A good mouth-filling oath. [ William Shakespeare ]
A liar is always lavish of oaths. [ Corn ]
He that imposes an oath makes it.
Not he that for Convenience takes it. [ Butler ]
It is a great sin to swear unto a sin.
But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. [ William Shakespeare ]
Oaths are but words, and words but wind. [ Butler ]
Or, having sworn too hard a keeping oath,
Study to break it and not break my troth. [ William Shakespeare ]
The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows;
They are polluted offerings, more abhorred
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. [ William Shakespeare ]
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate. [ William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II Sc.7 ]
An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven:
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
No, not for Venice. [ William Shakespeare ]
I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy;
I have sworn thee fair. [ William Shakespeare ]
'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth.
But the plain single vow that is vowed true. [ William Shakespeare ]
With oaths like rivets forced into your brain. [ Cowper ]
Recognized probity is the surest of all oaths. [ Mme. Necker ]
With a bloody flux of oaths vows deep revenge. [ Quarles ]
Take not His name, who made thy mouth, in vain;
It gets thee nothing, and hath no excuse. [ George Herbert ]
I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath;
Who shuns not to break one, will sure crack both. [ William Shakespeare ]
Trust none,
For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer cakes.
And hold-fast is the only doer. [ William Shakespeare ]
Little girls are won with dolls, big ones with oaths. [ A. Ricard ]
I have heard they are the most lewd impostors,
Made of all terms and shreds, no less beliers
Of great men's favours than their own vile medicines,
Which they will utter upon monstrous oaths;
Selling that drug for two pence ere they part.
Which they have valued at twelve crowns before. [ Ben Jonson ]
Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt. [ Dr. John ]
It's a hard world, neighbors, if a man's oath must be his master. [ Dryden ]
There are no oaths that make so many perjurers as the vows of love. [ Rochebrune ]
What makes the breaking of all oaths a holy duty? - food and clothes. [ Butler ]
Oaths were not purposed more than law to keep the good and just in awe. [ Samuel Butler ]
Oaths are the counterfeit money with which we pay the sacrifice of love. [ Ninon de Leuclos ]
Oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, and hold-fast is the only dog. [ William Shakespeare ]
The tears of a whore, and the oaths of a bully, may be put in the same bottle. [ Proverb ]
What use of oaths, of promise, or of test, where men regard no God but interest? [ Waller ]
Jack was embarrassed - never hero more. And as he knew not what to say, he swore. [ Byron ]
When a gentleman is disposed to swear it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths. [ William Shakespeare ]
An oath is a recognizance to heaven, binding us over in the courts above to plead to the indictment of our crimes. [ Southern ]
And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. [ Thomas Jefferson ]
Nay, but weigh well what you presume to swear. Oaths are of dreadful weight! and, if they are false. Draw down damnation. [ Sir Thomas Overbury ]
I take the official oath today with no mental reservations and with no purpose to construe the Constitution by any hypercritical rules. [ Abraham Lincoln ]
A father who whipped his son for swearing and swore at him while he whipped him, did more harm by his example than good by his correction. [ Thomas Fuller ]
A careless and blasphemous use of the name of the Divine Being is not only sinful, but it is also prima facie evidence of vulgar associations. [ Hosea Ballou ]
You can have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend
it. [ Abraham Lincoln ]
For it comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him. [ William Shakespeare ]
They fix attention, heedless of your pain, With oaths like rivets forced into the brain; And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt. [ Cowper ]
Lord Melbourne was so accustomed to garnish his conversation in this way that Sydney Smith once said to him, We will take it for granted that everybody is damned, and now proceed with the subject.
[ L'Estrange ]
The accusing spirit, which flew off to heaven's chancery with the oath blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever. [ Sterne ]
One man affirms that he has rode post a hundred miles in six hours: probably it is a lie; but supposing it to be true, what then? Why, he is a very good post-boy; that is all. Another asserts, and probably not without oaths, that he has drunk six or eight bottles of wine at a sitting; out of charity I will believe him a liar; for, if I do not, I must think him a beast. [ Chesterfield ]