Thomas More Quotes
Top 82 wise famous quotes and sayings by Thomas More
Thomas More Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Thomas More on Wise Famous Quotes.
By reason of gifts and bribes the offices be given to rich men, which should rather have been executed by wise men.
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.
The way to heaven is the same from all places, and he that had no grave had the heavens still over him.
The Utopians wonder that any man should be so enamoured of the lustre of a jewel, when he can behold a star or the sun
Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.
Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.
For the whole country is full of soldiers, still kept up in time of peace (if such a state of a nation can be called a peace);
And as robbers prove sometimes gallant soldiers, so soldiers often prove brave robbers, so near an alliance there is between those two sorts of life.
All things appear incredible to us, as they differ more or less from our own manners.
- Utopia, Bk 2. (1516)
- Utopia, Bk 2. (1516)
Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?
For as love is oftentimes won with beauty, so it is not kept, preserved, and continued, but by virtue and obedience.
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.
To love God, which was a thing far excelling all the cunning that is possible for us in this life to obtain.
[On ascending the platform to his execution] I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself.
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.
Even the Gods, who walk the sky, are amourous of thy scented sigh.
For things will never be perfect, until human beings are perfect - which I don't expect them to be for quite a number of years!
For the springs of both good and evil flow from the prince over a whole nation, as from a lasting fountain.
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.
(...) there's a rule that no question affecting the general public may be finally decided until it has been debated for three days.
Lord, give me a sense of humor so that I may take some happiness from this life and share it with others.
rule is easily observed by removing some of the children of a more fruitful couple to any other family that does not abound so much in them.
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.
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.
And, indeed, nature has so made us, that we all love to be flattered and to please ourselves with our own notions
Everywhere do I percieve a certain conspiracy of rich men seeking their own advantage underthat name and pretext of commonwealth.
Why shouldst thou not take even as much pleasure in beholding a counterfeit stone, which thine eye cannot discern from a right stone?
Take something from yourself, to give to another, that is humane and gentle and never takes away as much comfort as it brings again.
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.
From whichsoever of these motives it might be, true it is, that many of them came over to our religion, and were initiated into it by baptism.
They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.