Horace's part evinces the independent spirit, moral earnestness and critical insight that many readers look for in his poems.

Other critics, though, have seen in the play the "un-Fletcherian moral earnestness" typical of Massinger.

He treats them with profound moral earnestness.

The stifling and prudish moral earnestness of the Victorian era demanded it.

His moral earnestness is also expressed in the warning that the ears of children should be guarded against the poison of immoral speeches.

Greg was a man of deep moral earnestness of character and was interested in many philanthropic works.

His wealth is beside the point; it's his moral earnestness that grates.

It did not take long for moral earnestness to clash with secular utility.

The moral earnestness of the 1840s and 1850s expressed in the industrial novel sparked a reaction against the idea that art should advance a moral agenda.

That success rests not only on his investigative skills and moral earnestness, but on his marvelous ability to tell a story.