Thomas More Quotes on Mind
Sir Thomas More was an English Renaissance humanist, lawyer, statesman, and Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII. This page collects quotes attributed to Thomas More on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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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. -
“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