy because he is a very straightforward person, who never minces his words, instead he talks in a no nonsense manner to the press. He shares an extremely healthy rapport with his teammates. His leadership skills are also vouched for by the youngsters in the team. He has phenomenal brand value. He's the new-age Indian, an aggressive go-getter, full of self-belief, determination.”

— Ravi Shastri

“For the first few hundred years of American history, food preparation was generally approached in a no-nonsense manner. Even as late as twenty-five years ago, the general attitude was that "feeding your face" was all right, but to make too much fuss about it was somehow decadent. In the past two decades, of course, the trend has reversed itself so sharply that earlier misgivings about gastronomic excesses seem almost to have been justified. Now we have "foodies" and wine freaks who take the pleasures of the palate as seriously as if they were rites in a brand-new religion. Gourmet”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Eden will stay with you." I glanced up at the blue-haired woman who watched us. "She promises to take good care of you. Right, Eden?"
Eden nodded, curt and no-nonsense, a soldier to the bones.
I glanced back at Angelina. "You trust her, don't you?"
Angelina didn't turn her wide eyes away from me. I needed Angelina's answer. But then her eyes sparkled, ever so slightly, as she gave me her response, a barely perceptible nod.
No one else could have possibly known how much meaning that single gesture held.
Eden was honorable. Angelina had told me so.”

— Kimberly Derting

“Steve Forman is a brutally funny writer. His no-nonsense, unadorned style begs comparison to Dashiell Hammett, but Hammett's humor at its darkest never hit home this hard. Reading of Eddie Perlmutter's exploits is like rolling in an aisle paved with broken glass and wanting to do it all over again two minutes later.”

— Loren D. Estleman

“As the field of coaching finds its way to becoming a mature discipline, James Flaherty's dedicated field research, study, and sound articulation offers a definitive ground and a sensibility of genuine care. At the core this book offers a way of thinking about human beings that makes action and practice central to learning. This is a no-nonsense, generous, pragmatic book that belongs on the shelf every coach, novice or veteran.”

— Richard Strozzi-Heckler

“I'll be firm," I promised Patch, adopting a no-nonsense expression. "No backing down."
By now Patch was full-on grinning. He kissed me again, and I felt my mouth soften its resolve. "You look cute when you're trying to be tough," he said.”

— Becca Fitzpatrick

“I tried a couple of pop writers - none of the big, big, big ones - but it didn't work for me. I do have a commercial voice; I'm not quirky. I'm very normal and that's probably why I like people like Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston. It's no-nonsense. They sing well, and that's it.”

— Jessie Ware

“Dive bars are much more my thing. They're no-nonsense.”

— Scott Eastwood

“Counterfeit Kings is the King Lear of space operas. Science fiction has a fresh, new, no-nonsense voice and his name is Adam Connell.”

— Steven-Elliot Altman

“Work smart. Get things done. No nonsense. Move fast.”

— Susan Wojcicki

“Johnny Ramone's autobiography is a no holds barred, straight-forward book written in a no-nonsense style that is Johnny personified. His story is written in his own actual words, so the reader gets an insight into what made him the unique, charismatic and exciting individual that he was. It also gives a great view of The Ramones from Johnny's perspective.”

— Tommy Ramone

“Sometimes I have wondered whether life wouldn't be much more amusing if we were all devils, and no nonsense about angels and being good.”

— William Hurlbut

“No Romeo-and-Juliet acts, no nonsense about Love with a large L, none of that popular song claptrap with its skies of blue, dreams come true, heaven with you. Just sensuality for its own sake.”

— Aldous Huxley

“Take winter as you find him, and he turns out to be a thoroughly honest fellow; with no nonsense in him, which is a great comfort in the long-run.”

— James Russell Lowell

“He was a superb military officer but he was also an extraordinarily gifted politician. That he was an unusually open, honest and no-nonsense politician did not make him unsuited for the profession, only uncommon. In uniform and in politics Barry's purpose was always the defense of freedom. And nobody before or since managed the task more ably or more colorfully than Barry Goldwater.”

— John McCain

“People will often, almost always, prefer a male God. A male image of God gives them this sense of security, safety, order, no nonsense. So that's where their psyche is at. Probably it's something that they've got to go through. Not that there isn't a need for order in the world, but the mystical level seems to be the mature level of religion, and there the question is not order but union - divine union. And so, without some integration of the feminine, usually you never get to the mystical level.”

— Richard Rohr