CRANMER: Then the matter is capable of question?
MORE: Certainly.
CRANMER: But that you owe obedience to your King is not capable of question. So weigh a doubt against a certainty — and sign.
MORE: Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; it is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King’s command make it round? And if it is round, will the King’s command flatten it? No, I will not sign.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.
Quotations about:
dictate
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The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 5, § 22 (1916)
(Source)
Conscience can’t be compelled.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 1144 (1732)
(Source)
