R.S. Thomas Quotes

Grieving is a matter of relearning how to be in the world.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

Work hard on your style, not on your watermarks.

There's a double beauty whenever a swan Swims on a lake with her double thereon.

The loss just made me hungry; it made me want to go out and win another title.

It's the heart that really matters in the end.

It takes a person with a mission to succeed.

Be phenomenal or be forgotten!

Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.

Philosophers of science have repeatedly demonstrated that more than one theoretical construction can always be placed upon a given collection of data.

He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.

A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the highest degree, while the other is in distress, try whether one side; of the face can smile while the other is pinched.

How lovely are the portals of the night, when stars come out to watch the daylight die.

There is but a plank between a sailor and eternity.

There is nothing like wine for conjuring up feelings of contentment and goodwill. It is less of a drink than an experience, an evocation, a spirit. It produces sensations that defy description.

In this era of political correctness, some people seem unaware that being squeamish about words can mean being blind to realities.

The first wild-flower of the year is like land after sea.

The trouble with radicals is that they only read radical literature, and the trouble with conservatives is that they don't read anything

Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery.

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

The contest is not between Us and Them, but between Good and Evil, and if those who would fight Evil adopt the ways of Evil, Evil wins.

What you dislike in another take care to correct in yourself.

That government is best which governs least.

The humble listen to their brothers and sisters because they assume they have something to learn. They are open to correction, and they become wiser through it.

People make events into stories. Stories give events meaning.

Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.

I will continue my path, but I will keep a memory always.

If the individual is to be happy in the contemporary order, he must be open-minded with respect to new values and new arrangements.

The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble at sea than all other things put together.

Real knowledge, like every thing else of the highest value, is not to be obtained so easily. It must be worked for, — studied for, — thought for, — and more than all, it must be prayed for.

A college education should equip one to entertain three things: a friend, an idea and oneself.

To create a memorable design you need to start with a thought that's worth remembering.

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

There is within every soul a thirst for happiness and meaning.

Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

Grief, no matter where it comes from, can only be resolved by connecting to other people.

There were only a few shepherds at the first Bethlehem. The ox and the donkey understood more of the first Christmas than the high priests in Jerusalem. And it is the same today.

I never quit until I get what I want.

The man who never dreams, goes slowly mad.

Dependence leads to subservience.

Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance.

The pen is the lever that moves the world.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.

A friend from India told me that a countryman of his said: "I want to go to America. I want to see a country where poor people are fat."

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!