Thomas More 1478 – 1535
Sir Thomas More was an English Renaissance humanist, lawyer, statesman, and Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII. A close friend of Erasmus, he produced the Utopia in 1516, a Latin work whose imaginary island society of communal property and religious toleration inaugurated a new genre of political imagination and named it. Refusing on grounds of conscience to recognize the king as supreme head of the Church of England, he was tried for treason and beheaded in 1535. He was canonized in 1935 and is honored as the patron of statesmen and lawyers.
Key facts
- Nationality
- English
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Renaissance, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“I die the King's good servant, but God's first.”
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can.”
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“There are several sorts of things which I most desire never to be without: peace, simple food, an open hearth, and the love of friends.”
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.”
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.”