Thomas More Quotes

“He knows different now. It's the living that chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones thrust into their rattling mouths: we edit their writings, we rewrite their lives. Thomas More had spread the rumor that Little Bilney, chained to the stake, had recanted as the fire was set. It wasn't enough for him to take Bilney's life away; he had to take his death too.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

“My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone. Some say that’s good and some say that’s bad, but I say he can’t help it—and that’s bad…because some day someone’s going to ask him for something that he wants to keep; and he’ll be out of practice”
― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts

“Your friend Plato holds that commonwealths will only be happy when either philosophers rule or rulers philosophize: how remote happiness must appear when philosophers won't even deign to share their thoughts with kings.”
― Thomas More

“...you are bound to bear yourself as agreeably as you can towards those whom nature or chance or your own choice has made the companions of your life.”
― Thomas More, Utopia

“My father always says, choosing a wife is like putting your hand into a bag full of writhing creatures, with one eel to six snakes. What are the chances you will pull out the eel?”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

“As More says, it hardly makes a man a hero, to agree to stand and burn once he is chained to a stake. I have written books and I cannot unwrite them. I cannot unbelieve what I believe. I cannot unlive my life.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

“Thomas More was widely regarded as a man of impeccable character and meticulous honesty. People trusted his judgment, and his refusal to sign sent a message to the people of England. He didn’t speak out against the acts; he simply refused to sign or say anything at all. But one honest man's silence is louder than all the words of ten thousand dishonest men.”
― Matthew Kelly, Rediscover the Saints: Twenty-Five Questions That Will Change Your Life

“Ví dụ như người Utopia không thể hiểu được tại sao lại có người mê mẩn được vẻ óng ánh buồn thảm của một hòn đá bé xíu trong khi họ có toàn bộ sao sáng trên trời để chiêm ngưỡng - hoặc làm sao lại có người ngu ngốc đến nỗi tưởng mình hơn người khác chỉ vì mặc quần áo dệt bằng sợi len mịn và nhỏ hơn người ta. Nói cho cùng thì len là quần áo của cừu và không thể làm cho ai thành cái gì hơn cừu được.”
― Thomas More, Utopia

“Personally I know only one person who wrote about utopia. Afterwards he was executed. I suppose it's not my genre.”
― Alexander Zalan, Pavilion of Thoughts

“Foreman, you’re the historian,” Thomas said. “It’s tha same damned thing they killed me for the first time, isn’t it?”
“Same damned thing, Thomas.”
― R.A. Lafferty, Past Master