Man for All Seasons
Needless to say, one of the great movies of all times, and particularly instructive on this, Ash Wednesday, 2006:
For Patriots Like Me:
Sir Thomas More: The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.
For The Bush Administration and the GOP in Congress:
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas 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 is 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, do 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!
For Colin Powell:
Cardinal Wolsey: You're a constant regret to me, Thomas. If you could just see facts flat-on, without that horrible moral squint... With a little common sense you could have made a statesman.
Sir Thomas More: I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.
For Condoleeza Rice:
Sir Thomas More: They'll think that somewhere along your pedigree a bitch got over the wall!
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