Thomas More Quotes

One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated.

If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes.

You wouldn't abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn't control the winds.

Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones.

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

For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.

The heart that has truly loved never forgets.

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

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

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

Sex and religion are closer to each other than either might prefer.

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

Whoever loveth me, loveth my hound.

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.

A man taking basil from a woman will love her always.

The increasing influence of the Bible is marvelously great, penetrating everywhere. It carries with it a tremendous power of freedom and justice guided by a combined force of wisdom and goodness.

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.

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.

Two evils, greed and faction are the destruction of all justice.

If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable.

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

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

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.

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

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

If the lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him.

Pride thinks it's own happiness shines the brighter by comparing it with the misfortunes of others.

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.

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

We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

He travels best that knows when to return.

Our emotional symptoms are precious sources of life and individuality.

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.

The chief aim of their constitution is that, whenever public needs permit, all citizens should be free, so far as possible, to withdraw their time and energy from the service of the body, and devote themselves to the freedom and culture of the mind. For that, they think, is the real happiness of life.

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.

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

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

Friendship demands attention.