“We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.”

Reminder that the path to heaven requires hardship rather than comfort · Remark to his children, reported in Roper’s Life

• Faith
• Heaven
• Suffering

“What he ought to do, but never what he is able to do. So shall you show yourself a true faithful servant and a right worthy Councillor. For if a lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him.”

Counsel against flattering power and for speaking only of duty, not of possibility · Advice to Thomas Cromwell, reported in Roper’s Life

• Advice
• Integrity
• Power

“I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I think none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith, I long not to live.”

Declaration of harmless intent and readiness to accept death if innocence is insufficient · Letter to Margaret Roper, account of interrogation

• Conscience
• Integrity
• Life