A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt, first performed on November 22 1961.

Quote

More: There is no law against that.

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Roper: There is! God's law!

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More: Then God can arrest him.

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Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication.

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More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal.

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Roper: Then you set man's law above God's!

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More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact - I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forrester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God....

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Alice: While you talk, he's gone!

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

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

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

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

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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 - d'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.

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