"Often it happens that just as a lot of foolishness is uttered with ornate and polished speech, so too, many coarse and rough-spoken men see deep indeed and give very substantial counsel."
- More to Henry VIII, upon becoming Speaker of the House of Commons, requesting freedom of speech for the chamber
"The clearness of my conscience has made my heart hop for joy. My case was such in this matter through the clearness of my own conscience that though I might have pain I could not have harm, for a man may in such a case lose his head and have no harm."
- More, writing from prison
"I verily trust and shall therefore right heartily pray, that though your lordships have now here in earth been judges to my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together."
- More, to the judges who condemned him to death, quoted in Roper's Life
Saint Thomas More, pray for us!
Quotations from A Thomas More Source Book, ed. Gerard B. Wegemer and Stephen W. Smith, pp. 212-3, 241. The sculpture of St. Thomas was done by Pablo Eduardo for the Boston College Law School.
