Top 140 Thomas More Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “If the lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him.”

— Thomas More

52. “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

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

— Thomas More

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

— Thomas More

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

— Thomas More

56. “For most princes apply themselves more to affairs of war than to the useful arts of peace; and in these I neither have any knowledge, nor do I much desire it; they are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms, right or wrong, than on governing well those they possess:.”

— Thomas More

57. “He travels best that knows when to return.”

— Thomas More

58. “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

59. “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.”

— Thomas More

60. “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

61. “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

62. “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

63. “It’s a poor doctor who can’t cure one disease without giving you another.”

— Thomas More

64. “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

65. “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

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

— Thomas More

67. “They, in opposition to the sentiments of almost all other nations, think that there is nothing more inglorious than that glory that is gained by war.”

— Thomas More

68. “It is not possible for all things to be well unless all men were good.”

— Thomas More

69. “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

70. “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

71. “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

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

— Thomas More

73. “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

74. “But Nature granted to gold and silver no function with which we cannot easily dispense. Human folly has made them precious because they are rare. In contrast, Nature, like a most indulgent mother, has placed her best gifts out in the open, like air, water and the earth itself; vain and unprofitable things she has hidden away in remote places.”

— Thomas More

75. “The magistrates never engage the people in unnecessary labour, since the chief end of the constitution is to regulate labour by the necessities of the public, and to allow the people as much time as is necessary for the improvement of their minds, in which they think the happiness of life consists.”

— Thomas More

76. “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

77. “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

78. “We are all in the same cart, going to execution; how can I hate anyone or wish anyone harm?”

— Thomas More

79. “If you do not find a remedy to these evils, it is a vain thing to boast of your severity in punishing theft, which though it may have the appearance of justice, yet in itself is neither just nor convenient. 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 for which their first education disposes them, what else is to be concluded from this but that you first make thieves and then punish them?”

— Thomas More

80. “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

81. “Getting married is like putting one’s hand in a bag containing 99 serpents and one eel.”

— Thomas More

82. “Oh! blame not the bard.”

— Thomas More

83. “A good tale evil told were better untold, and an evil take well told need none other solicitor.”

— Thomas More

84. “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

85. “Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out;.”

— Thomas More

86. “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

87. “Failing all else, their last resort will be: ‘This was good enough for our ancestors, and who are we to question their wisdom?’ Then they’ll settle back in their chairs, with an air of having said the lst word on the subject – as if it would be a major disaster for anyone to be caught being wiser than his ancestors!”

— Thomas More

88. “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

89. “It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best.”

— Thomas More

90. “Our emotional symptoms are precious sources of life and individuality.”

— Thomas More

91. “But what they find most amazing and despicable is the insanity of those who all but worship the rich, to whom they owe nothing and who can do them no harm; they do so for no other reason except that they are rich, knowing full well that they are so mean and tightfisted that they will certainly never give them one red cent during their whole lives.”

— Thomas More

92. “Lawyers-a profession it is to disguise matters.”

— Thomas More

93. “Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before, it was neither rhyme nor reason.”

— Thomas More

94. “All things appear incredible to us, as they differ more or less from our own manners.”

— Thomas More

95. “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

96. “No man shall be blamed in the maintenance of his own religion.”

— Thomas More

97. “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

98. “The servant may not look to be in better case than his master.”

— Thomas More

99. “Your friend Plato holds that commonwealths will only be happy when either philosophers rule or rulers philosophize: how remote happiness must appear when philosophers won’t even deign to share their thoughts with kings.”

— Thomas More

100. “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