A Man for all Seasons Quotes
"No, Catherine's his wife and she's as barren as a brick. Are you going to pray for a miracle?"
Cardinal Wolsey
I believe that you believe that. You're a constant regret to me, Thomas. If you could just see facts flat on, without that horrible moral squint; with just a little common sense, you could have been a statesman.
Cardinal Wolsey
You must consider, Thomas, that I stand in peril of mom soul. It was no marriage ; she was my brothers widow.
King Henry
"In any State that was half good, you would be raised up high, not here, for what you've done already."
Meg
"But what matters to me is not whether it's true or not but that I believe it to be true, or rather, not that I believe it, but that I believe it..."
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"No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal."
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"Oh sweet Jesus ! These plain simple men !"
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And what would you do with a water spaniel that was afraid of water? You'd hang it! Well, as a spaniel is to water, so is a man to his own self. I will not give in because I oppose it. I do, not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites but I do I. Is there not a single sinew in the midst of this that serves no appetite of Norfolk's but is just Norfolk? There is! Give that some exercise my lord.
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And when we stand before God, and you are sent to paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for fellowship.
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I can't relive you of your obedience to the King, Howard. You must relieve yourself of our friendship. No one's safe now, and you have a son.
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Now listen Will. And Meg you listen too, you know I know you well. God made the angels to serve him in splendor- as he made the animals for innocence and the plants for their simplicity. But man her made to serve him wittily in the tangle of his mind.
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Silence gives consent
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Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flats; it is a matter of capable question. But if it is flat, will the King's command make it round?
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That's very neat. But look now... If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes.
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The notability in England my lord, would have snored through the Sermon on the amount. But you'll labor like Thomas Aquinas over a fat dog's pedigree. Now what's the name of those distorted creatures you're breeding at the moment?
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Then it's a poor argument to call it neat Meg, when a man takes an oath, he's holding his own self in his own hands like water. And if he opens his fingers he needn't hope to find himself again. Some men aren't capable of this, but I'd loathe to think your father one of them.
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He said, "Parliament has not the competence."
Rich
I'm adrift. Help me.
Rich
It would depend what I was offered.
Rich
"But every man has his price!"
Richard Rich
I'm lamenting, I've lost my innocence.
Richard Rich
Must everything be made convenient? I'm not a convenient man, Meg--I've got an inconvenient conscience!
Roper
The Church is heretical! Doctor Luther's proved that to my satisfaction.
Roper
"I neither could nor would rule my King. But there's a little...little, area...where I must rule myself. It's very little—no less to him than a tennis court."
Thomas More
"Listen Roper. Two years ago you were a passionate Churchman; now you're a passionate Lutheran. We must just pray that when your head's finished turning, your face is to the front again"
Thomas More
At 8 o'clock Lady Anne likes to dance.
Thomas More
But if the weather turns nasty and you up with an anchor and let it down where there's less wind and the fishing's better. And "Look" we say "Look I'm anchored."
Thomas More
If Wolsey fell, the splash would swamp a few small boats like ours. There will be no new chancellors while Wolsey lives.
Thomas More
Oh? And when the last law is down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast, man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down, ad you're just the man to do it, d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then. Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of Law, for my own safety's sake.
Thomas More
That you should put away Queen Catherine, Sire? Oh, alas as I think of it I see so clearly that I can not come with Your Grace that my endeavor is not to think of it at all.
Thomas More
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. And we shall have my prayers to fall back on.
Thomas More
The Great Harry.... I steered her, Thomas, under sail.
King Henry
I am a plain simple man and I just want to keep out of trouble
Common man
I'm breathing... Are you breathing too? It's nice isn't it? It isn't difficult to keep alive friends - just don't make trouble - or if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that's expected. Well, I don't need to tell you that. Good night. If we should bump into one another, recognize me.
Common man
It is preverse! To start a play made of Kings and Cardinals in speaking costumes and intellectuals with embroidered mouths, with me.
Common man
Miss... He.... Miss? Miss me? .... What's in me for him to miss? ..... all right so he's down on his luck! I'm sorry. I don't mind saying that: I'm sorry! Bad luck! If I'd any good luck to spare he could have some. I wish we could all have good luck all the time! I wish we had wings! I wish rain water was beer! But it isn't! ..... And what's with not having wings but walking in two flat feet; and good luck and bad luck being just exactly even Stevens.
Common man
My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone. 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. There must be something he wants to keep. That's common sense.
Common man
Oh, he's a deep one that Sir Thomas More... Deep... It takes a lot of education to get a man as deep as that... and a deep nature to begin with too.
Common man
The great thing's not to get out of your depth.... when I can't touch the bottom I'll go deaf, blind and dumb.
Common man
The sixteenth century is the century of the common man. Like all other centuries. And that's my proposition.
Common man
Are you coming in my direction Rich?
Cromwell
I think you'd make a good Collector of Revenues for York Diocese.
Cromwell
No, it's not like that, it's much more a matter of convenience, administrative convenience.
Cromwell
Thomas, Thomas, does a man need a Pope to tell him when he's sinned? It was a sin, Thomas; I admit it; I repent. And God has punished me; I have no son.
King Henry
"Well, I dance superlatively!... That's a dancer's leg."
King Henry
I have no Queen! Catherine is not my wife and no priest can make her so, and they that say she is my wife are not only liars... but traitors.
King Henry
Oh Lady Alice, I must go. I want to catch the tide. To tell the truth, Lady Alice, I have forgotten in your haven how time flows past outside. Affairs call me to court.
King Henry
"More! You should have been a cleric!"
Wolsey