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?
ROPER: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
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!
Robert Bolt (in his play “A Man for All Seasons”)
I’ve seen variations in the quote but that’s a brilliant piece of literature/history.
When the laws are all flat, will you be able to stand before the devil unaided?
It was a good scene. It fit the character of Thomas More that the play presented. But it’s very ironic. The man that he was defending in the speech is the man that betrays him at his trial for treason. But it’s a good moment.