199 Quotes by Thomas More

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.

Utopians fail to understand why anyone should be so fascinated by the dull gleam of a tiny bit of stone, when he has all the stars in the sky to look at – or how anyone can be silly enough to think himself better than other people, because his clothes are made of finer woollen thread than theirs. After all, those fine clothes were once worn by a sheep, and they never turned it into anything better than a sheep.

I’m responsible for my own work, and my own work alone, not for anyone else’s credibility.

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

No penalty on earth will stop people from stealing, if it’s their only way of getting food.

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

Severe and terrible punishments are enacted for theft, when it would be much better to enable every man to earn his own living, instead of being driven to the awful necessity of stealing and then dying for it.

The most part of all be unlearned, and a great number hath learning in contempt.

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