Game of Thrones TV - The Sopranos TV - George Carlin - Laurence Sterne - Carl Sagan - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV - William Shakespeare - Plutarch - William Cowper - Nazi oaths & Rudolf Hess - Samuel Butler - Aeschylus - Plato - Sam Willis - The Mayor of Casterbridge 2003 - Peter Ackroyd - Richard and the Crusaders 1954 - Spitting Image: Down and Out in the White House 1986 - House of Cards 2013-2018 - Genesis 26:28 - Genesis 50:25 - Leviticus 5:4 - Numbers 30:2&3 - I Kings 2:42-46 - II Kings 11:4 - II Chronicles 15:15 - Ezekiel 17:13-19 - Matthew 5:33-37 - James 5:12 - Koran 5:89 -
Ygritte: And you think you’re free? You swore some stupid oath, and now you can never touch a girl?
Jon Snow: It was my choice to say the words.
Ygritte: So you don’t like girls?
Jon Snow: ’Course I like girls!
Ygritte: But you promised never to touch them?!
Jon Snow: That’s the price you pay if you want to be a man of the Night’s Watch! Games of Thrones s2e7: A Man Without Honour
You took an oath and you broke it. The Sopranos s1e5: College, Tony, HBO 1999
May I burn in Hell if I betray my friends. The Sopranos s3e3: Fortunate Son, Chris’s oath
You took an oath, Gene. There’s no retiring from this. The Sopranos s6e1: Members Only, Tony
Swearing on the Bible. You understand that shit? They tell you to raise your right hand, place your left hand on the Bible. Does this stuff really matter which hand? Does God really give a fuck about details like this? ... If they said to me, Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God, I’d say, Yeah! I’ll tell you as much truth as the people that wrote that fucking Bible. How do like that, huh? … It’s kid’s stuff. George Carlin
Now don’t let us give ourselves a parcel of airs, and pretend that the oaths we make free with in this land of liberty of ours are our own; and because we have the spirit to swear them – imagine that we have had the wit to invent them too. Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation. Carl Sagan
A Klingon blood oath can never be broken. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s2e19: Blood Oath, Dax
That his own hand may strike his honour down
The mind shall banquet, though the body pine.
If you are armed to do as sworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it, too. William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors I i 20-24, King
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV III i 257
Trust none, for oaths are straws, men’s faiths are wafer-cakes ...
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck! William Shakespeare, Henry V II iii 47-48 & 52, Pistol to Nim et al
The oath of a love is no stronger than the word of a tapster. As You Like It, Globe Theatre Sky Arts 2012, Celia
I am falser than vows made in wine. ibid. Rosalind
The strongest oaths are straw to the fire of the blood. The Tempest 2010 starring Helen Mirren & Felicity Jones & Chris Cooper & Russell Brand & Reeve Carney & Tom Conti & Alan Cumming & Dimon Hounsou & Alfred Molina & Ben Whishaw et al, director Julie Taymor, Prospera
He who cheats with an oath acknowledges that he is afraid of his enemy, but that he thinks little of God. Plutarch, Parallel Lives
Thousands, careless of the damning sin,
Kiss the book’s outside who ne’er look within. William Cowper, 1731-1800, Expostulation, 1782
I swear by God this holy oath to the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler. Nazi soldiers’ oath
You take an oath to a man whom you know follows the laws of providence, which he obeys independently of the influence of earthly powers, who leads the German people rightly, and who will guide Germany’s fate. Through your oath you bind yourselves to a man who – that is our faith – was sent to us by higher powers. Do not seek Adolf Hitler with your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts! Rudolf Hess, The Oath to Adolf Hitler, 1934
I swear to Adolf Hitler steadfast loyalty to him and to him absolute obedience. 1934 mass oath led by Speer
Oaths are but words, and words but wind. Samuel Butler, Hudibras
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath. Aeschylus
There is no such thing as a lovers’ oath. Plato
66,305. Every landowner in the realm was required to swear an oath to the king ... The Oath of Serum. Sam Willis, Castles: Britain's Fortified History I, Instruments of Invasion, BBC 2014
That I will avoid all strong liquors for twenty-one years to come. The Mayor of Casterbridge 2003 starring Ciaran Hinds & James Purefoy & Jodhi May & Polly Walker & Juliet Aubrey & Darren Hawks & Jean Marsh & Michael Beint & Clive Russell & John Surman & Susan Jane Tanner et al, director David Thacke
And I have kept my oath. ibid. Mayor
He [More] was now effectively a prisoner. He had rejected the oath and was therefore to be charged with ‘misprision of treason’. But he had refused to give his reasons for his fateful decision and, at this moment, he entered silence. Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More p354
There is a divinity about a Plantagenet which must not be soiled by any oath of lower house or race. King Richard and the Crusaders aka Talisman 1954 starring Rex Harrison & Virginia Mayo & George Sanders & Laurence Harvey & Robert Douglas & Michael Pate & Paul Raymond & Lester Matthews & Antony Eustrel et al, director David Butler, Richard
I a famous person acknowledge that the Famous Corporation has given me that fame in return for my unquestioning loyalty and service … Spitting Image: Down and Out in the White House, oath of allegiance, ITV 1986
Repeat after me: I do solemnly swear to take no prisoners. (Politics & Oath) House of Cards s6e5: Chapter 70, Claire with new all-female cabinet, Netflix 2018
And they [Abimelech] said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with [Isaac] thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee. Genesis 26:28
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. Genesis 50:25
Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. Leviticus 5:4
If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth. Numbers 30:2&3
And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the Lord, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? And thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good.
Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?
The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head;