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When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties … they lead their country by a short route to chaos.

— Robert Bolt A Man for All Seasons (1968)

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More quotes by Robert Bolt

Morality's not practical. Morality's a gesture. A complicated gesture learnt from books.

A Man for All Seasons (1960)

When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn't hope to find himself again.

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The law is not a "light" for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which so long as he keeps to it a citizen may walk safely.

A Man for All Seasons (1967)

I think you are another of these desert-loving English: Doughty, Stanhope, Gordon of Khartoum. No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees, there is nothing in the desert. No man needs nothing.

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The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.

George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman (1903)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

Horace Mann Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann (1867)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Bolt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.