Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Some thoughts from Thomas More

(or Robert Bolt, at least, from his classic play A Man for All Seasons)

Alice: While you talk, he's gone!

More:
And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!

Roper:
So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!

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

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

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's 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."

(Thanks, JTB!)

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