R.S. Thomas Quotes

When sins are dear to us we are too prone to slide into them again. The act of repentance itself is often sweetened with the thought that it clears our account for a repetition of the same sin.

You will perceive by my preaching that I am growing old: it is the privilege of years, and I am sure you will pardon it from the purity of it's motives.

Ignorance is a poor tool in a battle of wits.

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.

We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government, so modeled as to rest continually on the will of the whole society, is a practicable government.

Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason.

An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental.

To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse.

All... natural rights may be abridged or modified in [their] exercise by law.

The equal rights of man and the happiness of every individual are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

The metaphysical insanities of Athanasius, of Loyola, and of Calvin, are, to my understanding, mere lapses into polytheism, differing from paganism only by being more unintelligible.

The art of governing consists simply of being honest, exercising common sense, following principle, and doing what is right and just.

A good neighbor is a very desireable thing.

Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.

My most earnest wish is to see the republican element of popular control pushed to the maximum of its practicable exercise. I shall then believe that our government may be pure and perpetual.

It behooves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We are able to preserve our self-government if we will but think so.

The purse of the people is the real seat of sensibility. Let it be drawn upon largely, and they will then listen to truths which could not excite them through any other organ.

. . . in the full tide of successful experiment.

It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also.

Friends may come and go, but barbecues accumulate.

The people of one county can not be indifferent to the welfare of the people in another county.

The best way to understand another person's religion is to listen to the story of what particular practices helped them to deepen and to embody their religion, especially its spirituality.

Becoming fully rational is not enough anymore; evidently it can lead to distortions of all the great human possibilities.

We need to develop the intuitive capacities of the brain that some geniuses have manifested over humanity's lengthy history.

All religions proclaim the advantages of peace, loving one another, and "doing to others what we would like them to do to us."

It's obvious that humanity continues to be torn by religious violence.

One of the great purposes of religion itself is being hindered by an exclusive-ism that doesn't take into account the common elements and values that we actually share.

I came to understand that the words executive and corporate never belong next to the word chef.

Anyone can make a good roast chicken.

I think every young cook wants to write a book.

I wanted to write about what we were doing at the French Laundry, the recipes and the stories.

Eden Robinson is one of those rare artists who comes to writing with a skill and maturity that has taken the rest of us decades to achieve.

Love is the stepping stone to new beginnings.

I grew up in a broken home. My dad was out of the home when I was five years old. I never knew him very well.

Research under a paradigm must be a particularly effective way of inducing paradigm change.

Thus must we toil in other men's extremes, That know not how to remedy our own.

Of course, each of us has to write our own book, live our own life.

I worry that we don't currently have a democracy in the United States. Instead we have what [political philosopher] Sheldon Wolin has recently labeled a sort of inverted totalitarianism.

Sense of humor: A thread of illuminated intelligence that links two opposite ideas.

It must be a hard life to be the child of a psychologist.

When you spend your days doing what fulfills you, you are attractive.

Inspiration is a sustainable internal glow which pulls you forward.

Get your personal needs met, once and for all; if you have unmet needs, you'll attract others in the same position.

We need to be in control of ourselves - our appetites, our passions - to do right by others. It takes will to keep emotion under the control of reason.

Character Education helps to create an environment for caring and learning in schools.

I wanted to do things to Richard that would make the sun grow cold with horror.

The critic does his utmost to blight genius in its infancy; that which rises in spite of him he will not see; and then he complains of the decline of literature.

Genetic engineers don't make new genes, they rearrange existing ones.

The poem began with the title. Then I was annoyed by one of the occasional poetry-is-dead articles. Then I refute that notion.