Example sentences of "[was/were] [to-vb] oneself [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | It was her firm belief that the quickest way to achieve mental health was to absorb oneself in the problems of others and , in this particular centre , it seemed to have worked . |
| 2 | To insist on an overtly Polish identity was to exclude oneself from polite and educated Danzig society and to disqualify oneself from any job that promised social and economic advancement . |
| 3 | To cling to a Polish identity was to exclude oneself from the German monopoly on higher education and from all but menial employment in industry ; given the rapid depopulation of the countryside it was also to insist on the right to become and remain part of a backward , ignorant , illiterate , inward-looking agrarian people , stuck in a rural backwater with no access to the outside world , with scant interest from that world and little hope of progress . |
| 4 | To be seriously concerned with this field was to expose oneself to the possibility of ridicule when it turned out that one had been deceived by a clever confidence trickster ; at best it led to controversy , to results which were suggestive rather than conclusive , and away from those straightforward and answerable questions which since Galileo 's time had been the essence of scientific research . |
| 5 | The belief was that to ritually and voluntarily — and I stress the word ‘ voluntarily ’ — shed one 's own blood was to recommend oneself to and establish a link with the Creator of the Universe , and this is precisely what happened with circumcision . |