Passages: Robert Bolt

From Robert Bolt’s 1960 play A Man for All Seasons:

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!

I trust the contemporary relevance of this passage needs no explanation. Principles exist to guide us when times are tough. That members of Congress should be “negotiating” with the President over what kinds of torture are permissible — and that the “negotiations” should prove to be sham posturing on the part of all participants — is disgusting and demeaning to us all.