Thomas More Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Thomas More, organized by topic.
Browse Thomas More by topic
Thomas More on Freedom
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“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.”
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 34.
Thomas More on God
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“I die the King's good servant, but God's first.”
Words on the scaffold, attributed in The Essentials of Freedom : The Idea and Practice of Ordered Liberty in the Twentieth Century as explored at Kenyon College (1960) by Paul Gray Hoffman, p. 43 | First reported in indirect speech in the Paris Newsletter (1535): « Apres les exhorta, et supplia tres instamment qu'ils priassent Dieu pour le Roy, affin qu'il luy voulsist donner bon conseil, protesta -
“And when the devil hath seen that they have set so little by him, after certain essays, made in such times as he thought most fitting, he hath given that temptation quite over. And this he doth not only because the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked , but also lest, with much tempting the man to the sin to which he could not in conclusion bring him, he should much increase his merit.”
Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1535), Book Two, Section XVI
Thomas More on Happiness
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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.”
Thomas More on Knowledge
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“Sometimes paraphrased "A little wanton money, which burned out the bottom of his purse.”
Now there was a young gentleman which had married a merchant 's wife. And having a little wanton money, which him thought burned out the bottom of his purse, in the first year of his wedding took his wife with him and went over sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and France and ride out one summer in those countries. -
“Richard III and His Miserable End (1543)”
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. -
“Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1535), Book Two, Section XVI”
And when the devil hath seen that they have set so little by him, after certain essays, made in such times as he thought most fitting, he hath given that temptation quite over. And this he doth not only because the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked , but also lest, with much tempting the man to the sin to which he could not in conclusion bring him, he should much increase his merit. -
“The Prince himself has no distinction, either of garments, or of a crown; but is only distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the high priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a wax light .”
Utopia(1516) | Ch. 7 : Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
Thomas More on Life
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“I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I think none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith, I long not to live.”
Thomas More's Account, in a letter to his daughter Margaret Roper, of his Second Interrogation -
“Attributed in Lives That Made a Difference: An RSME Book for Schools (2011) by P. J. Clarke”
Wikiquote
Thomas More on Mind
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.”
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“Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before it was neither rhyme nor reason.”
Advising an author to put his MS. into rhyme. Reported in Hoyt's (1922), p. 604 Rhyme nor reason. Said by Peele — Edward I . In As You Like It . Act III. Sc. 2. The Comedy of Errors . Act II. Sc. 2. The Merry Wives of Windsor . Act V. Sc. 5. Farce du Vendeur des Lieures . (16th Cen.) L'avocat Patelin (Quoted by Tyndale , 1530.) The Mouse Trap . (1606) See Beloe, Anecdotes of Literature . II. 127. -
“Advising an author to put his MS. into rhyme. Reported in Hoyt's (1922), p. 604 Rhyme nor reason. Said by Peele — Edward I . In As You Like It . Act III. Sc. 2. The Comedy of Errors . Act II. Sc. 2. The Merry Wives of Windsor . Act V. Sc. 5. Farce du Vendeur des Lieures . (16th Cen.) L'avocat Patelin (Quoted by Tyndale , 1530.) The Mouse Trap . (1606) See Beloe, Anecdotes of Literature . II. 127. Also in MS. in Cambridge University Library, England. 2. 5. Folio 9b. (Before 1500) (See also Spenser )”
Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before it was neither rhyme nor reason. -
“Now there was a young gentleman which had married a merchant 's wife. And having a little wanton money, which him thought burned out the bottom of his purse, in the first year of his wedding took his wife with him and went over sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and France and ride out one summer in those countries.”
Works (c. 1530) | Sometimes paraphrased "A little wanton money, which burned out the bottom of his purse. -
“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.”
Utopia(1516) | Ch. 6 : Of the Travelling of the Utopians
Thomas More on Politics
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Attributed to Thomas More:
“Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any.”
Thomas More on Virtue
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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:
“A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.”
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“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.”
Richard III and His Miserable End (1543)
Things actually not said by Thomas More
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Thomas More but are in fact from someone else. Did Thomas More say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Thomas More say this? No.
“As for rosemarie, I lett it run alle over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love it, but because 'tis the herb sacred to remembrance and therefore to friendship, whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh ye chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and in our buriall grounds.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Actually written in 1852 by Anne Manning in her fictional novel The Household of St Thomas More , as if a diary entry was made by his daughter Margaret; and so, although written as said by the character Thomas More in the novel by Anne Manning, it was not actually said by Thomas More. This quote on