"It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales!"

Robert Bolt’s line, spoken by Sir Thomas More in *A Man for All Seasons*, delivers a wry paradox that lays bare the tension between principle and expediency. The full phrase refers to a Biblical axiom: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Bolt alludes to this standard of moral integrity, suggesting that nothing material outweighs the value of one’s conscience, integrity, and spiritual well-being. By appending the sardonic rejoinder “…but for Wales!” the play exposes not just the costliness of betraying one’s convictions, but the pathetic triviality of the motivation in question.

Sir Thomas More utters these words when confronted with the betrayal of Richard Rich, who sacrifices his own honour and perjures himself for the comparatively uninspiring bribe of a minor governmental post in Wales. The world in the original maxim is infinite wealth and power, all human achievement, the ultimate temptation. In contrast, “Wales” here is intentionally anticlimactic, representing a paltry and mundane reward. The implication is not that Wales is inherently insignificant, but that Rich’s betrayal, selling his soul for a trifling personal advancement, renders his act all the more egregious and pitiful.

Within Bolt’s drama, the phrase symbolically underlines how frequently humanity’s grandest moral failings are committed not for clear evil or momentous stakes, but out of ordinary ambition, fleeting comfort, or petty self-interest. The biting irony is a critique of both the betrayer’s lack of proportion and the universal danger of rationalizing our own compromises. Instead of tragic grandeur, there is barely concealed contempt for the smallness of the aim.

Through this witticism, the play invites reflection on the nature of conscience and the ease with which people, motivated by paltry incentives or social approval, barter away their deepest beliefs. The enduring sting of Bolt’s line is its brutal honesty: the price for losing one’s soul is, far too often, an embarrassment rather than a triumph.