“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn't hope to find himself again.”

— Robert Bolt , A Man for All Seasons

Sir Thomas More, Act II
A Man for All Seasons (1960)

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 "When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then…" by Robert Bolt?

Robert Bolt 13

English playwright 1924–1995

Related quotes

“Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

The Ayn Rand Column ‘Introducing Objectivism’

“There is nothing that so raises a young man's self-esteem, that so contributes to the formation of his character as for him to find himself unexpectedly confronted with a task which he has to accomplish entirely on his own initiative and by his own efforts.”

Stefan Zweig book Beware of Pity

Beware of Pity (1939)

“A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.”

Eric Hoffer book The True Believer

Section 10
The True Believer (1951), Part One: The Appeal of Mass Movements

“A man should build a house with his own hands before he calls himself an engineer.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)

“But when He of His special grace will shew Himself here, He strengtheneth the creature above its self, and He measureth the Shewing, after His own will, as it is profitable for the time.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 43
Context: Then shall we see God face to face, homely and fully. The creature that is made shall see and endlessly behold God which is the Maker. For thus may no man see God and live after, that is to say, in this deadly life. But when He of His special grace will shew Himself here, He strengtheneth the creature above its self, and He measureth the Shewing, after His own will, as it is profitable for the time.

“If a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that his opinion is against fighting.”

Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) Royal Navy Admiral

Statement (August 1801) [citation needed]
1800s

“He had no right to take the law into his own hands.”

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron

Tarleton v. McGawley (1795), 2 Peake, N. P. Ca. 208

“When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing to himself.”

Louis Nizer book My Life in Court

My Life in Court (1961), p. 115.

“We hold that the one and only one true basis of society is the frank recognition of these rights of self-ownership; that is to say, of the rights of control and direction by the individual, as he himself chooses, over his own mind, his own body, and his own property, always provided, that he respects the same universal rights in others.”

Auberon Herbert (1838–1906) British politician

The Principles of Voluntaryism and Free Life

“It's only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Comments on a passage in Where the Wild Things Are (1963) by Maurice Sendak, as quoted by Bill Moyers in "NOW with Bill Moyers", PBS (12 March 2004) http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/sendak.html
Source: The Hero With a Thousand Faces

“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn't hope to find himself again.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Robert Bolt 13

Related quotes

Related topics