R.S. Thomas Quotes

A temperate anger has virtue in it.

Hurry is only admissible in catching flies.

No one is rich whose expenditures exceed his means, and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.

Give me a chance, says Stupid, and I will show you. Ten to one he has had his chance already, and neglected it.

If it were not for a goodly supply of rumors, half true and half false, what would the gossips do?

Vanity is not half a bad principle, if it will but stick to legitimate business.

Ceremony is all backbone.

An uncontrolled imagination may become as surely intoxicated by overindulgence as a toper may do bodily with strong drink.

There is a time for all things - except marriage, my dear.

Almighty Framer of the Skies!O let our pure devotion rise,Like Incense in thy Sight!Wrapt in impenetrable Shade,The Texture of our Souls were made,Till thy Command gave Light.

There are few retreats, that can escape the penetrating eye of avarice.

When mankind first saw the necessity of government, it is probable that many had conceived the desire of ruling.

Relativity must replace absolutism in the realm of morals as well as in the spheres of physics and biology.

Seek and possess holiness, and consolation will follow, as assuredly as warmth follows the dispensation of the rays of the sun.

Knowing how to paint and to use one's colors rightly has not any connection with originality. This originality consists in properly expressing your own impressions.

He that commits a sin shall find the pressing guilt lie heavy on his mind.

They that do much themselves deny, Receive more blessings from the sky.

There are three things without which there is no country--common language, common judicature, and co-tillage land--for without these a country cannot support itself in peace and social union.

You cannot protect something without intervening on some level.

It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety.

Dyspepsy is the ruin of most things: empires, expeditions, and everything else.

The science of style as an organ of thought, of style in relation to the ideas and feelings, might be called the organology of style.

Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.

The whole body of the arts and sciences composes one vast machinery for the irritation and development of the human intellect.

In the lottery of life there are more prizes drawn than blanks, and to one misfortune there are fifty advantages. Despondency is the most unprofitable feeling a man can indulge in.

Logic has its use and metaphysics has its use, but neither of them is of much help in the making of a creed.

One good, hearty laugh is a bombshell exploding in the right place, while spleen and discontent are a gun that kicks over the man who shoots it off.

What may we expect of people who work all day and dance all night? After a while they will be thrown on society nervous, exhausted imbeciles.

The pause is a part of the walk.

Keep advertising and advertising will keep you.

Confessions may be good for the soul but they are bad for the reputation.

Leave for tomorrow what you can't do today.

The purpose of government is for those who run it to plunder those who do not.

You cannot add to the peace and good will of the world if you fail to create an atmosphere of harmony and love right where you live and work.

You can get what you desire and in just the measure of that desire.

Beauty is necessarily shrouded in mystery--which is part of its splendour.

Boredom comes not from reality but from people who are only half alive.

You can't shoot an idea.

My decision on this matter is as certain and final as death and the staggering New Deal taxes.

Responsibility for overseeing the implementation of election law typically resides with partisan officials, many with public stakes in the election outcome.

A healthy degree of party unity among Democrats and Republicans has deteriorated into bitter partisan warfare.

Congress requires states to draw single-member districts.

While Republican voters have remained universally supportive of their President, Democrats and Independents are returning to a more naturally critical stance.

Votes in federal elections are cast and counted in a highly decentralized and variable fashion, with no uniform ballots and few national standards.

Further-more, partisan attachments powerfully shape political perceptions, beliefs and values, and incumbents enjoy advantages well beyond the way in which their districts are configured.

America is an outlier in the world of democracies when it comes to the structure and conduct of elections.

You've got to use it, the pain. Use it as fuel to move past the torment, to the light at the end of the tunnel

Of course, it is well to go abroad and see the works of the old masters, but Americans... must strike out for themselves, and only by doing this will we create a great and distinctly American art.

Our life must answer for our faith.

Friendship is to be purchased only by friendship. A man may have authority over others, but he can never have their hearts but by giving his own.