Thomas More Quotations

I would uphold the law if for no other reason but to protect myself.

A little wanton money, which burned out the bottom of his purse.

He travels best that knows when to return.

And it will fall out as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others.

For when they see the people swarm into the streets, and daily wet to the skin with rain, and yet cannot persuade them to go out of the rain, they do keep themselves within their houses, seeing they cannot remedy the folly of the people.

The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck.

Humility, that low, sweet root, From which all heavenly virtues shoot

See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself.

And, indeed, though they differ concerning other things, yet all agree in this: that they think there is one Supreme Being that made and governs the world, whom they call, in the language of their country, Mithras.

The heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close

I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first.

What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine

If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable.

An absolutely new idea is one of the rarest things known to man.

They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.

Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright any from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I was there one man was only punished on this occasion.

There are several sorts of religions, not only in different parts of the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun, others the moon or one of the planets.

Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, / But turn to ashes on the lips!

She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps, / And lovers are round her, sighing:/ But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps, / For her heart in his grave is lying.

Plants that wake when others sleep. Timid jasmine buds that keep their fragrance to themselves all day, but when the sunlight dies away let the delicious secret out to every breeze that roams about.

Marriage is an Athenic weaving together of families, of two souls with their individual fates and destinies, of time and eternity - everyday life married to the timeless mysteries of the soul.

'Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone.

Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone

Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

There is nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dreams

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, / But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

To be educated, a person doesn't have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life

Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and tame and so small eaters, now, as I hear say, be become so great devourers, and so wild, that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves.

Then awake! the heavens look bright, my dear; / 'Tis never too late for delight, my dear;/ And the best of all ways / To lengthen our days / Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!

I never nursed a dear gazelle, / To glad me with its soft black eye, / But when it came to know me well, / And love me, it was sure to die!

If I speak to thee in friendship's name, thou think'st I speak too coldly, if I mention love's devoted flame, thou say'st I speak too boldly

In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity; and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties.

The most part of all princes have more delight in warlike manners and feats of chivalry than in the good feats of peace.

Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.

On his mounting the scaffold to be beheaded: 'I pray you, Master Lieutenant, see me safely up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself.' To the executioner: 'Pick up thy spirits, Man, and be not afraid to do thyne office; my neck is very short; take heed, therefore thou strike not awry, for saving of thyne honesty.'

Howbeit, this one thing, son, I assure you on my faith, that if the parties will at hands call for justice, then, all were it my father stood on the one side, and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have right.

Food is an implement of magic, and only the most coldhearted rationalist could squeeze the juices of life out of it and make it bland. In a true sense, a cookbook is the best source of psychological advice and the kitchen the first choice of room for a therapy of the world.

The education of youth belongs to the priests, yet they do not take so much care of instructing them in letters, as in forming their minds and manners aright; they use all possible methods to infuse, very early, into the tender and flexible minds of children, such opinions as are both good in themselves and will be useful to their country, for when deep impressions of these things are made at that age, they follow men through the whole course of their lives, and conduce much to preserve the peace of the government, which suffers by nothing more than by vices that rise out of ill opinions.

By reason of gifts and bribes the offices be given to rich men, which should rather have been executed by wise men.

Friendship demands attention.

Oh! blame not the bard.

Take something from yourself, to give to another, that is humane and gentle and never takes away as much comfort as it brings again.

Getting married is like putting one's hand in a bag containing 99 serpents and one eel.

It is possible to live for the next life and still be merry in this.

The way to heaven out of all places is of length and distance.

I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake

By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and guiding path toward a spiritual life.

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.

For men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble; and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust.

No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.

Laws could be passed to keep the leader of a government from getting too much power.

And one wild Shakespeare, following Nature's lights, Is worth whole planets, filled with Stagyrites.

Everywhere do I percieve a certain conspiracy of rich men seeking their own advantage underthat name and pretext of commonwealth.

Nobody sees a flower really,it is so small. We haven't time,and to see takes time- like to have a friend takes time. One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled, but few are educated.

It's a poor doctor who can't cure one disease without giving you another.

The times are never so bad but that a good man can make shift to live in them.

We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.

The servant may not look to be in better case than his master.

Who does more earnestly long for a change than he who is uneasy in his present circumstances? And who run to create confusions with so desperate a boldness as those who have nothing to lose, hope to gain by them?

. . . the state of things and the dispositions of men were then such, that a man could not well tell whom he might trust or whom he might fear.

Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before, it was neither rhyme nor reason.

A drowning man will clutch at a straw.

No more like together than is chalke to coles.

To love God, which was a thing far excelling all the cunning that is possible for us in this life to obtain.

And peradventure we have more cause to thank Him for our loss than for our winning; for His wisdom better seeth what is good for us than we do ourselves.

It is part of the business of life to be affable and pleasing to those whom either nature, chance or circumstance has made our companions.

Pride measures prosperity not by her own advantages but by the disadvantages of others. She would not even wish to be a goddess unless there were some wretches left whom she could order about and lord it over, whose misery would make her happiness seem all the more extraordinary, whose poverty can be tormented and exacerbated by a display of her wealth. This infernal serpent, pervading the human heart, keeps men from reforming their lives, holding them back like a suckfish.

A good tale evil told were better untold, and an evil take well told need none other solicitor.

Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all.

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

Your love has build me from strength to strength. It has made me a stronger and better person than I was. There is nothing that love cannot change darling. Once you fall in love, even wars turn to love stories.

The heart that has truly loved never forgets.

Every tribulation which ever comes our way either is sent to be medicinal, if we will take it as such, or may become medicinal, if we will make it such, or is better than medicinal, unless we forsake it.

Nor can they understand why a totally useless substance like gold should now, all over the world, be considered far more important than human beings, who gave it such value as it has, purely for their own convenience.

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.

They set great store by their gardens . . . Their studie and deligence herein commeth not only of pleasure, but also of a certain strife and contention . . . concerning the trimming, husbanding, and furnishing of their gardens; everye man or his owne parte.

Lawyers-a profession it is to disguise matters.

Rose! Thou art the sweetest flower that ever drank the amber shower: Even the Gods, who walk the sky, are amourous of thy scented sigh.

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of dying for it.

I should only ever tell the king what he ought to do, not what he could do. For if the lion knows his own strength, no man could control him.

It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best.

They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.

One man to live in pleasure and wealth, whiles all other weap and smart for it, that is the part not of a king, but of a jailor.

What is deferred is not avoided.

It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wish for medicines.

The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas, on the contrary, it is their opinion that Nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless.

The things we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labor for.

Kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with greater strength than any agreements whatsoever, since thereby the engagements of men's hearts become stronger than the bond and obligation of words.

To gold and silver nature hath given no use that we may not well lack.

Our emotional symptoms are precious sources of life and individuality.

Instead of inflicting these horrible punishments, it would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood, so that nobody's under the frightful necessity of becoming first a thief and then a corpse.

As for rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not only because my bees love it but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance and to friendship, whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language.

A pretty face may be enough to catch a man, but it takes character and good nature to hold him.

Whoever loveth me, loveth my hound.

The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.

Because the soul has such deep roots in personal and social life and its values run so contrary to modern concerns, caring for the soul may well turn out to be a radical act, a challenge to accepted norms.

What part soever you take upon you, play that as well as you can and make the best of it.

It's wrong to deprive someone else of a pleasure so that you can enjoy one yourself, but to deprive yourself of a pleasure so that you can add to someone else's enjoyment is an act of humanity by which you always gain more than you lose.

Lord, give me a sense of humor so that I may take some happiness from this life and share it with others.

Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?