MORALITY: A Man For All Seasons Quotes
Thomas more
"...yes, I'd give the devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake"
Common man
"16th century is the century of the common man. Like all other centuries. And that's my proposition"
thomas more
"And what would you do with a water spaniel that was afraid of water? you'd hang it!"
Cromwell
"Are you coming in my direction, rich?"
Richard rich
"But every man has his price"
thomas more
"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...I trust i make myself obscure?"
King henry
"Does a man need a pope to tell him when he's sinned? It was a sin, Thomas; I admit it; I repent"
Cromwell
"Get sure. No it's not like that, it's much more a matter of convenience, administrative convenience
thomas more to the duke of norfolk
"I can't relieve 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."
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! Mind it Thomas!"
Thomas more
"I neither could nor would rule my king. But there is a little...little area where i must tule myself. its very little - less to him than a tennis court. Look it was 8 o'clock at 8 Lady Anne likes to dance "
Cromwell
"I think you'd make a good collector of revenues for York diocese"
Richard rich
"I'm adrift, help me"
Richard rich
"I'm lamenting, I've lost my innocence"
Common man
"It is perverse! To start a play made up of kings & cardinals in speaking costumes & intellectuals with embroidered mouths, with me"
thomas more
"Morality's not practical. Morality's a gesture"
Cardinal Wolsey
"More! You should've been a cleric!"
Will roper
"Must everything be made convenient? I'm not a convenient man, Meg. I've got an inconvenient conscience!"
Steward (Common Man)
"My Master Thomas more would give anything to anyone. Some say it's good/bad, but I say he can't help it and that's bad...because someday someone's going to ask him for something that he wants to keep and he'll be out of practice. That's only common sense"
Thomas more
"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"
Cardinal Wolsey
"No, Catherine's his wife and she's as barren as a brick"
thomas more
"Now listen, Will. and meg, you listen too, you know I know you well. God made the angels to show him splendor...but man he made to serve him wittily, in the tangle of his mind!"
Common Man
"Now, damn me, isn't that them all over! Miss? ...he...miss? ...miss me? what's in me for him to miss?"
Will roper
"The Church is heretical! Doctor Luther's proved that to my satisfaction!"
Common Man
"The great things not to get out of your depth oh when I cannot touch the bottom I'll go dumb deaf and blind"
thomas more
"The nobility of England would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount"
Thomas more
"Two years ago you were a passionate churchman; now you're a passionate Lutheran. We must pray that when your heads finished turning your face is to the front again"
common man
"Two years. During that time a lot of water's flowed under the bridge, and one of the things that have come floating along on it is...'The Church of England, that finest flower of our Island genius for compromise..."
King Henry
"Well I dance superlatively! THATS A DANCERS LEG, MARGARET! ? ...shall I show them Howard? Shall I?"
Common man
"Whether we follow tradition in ascribing Wolsey's death to a broken heart or accept professor Larcomb's less feeling diagnosis of pulmonary pneumonia, its effect cause the kings displeasure"
Thomas more
"You see, we speak of being anchored to our principles. But if the weather turns nasty you up with an anchor and let it down when there's less wind and the fishing's better. a look we say "look im anchored"
Cardinal Wolsey
"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've been a statesman"
Richard rich
"he said 'parliament has not the competence' or words to that effect"
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 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"
thomas more
"if we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. ...since we see that anger, pride, and lust commonly profit beyond humility, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes."
margaret/meg
"in any state that was half good, you would be raised up high, not here, for what you've done already. It's not your fault that the state's 3/4 bad. if you elect to suffer for it, you elect yourself a hero"
thomas more
"oh sweet jesus! these plain simple men!"
cromwell
"there are many kinds of silence...is there a man in this court who doesn't know thomas more's opinion of the king's title? Of course not! this silence was not silence at all but most eloquent denial"
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
"when a man takes an oath, he's holding his own self in his own hands like water. if he opens his fingers, he needn't hope to find himself again."
thomas more
"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?"
jailer/common man
"you understand my position, sir, there's nothing I can do; I'm a plain simple man and just want to keep out of trouble"
thomas more
Not so, Master Secretary, "the maxim is 'qui tacet consentire' aka 'silence gives consent' If therefore you wish to construe that I consented, not that I denied"
King Henry
you must consider, Thomas, that I stand in peril of my soul. it was no marriage; she was my brothers widow. Leviticus: "thou shall not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife"
