R.S. Thomas Quotes

My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice, and to keep my name out of the newspapers.

Though [the people] may acquiesce, they cannot approve what they do not understand.

If the Wise be the happy man... he must be virtuous too; for, without virtue, happiness cannot be. This then is the true scope of all academical emulation.

Certain teachings in the Bible are as diamonds in a dung-heap.

Traveling makes men wiser, but less happy.

An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State.

When habit has strengthened our sense of duties, they leave us no time for other things; but when young we neglect them and this gives us time for anything.

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

I do not know whether you are fond of chemical reading. There are some things in this science worth reading.

Freedom, the first-born of science.

No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth.

What is it men cannot be made to believe!

With the same honest views, the most honest men often form different conclusions.

Nothing but good can result from an exchange of information and opinions between those whose circumstances and morals admit no doubt of the integrity of their views.

I served with General Washington in die Legislature of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin in Congress. I never heard neither of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point.

The possession of facts is knowledge; the use of them is wisdom.

When the heart is right, the feet are swift.

We must be contented to amuse, when we cannot inform.

No man will labor for himself who can make another labor for him.

I have nothing but contempt for anyone who can spell a word in only one way.

We need a revolution every 20 years just to keep government honest.

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.

Never was so much false arithmetic employed on any subject, as that which has been employed to persuade nations that it is in their interest to go to war.

Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched?

Many of the opposition [to the new Federal Constitution] wish to take from Congress the power of internal taxation. Calculation has convinced me that this would be very mischievous.

The bulk of mankind are schoolboys through life.

The persons and property of our citizens are entitled to the protection of our government in all places where they may lawfully go.

I extremely believe in luck, and I discovered more hard work, your luck as much

If science produces no better fruits than tyranny... I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest and estimable as our neighbouring savages are.

The power of making war often prevents it.

Our ancestors ... possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them.

I pledge undying hostility to any government restrictions on the free minds of the people.

Those who would trade safety for freedom deserve neither.

The information of the people at large can alone make them the safe as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious freedom.

I feel... an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the mass of mankind that it may, at length, reach even the extremes of society: beggars and kings.

The reward of esteem, respect and gratitude [is] due to those who devote their time and efforts to render the youths of every successive age fit governors for the next.

Nothing is so engaging as the little domestic cares into which you appear to be entering, and as to reading it is useful for onlyfilling up the chinks of more useful and healthy occupations.

No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.

I would observe to you that what is called style in writing or speaking is formed very early in life while the imagination is warm, and impressions are permanent.

I am never tempted to pray but when a warm feeling for my friends comes athwart my heart.

There are other places at which ... the laws have said there shall be towns; but Nature has said there shall not, and they remain unworthy of enumeration.

Our ancestors ... were laborers, not lawyers.

The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes, and they believe rightly.

This is perhaps the most important statement on religion ever made. It clarified the intent of the founders of the constitution irrespective of the attempts of modern day religious revisionists.

Men possessing minds of the first order and who have had opportunities of being known and of acquiring the general confidence do not abound in any country beyond the wants of the country.

Men of high learning and abilities are few in every country; and by taking in those who are not so, the able part of the body have their hands tied by the unable.

Old heads as well as young may sometimes be charged with ignorance and presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.

I rejoice when I hear of young men of virtue and talents, worthy to receive and likely to preserve the splendid inheritance of self- government, which we have acquired and shaped for them.

I leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take care when young.

They are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes.