Thomas More Quotes on Virtue
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 virtue, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
“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 -
Attributed to Thomas More:
“What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can.”
-
Attributed to Thomas More:
“A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.”
-
Attributed to Thomas More:
“Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any.”
-
“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)