“You do not know what things you set in motion, he said. No man can know. No prophet foresee. The consequences of an act are often quite different from what one would guess. You must be sure that the intention in your heart is large enough to contain all wrong turnings, all disappointments. Do you see? Not everything has such value.”

The Crossing (1994)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You do not know what things you set in motion, he said. No man can know. No prophet foresee. The consequences of an act…" by Cormac McCarthy?

Cormac McCarthy270

American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter 1933

Related quotes

“I know your kind, he said. What’s wrong with you is wrong all the way through you.”

Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian (1985)

“How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?"
"They do it all the time," says Hayden. "That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

“But it's not enough to know right from wrong. You need the strength to do what's right, even when what you want most in the world is the wrong thing.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Exiled Queen

“What are you thinking?"
"Just how different everything down there is now, you know, now that I can see."
"Everything down there is exactly the same," he said. "You're the one that's different.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“If you know what a man's doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he's doing keep behind him.”

G. K. Chesterton book The Innocence of Father Brown

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) The Blue Cross
The Father Brown Mystery Series (1910 - 1927)

“Get it straight. Your boy you lose. Love you lose. Honor has been gone for a long time. Duty you do.
Sure and what's your duty? What I said I'd do. And all the other things you said you'd do?”

Ernest Hemingway book Islands in the Stream

Pt. 2: Cuba (a few paragraphs from the end). The 'boy' is Thomas Hudson's last surviving son, Tom, a fighter pilot who was killed in action.
Islands in the Stream (1970)

“Because every one of us has our box, a dark chamber stowing the thing that lanced our heart. It contains what you do everything for, for, everything around you.”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film