The enemy of all good could not do a greater service to the cause of evil, than by leading Christian men blindly to interpose the Bible as a barrier against every social reform, so that when the reform triumphs it shall seem … to be not merely the defeat of the opposers of the reform, but the overthrow of the Bible, also … This book is too precious … to be thrown in the street to help form a barricade against every attempt to overthrow old dynasties of wrong.

• 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.

• 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!