Sir Thomas More Quotes

“Well . . . I believe, when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties . . . they lead their country by a short route to chaos.”

“I know what’s legal not what’s right. And I’ll stick to what’s legal.”

“The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can’t navigate. . . . But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I’m a forester.”

This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man’s laws, not God’s—and if you cut them down—and you’re just the man to do it—d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

“A man should go where he won’t be tempted.”

“I have not disobeyed my sovereign. I truly believe no man in England is safer than myself.”

“You don’t know how to flatter.”

“In matters of conscience, the loyal subject is more bounden to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing.”

“My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone . . . .some day someone’s going to ask him for something that he wants to keep.”

“To frighten a man there must be something in the cupboard, must there not?”

“What’s in me for him to miss?”

“You have long known the secrets of my heart.”