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One of the finest historical dramas to have reached the stage or screen, Robert Bolt's screenplay for Man for All Seasons has dialog to die for. With almost nary a bad line, character after character bring forth gems. Although Paul Scofield (as Thomas More) has many excellent monologues throughout, some of the most memorable lines come from his dialog with Leo McKern (as Cromwell) during his trial for treason. (Here I quote from Bolt's play...):

CROMWELL: Now, Sir Thomas, you stand upon your silence.

MORE: I do.

CROMWELL: But, Gentlemen of the Jury, there are many kinds of silence. ... Consider, now, the circumstances of the prisoner's silence. The oath was put to good and faithful subjects up and down the country and they had declared His Grace's title to be just and good. And when it came to the prisoner he refused. He calls this silence. Yet is there a man in this court, is there a man in this country, who does not know Sir Thomas More's opinion of the King's title? Of course not! But how can that be? Because this silence betokened -- nay, this silence was not silence at all but most eloquent denial.

MORE (with some of the academic's impatience for a shoddy line of reasoning): Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is "qui tacet consentire." The maxim of the law is "Silence gives consent." If, therefore, you wish to construe what my silence "betokened," you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

CROMWELL: Is that what the world in fact construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?

MORE: The world must construe according to its wits. This Court must construe according to the law.

This is forceful, adamant denial. It is also the frustration of a legal scholar trying to maintain the dignity of formal court proceedings, while debating a formal point with someone who is clearly neither as well informed, nor as well meaning, as one's antagonist might be, while at the same time trying to show some measure of respect for a powerful political opponent.