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 MoreAnyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all.
Thomas MoreThe 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 MoreThe 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 MoreFor 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 MoreThe 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 MoreHowbeit, 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 MoreThe most part of all princes have more delight in warlike manners and feats of chivalry than in the good feats of peace.
Thomas MoreI 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 MoreThere 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 MoreFor 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 MoreAnd 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 MoreLord, give me a sense of humor so that I may take some happiness from this life and share it with others.
Thomas MoreFor 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. . . 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 MorePride 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 MoreA pretty face may be enough to catch a man, but it takes character and good nature to hold him.
Thomas MoreIf 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 MoreWhat part soever you take upon you, play that as well as you can and make the best of it.
Thomas MoreOn 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 MoreYea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before, it was neither rhyme nor reason.
Thomas MoreAnd 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 MoreThe 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 MoreIt 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 MoreOne 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 MorePride thinks it's own happiness shines the brighter by comparing it with the misfortunes of others.
Thomas MoreThere 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