R.S. Thomas Quotes

Prophecy is many times the principal cause of the events foretold.

And Beasts that have Deliberation , must necessarily also have Will .

Corporations are may lesser commonwealths in the bowels of a greater, like worms in the entrails of a natural man.

Understanding is by the flame of the passions never enlightened, but dazzled.

When two, or more men, know of one and the same fact, they are said to be CONSCIOUS of it one to another; which is as much as to know it together.

For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs... why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have an artificial life?

A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force, by force, is always voyd.

Christian Kings may erre in deducing a Consequence, but who shall Judge?

To be seduced by Orators, as a Monarch by Flatterers.

Competition of praise inclineth to a reverence of antiquity. For men contend with the living, not with the dead.

That wee have of Geometry, which is the mother of all Naturall Science, wee are not indebted for it to the Schools.

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.

The Pacts and Covenants, by which the parts of this Body Politique were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that Fiat, or the Let us make man, pronounced by God in the Creation.

Corporations are "worms in the body politic"

He that has most experience [is] so much more prudent than he that is new, as not to be equalled by any advantage of natural and extemporary wit- though many young men think the contrary.

A Covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void. For... no man can transfer or lay down his Right to save himself from Death.

The first author of speech was God himself, that instructed Adam how to name such creatures as He presented to his sight.

When the nature of the thing is incomprehensible, I can acquiesce in the Scripture: but when the signification of words is incomprehensible, I cannot acquiesce in the authority of a Schoolman.

To prevent inquiry is amongst the worst of evils.

How bless'd the heart that has a friend. A sympathizing ear to lend.

A certain portion of the human race has certainly a taste for being diddled.

A man that's fond precociously of stirring , :;:; Must be a spoon.

My books kept me from the ring, the dog-pit, the tavern, and the saloon.

Lives of great men oft remind us as we o'er their pages turn, That we too may leave behind us - Letters that we ought to burn.

Alas for the rarity Of Christian charity Under the sun!

The Quaker loves an ample brim, A hat that bows to no salaam; And dear the beaver is to him As if it never made a dam.

Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied; We thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died.

Bells are musics laughter.

O men with sisters dear, O men with mothers and wives, It is not linen you 're wearing out, But human creatures' lives!

For man may pious texts repeat, And yet religion have no inward seat

Experience enables me to depose to the comfort and blessing that literature can prove in seasons of sickness and sorrow.

Well for the drones of the social hive that there are bees of an industrious turn, willing, for an infinitesimal share of the honey, to undertake the labor of its fabrication.

Fuss is the froth of business.

Pity it is to slay the meanest thing.

Oh would I were dead now, Or up in my bed now, To cover my head now, And have a good cry!

How widely its agencies vary,- To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless,- As even its minted coins express, Now stamp'd with the image of Good Queen Bess, And now of a Bloody Mary.

Boughs are daily rifled By the gusty thieves, And the book of Nature Getteth short of leaves.

And there is even a happiness That makes the heart afraid.

I don't want to make any huge decisions before I really know what I'm doing and am sure of myself.

I'm kind of a private person in a way.

I'm not sure I have a natural gift. I think it's just that some people have an easier time expressing their emotions, maybe because of the way they've been raised, and I've always been expressive.

People have recognized me sometimes but not much. I'm glad my life isn't too different. I don't want it to be.

I had a really great experience so far with film acting. And most experiences from most actors, I've heard, are not like this. But I want a career that has many disciplines and many options.

Art is sexy! Art is money-sexy! Art is money-sexy-social-climbing-fantastic!

I was sad to leave 'Downton,' but I will always remember it fondly, as they did me a lot of favours. I owe them a lot.

I've always got into stunts; even at drama school, I was falling down trap doors, and swinging in on ropes.

He who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world.

Heaven, they say, protects children, sailors, and drunken men; and whatever answers to Heaven in the academical system protects freshmen.

Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.

People may talk about intellectual teaching, but what we principally want is the moral teaching.