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Daily Inspiration Quote by Jean Anouilh

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed"

About this Quote

Anouilh’s imperative hits like a stage manager snapping the lights on: stop rehearsing your courage and step into the scene. “Are you in earnest?” isn’t a gentle check-in; it’s an accusation aimed at the comfortable pose of sincerity. In Anouilh’s theater, “earnestness” can be performance too - a moral costume worn while nothing changes. The line shoves the listener out of abstraction and into irreversible action: “Seize this very minute!” Time becomes the antagonist, not because it’s scarce in a sentimental way, but because delay is how people preserve their preferred self-image.

The bravura claim that “Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it” is calculated hype, and that’s why it works. Anouilh borrows the language of miracles to describe a very unromantic mechanism: commitment creates capability. The “magic” isn’t supernatural; it’s the psychological trick of burning the ships. Once you “engage,” you don’t just start the task - you start becoming the kind of person who can finish it. “The mind grows heated” suggests momentum as a bodily state: adrenaline, narrowed focus, the sudden clarity that arrives only after the point of no return.

There’s also a sly, playwright’s understanding of endings. “Begin, and then the work will be completed” isn’t a promise that projects effortlessly resolve; it’s a statement about narrative logic. Stories move because someone acts. Anouilh is selling action as both ethic and dramaturgy: to begin is to force the world to answer back.

Quote Details

TopicMotivational
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Anouilh, Jean. (2026, January 16). Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/are-you-in-earnest-seize-this-very-minute-86161/

Chicago Style
Anouilh, Jean. "Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/are-you-in-earnest-seize-this-very-minute-86161/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/are-you-in-earnest-seize-this-very-minute-86161/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Jean Anouilh (June 23, 1910 - October 3, 1987) was a Playwright from France.

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