A Man for All Seasons

King Henry VIII:
Thomas. I chose the right man for chancellor!

Sir Thomas More:
I should in fairness add that my taste in music is reputedly deplorable.

King Henry VIII:
Your taste in music is excellent. It exactly coincides with my own!

The Duke of Norfolk:
Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!

Sir Thomas More:
And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

Cromwell:
Now, Sir Thomas, you stand on your silence.

Sir Thomas More:
I do.

Cromwell:
But, gentlemen of the jury, there are many kinds of silence. Consider first the silence of a man who is dead. Let us suppose we go into the room where he is laid out, and we listen: what do we hear? Silence. What does it betoken, this silence? Nothing; this is silence pure and simple. But let us take another case. Suppose I were to take a dagger from my sleeve and make to kill the prisoner with it; and my lordships there, instead of crying out for me to stop, maintained their silence. That would betoken! It would betoken a willingness that I should do it, and under the law, they will be guilty with me. So silence can, according to the circumstances, speak! Let us consider now the circumstances of the prisoner's silence. The oath was put to loyal subjects up and down the country, and they all declared His Grace's title to be just and good. But when it came to the prisoner, he refused! He calls this silence. Yet is there a man in this court - is there a man in this country! - who does not know Sir Thomas More's opinion of this title?

Cromwell:
Yet how can this be? Because this silence betokened, nay, this silence was, not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!

Sir Thomas More:
Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is "Qui tacet consentiret": the maxim of the law is "Silence gives consent". If therefore you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

Cromwell:
Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?

Sir Thomas More:
The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.

Margaret More:
Father, that man's bad.

Sir Thomas More:
There's no law against that.

William Roper:
There is: God's law.

Sir Thomas More:
Then God can arrest him.

Sir Thomas More:
This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast. Man's laws, not God's. And if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

William Roper:
So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More:
Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper:
Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More:
Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Sir Thomas More:
You threaten like a dockside bully.

Cromwell:
How should I threaten?

Sir Thomas More:
Like a minister of state. With justice.

Cromwell:
Oh, justice is what you're threatened with.

Sir Thomas More:
Then I am not threatened.

Cardinal Wolsey:
That... thing out there; at least she's fertile.

Sir Thomas More:
She's not his wife.

Cardinal Wolsey:
No, Catherine's his wife and she's barren as a brick; are you going to pray for a miracle?

Sir Thomas More:
There are precedents.

Sir Thomas More:
I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.

Sir Thomas More:
Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher; perhaps a great one.

Richard Rich:
If I was, who would know it?

Sir Thomas More:
You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.

Sir Thomas More:
I trust I make myself obscure.

Sir Thomas More:
Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?

Cromwell:
I have evidence that Sir Thomas, during the period of his judicature, accepted bribes.

The Duke of Norfolk:
What? Goddammit, he was the only judge since Cato who didn't accept bribes! When was there last a Chancellor whose possessions after three years in office totaled one hundred pounds and a gold chain?

Sir Thomas More:
They'll think that somewhere along your pedigree a b*tch got over the wall!

Sir Thomas More:
God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and, yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping.

Alice:
What's this? You crossed him.

More:
Somewhat.

Alice:
Why?

More:
I couldn't find the other way.

Alice:
You're too nice altogether, Thomas!

More:
Woman, mind your house!

Alice:
I am minding my house!

Cromwell:
Yet how can this be? Because this silence betokened, nay, this silence was, not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!

More:
Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is "Qui tacet consentire"; the maxim of the law is "Silence gives consent". If, therefore, you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

Cromwell:
Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?

More:
The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.

King Henry VIII:
Oh, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas! Does a man need a Pope to tell him where he's sinned? It was a sin. God's punished me. I have no son. Son after son she's borne me– all dead at birth or dead within the month. Never saw the hand of God so clear in anything. It's my bounden duty to put away the Queen and all the popes back to Peter shall not come between me and my duty! How is it that you cannot see? Everyone else does.

More:
Then why does your Grace need my poor support?

King:
Because you're honest... and what is more to the purpose, you're known to be honest. There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown, those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I'm their tiger, there's a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves. And then there's you.

More:
I am sick to think how much I must displease your Grace.

King:
No, Thomas, I respect your sincerity. But respect—man, that's water in the desert.

If 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 more than charity . . . Etc, etc. (IDK the rest . . . Does anybody else know the end?)

This isn‘t Spain, man—this is England!

only God is love right thru

Sir Thomas More:
About his decision to not give away his daughter Meg to William Roper See here Will. Two years ago you were a loyal Churchman. Now you have fallen in with the Lutherans on account of being persuaded by their logic. I can only hope that when your head stops spinning it is affixed as God intended.

Narrator:
Last lines of film Thomas More's head stood on Traitor's Gate for a month until his daughter Meg claimed it in order to give her father a proper funeral. Thomas Cromwell was beheaded five years after More was. Archbishop Cranmer was burned at the stake. The Duke of Norfolk was slated for execution but the King died of syphilis the night before the order was scheduled to be signed. Richard Rich became Lord Chancellor of England and died in his bed.

Sir Thomas More:
I am commanded by the king to be brief, and since I am the king's obedient subject, brief I will be. I die His Majesty's good servant, but God's first.

Sir Thomas More:
Well, as a spaniel is to water so is a man to his own self. I will not give in because I oppose it—I do- not my pride, not my spleen, nor any of my appetites, but I do– I!

Sir Thomas More:
What is an oath then but words we say to God?

Cromwell:
I know a man who wants to change his woman.

Cromwell:
If the King destroys a man, that's proof to the King that it must have been a bad man.

King Henry Viii:
I have no wife! Catherine is not my Queen! No priest can make her so!