Sir Thomas More Quotes

This hath not offended the king.

I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and my coming down let me shift for myself.

Is not this house as nigh heaven as my own?

Two evils-greed and faction-are the destruction of all justice.

Thus they say that nature herself prescribes for us a joyous life, in other words, pleasure, as the goal of our actions; and living according to her prescriptions is to be defined as virtue.

For where money is the standard of everything, many vain, superfluous trades are bound to be carried on simply to satisfy luxury and licentiousness.

Hardly any of the women, who are a full half of the population, work; or if they do, then as a rule their husbands lie snoring in bed.

The only real thing they accomplish that I can see is to make men feel a little more secure in their consciences about doing evil.

A king has no dignity when he exercises authority over beggars, only when he rules over prosperous and happy subjects.

A king who wants to maintain an army can never have too much gold.

The law of Moses is harsh and severe, as for an enslaved and stubborn people, but it punishes theft with a fine, not death. Let us not think that in his new law of mercy, where he treats us with the tenderness of a father, God has given us greater license to be cruel to one another.

Severe and terrible punishments are enacted against theft, when it would be much better to enable every man to earn his own living, instead of being driven to the awful necessity of stealing and then dying for it.

Such proud, obstinate, ridiculous judgements I have encountered many times, and once even in England.

It is only natural, of course, that each man should think his own opinions best: the old crow loves his fledglings, and the ape his cubs.

In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have.