R.S. Thomas Quotes

That genius is feeble which cannot hold its own before the masterpieces of the world.

In an audience of rough people a generous sentiment always brings down the house. In the tumult of war both sides applaud a heroic deed.

Many persons sigh for death when it seems far off, but the inclination vanishes when the boat upsets, or the locomotive runs off the track, or the measles set it.

Genius is lonely without the surrounding presence of a people to inspire it.

There is a noble and a base side to every history.

To larger sight, the rim of shadow is the line of light.

To explicate the uses of the Brain seems as difficult a task as to paint the Soul, of which it is commonly said, that it understands all things but itself.

I beg my Children to be just and virtuous, never to disgrace my name or theirs, and then they are out of fortune's power

Those who are born of parents broken with old age, or of such as are not yet ripe or are too young, or of drunkards, soft or effeminate men, want a great and liberal ingenuity or wit.

For malice will with joy the lie receive, Report, and what it wishes true believe.

Without a sacred center, no one knows right from wrong.

Humility is probably the most difficult virtue to realize.

In our modern world today, we may seem like drowning men because of the loss of much of our spiritual tradition.

Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that society is rotten to the core.

We must learn to lean upon ourselves; we must learn to plan and execute business enterprises of our own; we must learn to venture our pennies if we would gain dollars.

I fear I shall never be...good for anything in this world, but composing airs, building towers, forming gardens, collecting old Japan, and writing a journey to China or the Moon.

Disease may also be thought of as the negation of the normal.

An editor is the uncrowned king of an educated democracy.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

True happiness is not found in any other reward than that of being united with God. If I seek some other reward besides God Himself, I may get my reward but I cannot be happy.

Go where thou wilt, thou canst not go out of thy Father's ground.

He took in the squeaky music, the vulgar and pining melodies, because passion immobilizes good taste and seriously considers what soberly would be thought of as funny and to be resented.

I thought that the light-house looked lovely as hope, That star on life's tremulous ocean.

Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.

What a greater crime. Than loss of time.

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

everything is ridiculous if one thinks of death

It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession

What we believe is heavily influenced by what we think others believe

When we do cross paths with people whose beliefs and attitudes conflict with our own, we are rarely challenged.

Loyal companions are an unequaled grace, stanching fear before it bleeds you numb, a reliable antidote for creeping despair.

What folly takes light through ether to each eye from every horizon.

When trees burn, they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air.

Perseverance is impossible if we don't permit ourselves to hope.

The difference between being Achilles and almost being Achilles is the difference between living and dying.

Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture and very much to our credit.

Cats - a standing rebuke to behavioural scientists . . . least human of all creatures.

Coming events cast their shadows before.

The vices we scoff at in others laugh at us within ourselves.

We must not let our passions destroy our dreams.

I wouldn't recommend young kids see 'Speedway Junkie.' It's definitely an age-appropriate movie - dark and realistic and edgy. If young kids want to see me, go see the Christmas movie.

I was in Independence, Missouri when Johnson signed the Medicare bill, with Truman standing there. Truman had first proposed Medicare, but couldn't get it through.

But poetry is a way of language, it is not its subject or its maker's background or interests or hobbies or fixations. It is nearer to utterance than history.

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.

From wearable sensors to video game treatments, everyone seems to be looking to technology as the next wave of innovation for mental health care.

That's the whole point of... of prosecutorial discretion in the judicial system. It's finding a just outcome in an individual case.

Ive felt the pressure of wanting to be known as a young actress rather than just Alisha from Misfits.

It's great to express yourself and tell other people's stories and get into the minds of people who aren't like you.

I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining, because I'm free, nothing's worrying me.

Style is the way we speak to the world without words.