Justice & Law Quote by Thomas More

A sainted jurist admitting self-interest is a neat bit of candor, and it’s also a warning shot. More’s line frames the law not as a haloed ideal but as a piece of infrastructure: you maintain it because you live inside it. The brilliance is that it dodges moral grandstanding. He doesn’t say he upholds the law because he’s purer than everyone else; he upholds it because without it, even the righteous are meat for the grinder.

The intent is defensive in the most literal sense. More is arguing for due process as a kind of personal armor: if the rules can be bent to punish the wicked today, they can be bent to punish you tomorrow. The subtext is a dark diagnosis of power. Authority doesn’t stay politely targeted; it metastasizes. Once leaders learn they can cut corners, those shortcuts become habits, and habits become weapons.

Context sharpens the edge. More served Henry VIII at the moment England’s political theology was being rewired: loyalty to the crown was being fused to religious conformity, with treason law ready to do the dirty work. More’s own fate - executed for refusing the Oath of Supremacy - turns the statement into grim prophecy. He’s not pleading for criminals; he’s pleading against the state’s temptation to treat law as a tool rather than a boundary.

What makes the line work is its strategic modesty. By rooting principle in self-preservation, More makes the case usable by anyone, including people who don’t share his faith or his courage: defend the law because someday you will need it to defend you.