We may not all break the Ten Commandments, but we are certainly all capable of it. Within us lurks the breaker of all laws, ready to spring out at the first real opportunity.

Meaning of the quote

The quote suggests that even though we may not actually break the Ten Commandments, we all have the ability to do so. There is a part of us that is willing to break the rules and laws, just waiting for the right moment to come out. Even the most well-behaved people have this side to them, which can emerge when the opportunity presents itself.

About Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan was an American-born dancer and choreographer who pioneered modern contemporary dance. She performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US until her tragic death in 1927 when her scarf became entangled in the wheel of a car she was travelling in.

More about the author

More quotes from Isadora Duncan

So long as little children are allowed to suffer, there is no true love in this world.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

My motto – sans limites.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

Perhaps he was a bit different from other people, but what really sympathetic person is not a little mad?

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered animals, how can we expect any ideal living conditions on this earth?

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

Any intelligent woman who reads the marriage contract, and then goes into it, deserves all the consequences.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

The finest inheritance you can give to a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live in is to love – to love as Christ loved, as Buddha loved.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

So that ends my first experience of matrimony, which I always thought a highly over-rated performance.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

We may not all break the Ten Commandments, but we are certainly all capable of it. Within us lurks the breaker of all laws, ready to spring out at the first real opportunity.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

It has taken me years of struggle, hard work and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

Most human beings today waste some 25 to 30 years of their lives before they break through the actual and conventional lies which surround them.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

The first essential in writing about anything is that the writer should have no experience of the matter.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

People don’t live nowadays: they get about ten percent out of life.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

The real American type can never be a ballet dancer. The legs are too long, the body too supple and the spirit too free for this school of affected grace and toe walking.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer

It seems to me monstrous that anyone should believe that the jazz rhythm expresses America. Jazz rhythm expresses the primitive savage.

Isadora Duncan

American dancer and choreographer