R.S. Thomas Quotes

A Man's management of his own purse speaks volumes about character

no people can be both ignorant and free.

No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as duty.

Jefferson was the rare leader who stood out from the crowd without intimidating it.

The hole and the patch should be commensurate.

The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.

For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.

Forbearance in the face of fate, beauty constant under torture, are not merely passive. They are a positive achievement, an explicit triumph.

God's creatures who cried themselves to sleep stirred to cry again.

It was by faith, nothing wavering, that Joseph saw God our Eternal Father and Jesus Christ, His Son.

Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.

I have a picture of the Pont Neuf on a wall in my apartment, but i know that Paris is really on the closet shelf, in the box next to the sleeping bag, with the rest of my diaries.

Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying

Yes, they are carnal, both of them, love and death, and therein lies their terror and their great magic!

The dead do not harm us, only the alive.

Wherever you look there is so much loss and folly to contemplate.

The dead and not-yet dead, we are company all together.

I sang in my chains like the sea

No poem ever bought a hamburger, or not too many.

I can only strive for what is important

Learning is important. It is a way to make a life better for yourself and your family.

You go to school everyday. Folks who think they've learned everything they need to know are usually dumber than chickens.

Man has made remarkable strides in conquering outer space, but how futile have been his efforts in conquering inner space- the space in our hearts and minds of men.

But I quite like the way you can talk about science without necessarily using mathematics, but using metaphors instead.

I think about stories and their logic and wonder if there can be any such thing as simply "there is a book.

Part of him wanted to weep... but his purpose was rigid within him. He felt he could not bend to gentleness without breaking.

I need them and they need me to need them

I knew people were talking, but I wasn't listening. I wasn't interested in anything anyone had to say.

They plot, they plot, sleeping or afoot they never let up.

Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed. Kings must be managed, for men want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good deal.

In real life nothing means anything. Stuff happens and there just is no structure.

Done because we are too many.

Another source of fallacy is the vicious circle of illusions which consists on the one hand of believing what we see, and on the other in seeing what we believe.

Prayer can solve more problems, alleviate more suffering, prevent more transgression, and bring about greater peace and contentment in the human soul than can be obtained in any other way.

Sometimes you have to trust grownups, perhaps more so when they are not there to actually supervise you.

You concede nothing to me and I have to concede everything to you.

I am afraid of losing what I have already valued.

To a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen.

Always wanting another man than your own.

Let her be with her memories. Better that than be aware of this reality.

Try to capture what you can't bear to be without

Homeopaths argue that water has a memory.

Some things I can never forget. I must not. Otherwise what do I have left?

Q: What do Jesus and Nicole Brown Simpson have in common? A: They were both killed by the Joooooooose.

That sounds weird: "kill yourself." It makes it sound like you tried to murder someone, only that someone is you.

In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving

Evil was coming. I wondered whose face it would be wearing.

Anything that makes it easier to understand, makes it a little easier to bear.

The advantage of beating a mute is he can't tell on you.

I want to question my belief, so that what is left after I have questioned it, will be even stronger.