R.S. Thomas Quotes

If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.

You have to be driven. You have to be focused. You have to be aware.

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

To be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what you are, for what you will become

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

Our fulfillment is not in our isolated human grandeur, but in our intimacy with the larger earth community, for this is also the larger dimension of our being.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.

I think, that if I touched the earth, It would crumble; It is so sad and beautiful, So tremulously like a dream.

The law discovers the disease, and the gospel the physician.

Good wine is a necessity of life for me.

Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.

It seems to me that in the orbit of our world you are the North Pole, I the South--so much in balance, in agreement--and yet... the whole world lies between.

Choose your love; love your choice.

Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness.

Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education.

Quackery gives birth to nothing; gives death to all things.

Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.

Remember that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail.

Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time.

A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job

Do the thing and the power will come.

Success is not built on what we accomplish for ourselves. Its foundation lies in what we do for others.

The media has enormous power. The media is undergoing huge changes now. It seemed like it's time to step back and look at how the media shapes our lives and our perceptions of reality.

Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His. If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.

Jesus said, Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden that shall not become manifest.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.

Humility makes a man richer than other men, and it makes a man judge himself the poorest among men.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

For Mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.

Man’s holiness is now his greatest happiness, and in heaven man’s greatest happiness will be his perfect holiness.

The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they're attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset me.

I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet.

Couples don't fall out of love so much as they fall out of repentance.

Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.

Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and won with thanks.

If I were to go to heaven, and find that Christ was not there, I would leave immediately; for heaven without Christ would be hell to me.

The object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time; but to assure for ever, the way of his future desires.

And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

In books we never find anything but ourselves. Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and we say the author is a genius.

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

Don't expect front row seats if you're giving nosebleed effort.

There seems to be no limit to which some men will go to avoid the labor of thinking. Thinking is hard work.

Two years work wasted, I have been breeding those flies for all that time and I've got nothing out of it.

The lighthouse of the Lord sends forth signals readily recognized and never failing

The great escape of our times is escape from personal responsibility for the consequences of one's own behavior.