Thomas More famous quotes

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

#Wind #Storm #Ships

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.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Water #Parent

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

#Men #Ideas

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

#Character #Men #Faces

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

#Problem #Educated

If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable.
-- Thomas More

#Honor #Would Be #Honorable

It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Vanity #Invention

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

#Inspirational #Law #Reason

They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.
-- Thomas More

#People #Matter #Lawyer

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

#Witty #Sex #Humorous

Our emotional symptoms are precious sources of life and individuality.
-- Thomas More

#Emotional #Individuality #Symptoms

What is deferred is not avoided.
-- Thomas More

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.
-- Thomas More

#People #Suffering #Firsts

Instead of inflicting these horrible punishments, it would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood, so that nobody's under the frightful necessity of becoming first a thief and then a corpse.
-- Thomas More

#Mean #Punishment #Firsts

It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wish for medicines.
-- Thomas More

#Wise #Medicine #Wish

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

#Anxiety #Mind #Wealth

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

#Men #Vegetables #Basil

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.
-- Thomas More

#Hero #Pride #Common Sense

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.
-- Thomas More

#Kings #Smart #Men

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.
-- Thomas More

#Compassion #Human Nature #Finest

For when they see the people swarm into the streets, and daily wet to the skin with rain, and yet cannot persuade them to go out of the rain, they do keep themselves within their houses, seeing they cannot remedy the folly of the people.
-- Thomas More

#Rain #People #House

They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Justice #Gold

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

#Flower #Wine #Rose

A drowning man will clutch at a straw.
-- Thomas More

#Hope #Men #Drowning

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

#Two #Justice #Evil

Who does more earnestly long for a change than he who is uneasy in his present circumstances? And who run to create confusions with so desperate a boldness as those who have nothing to lose, hope to gain by them?
-- Thomas More

#Change #Running #Confusion

No more like together than is chalke to coles.
-- Thomas More

#Together #Comparison

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.
-- Thomas More

#Friendship #Chance #Made

And peradventure we have more cause to thank Him for our loss than for our winning; for His wisdom better seeth what is good for us than we do ourselves.
-- Thomas More

#Loss #Winning #Causes

To love God, which was a thing far excelling all the cunning that is possible for us in this life to obtain.
-- Thomas More

#God #God Love #This Life

Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before, it was neither rhyme nor reason.
-- Thomas More

#Poetry #Reason #Rhyme

. . . 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.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Might #States

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.
-- Thomas More

#Gold #Important #Substance

In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have.
-- Thomas More

#Art #War #Hook

The way to heaven out of all places is of length and distance.
-- Thomas More

#Distance #Heaven #Way

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of dying for it.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Dying #Might

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

#Wise #Men #Office

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.
-- Thomas More

#Heart #Pride #Men

The servant may not look to be in better case than his master.
-- Thomas More

#May #Looks #Masters

The education of youth belongs to the priests, yet they do not take so much care of instructing them in letters, as in forming their minds and manners aright; they use all possible methods to infuse, very early, into the tender and flexible minds of children, such opinions as are both good in themselves and will be useful to their country, for when deep impressions of these things are made at that age, they follow men through the whole course of their lives, and conduce much to preserve the peace of the government, which suffers by nothing more than by vices that rise out of ill opinions.
-- Thomas More

#Country #Children #Men

To gold and silver nature hath given no use that we may not well lack.
-- Thomas More

#Gold #May #Use

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.
-- Thomas More

#Way #May #Tribulation

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

#Office #Campaigns

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

#Giving #May #Sense Of Humor

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

#Encouragement #Giving #Grace

In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity; and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties.
-- Thomas More

#Taken #Men #Anxiety

Your love has build me from strength to strength. It has made me a stronger and better person than I was. There is nothing that love cannot change darling. Once you fall in love, even wars turn to love stories.
-- Thomas More

#Falling In Love #War #Romance

The heart that has truly loved never forgets.
-- Thomas More

#Inspirational #Heart #Never Forget

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

#Pride #Thinking #Shining

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

#Men #Lions

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.
-- Thomas More

#Humanity #Gains #Add

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.
-- Thomas More

#Kindness #Heart #Men

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.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Thinking #Crow

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

#Marriage #Wedding #Hands

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.
-- Thomas More

#Spiritual #Soul #Vision

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

#Helping Others #Giving #Comfort

There are several sorts of religions, not only in different parts of the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun, others the moon or one of the planets.
-- Thomas More

#Moon #Islands #Towns

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.
-- Thomas More

#Kings #Men #Lions

Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.
-- Thomas More

#Men #Rights #Law

See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself.
-- Thomas More

#Safe

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

#Carpe Diem #Play #Make The Best Of It

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

#Faith #Death #Kings

They set great store by their gardens . . . Their studie and deligence herein commeth not only of pleasure, but also of a certain strife and contention . . . concerning the trimming, husbanding, and furnishing of their gardens; everye man or his owne parte.
-- Thomas More

#Educational #Men #Garden

Friendship demands attention.
-- Thomas More

#Relationship #Demand #Attention

And it will fall out as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others.
-- Thomas More

#Change #Fall #Disease

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.
-- Thomas More

#Time #Real #Thinking

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.
-- Thomas More

#Art #Flower #Sky

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.
-- Thomas More

#Advice #Choices #Magic

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

#Law #Safety #Giving

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.
-- Thomas More

#People #Dumb #Despise

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.
-- Thomas More

#Writing #Men #Dust

Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright any from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I was there one man was only punished on this occasion.
-- Thomas More

#Fear #Men #Use

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.
-- Thomas More

#Running #Wall #Garden

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.
-- Thomas More

#Justice #Influence #Goodness

Lawyers-a profession it is to disguise matters.
-- Thomas More

#Inspirational #Matter #Lawyer

Whoever loveth me, loveth my hound.
-- Thomas More

#Uprising #Hounds

He travels best that knows when to return.
-- Thomas More

#Return

Oh! blame not the bard.
-- Thomas More

#Blame #Bards

The most part of all princes have more delight in warlike manners and feats of chivalry than in the good feats of peace.
-- Thomas More

#Peace #Delight #Chivalry

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

#Next #Theologian #Stills

On his mounting the scaffold to be beheaded: 'I pray you, Master Lieutenant, see me safely up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself.' To the executioner: 'Pick up thy spirits, Man, and be not afraid to do thyne office; my neck is very short; take heed, therefore thou strike not awry, for saving of thyne honesty.'
-- Thomas More

#Life #Success #Honesty

Howbeit, this one thing, son, I assure you on my faith, that if the parties will at hands call for justice, then, all were it my father stood on the one side, and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have right.
-- Thomas More

#Father #Party #Son

No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.
-- Thomas More

#Vanity #People #Want

A good tale evil told were better untold, and an evil take well told need none other solicitor.
-- Thomas More

#Evil #Needs #Tales