SerranoNotes+-+A+Man+For+All+Seasons+-+Quotations

1. “If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good and greed would make us saintly. And we’d live like animals or angels in a happy land that //needs// no heroes.” (Bolt p.140) Quotation #1 for //A Man for All Seasons// is spoken by More on page 140. He is saying that he has to go through with his death and not give in. He wants to show the people that he stood what he believed in because the people need a hero. If he were to give in it would show that everything he stood for was not his true belief and no one would take him seriously, destroying his honor. 2. “You’re absolutely right, it must be done by law. It’s just a matter of finding the right law. Or making one.” (Bolt p.104)

Cromwell speaks quotation #2 on page 104. Cromwell is trying to find a way to get More into trouble with the law because he has not helped Henry. However, because there is nothing that More has done legally wrong Cromwell is going to put him away until he agrees to divorce Henry of his wife and remarry him. Cromwell eventually devises a way to do this without making it look like persecution. 3. “Does a man need a Pope to tell him when he’s sinned? It was a sin […]. I admit it; I repent. And God has punished me.” (Bolt p.54)

Quotation #3 is spoken by Henry on page 54. Henry marries his brother’s widow and is punished through not receiving a son. This leads to Henry wanting a divorce so that he can remarry so that he can have a son to carry on the crown. However, he needs More, a man of the church, to help him go through it. More thinks this is unethical and does not help him go through with it.