R.S. Thomas Quotes

"You know that it is quite preposterous of you to chase rainbows," said the sane person to the poet. "Yet it would be rather beautiful if I did one day manage to catch one," mused the poet.

The fool rushed to certain conclusions. The middling man approached them warily, and with circumspection. And the wise man, perceiving them from afar, decided to go round another way.

Wishes, like painted landscapes, best delight, Whilst distance recommends them to the sight. Plac'd afar off, they beautiful appear: But show their coarse and nauseous colors near.

Darkness, thou first great parent of us all, Thou art our great original!

People think other things are more important than prayer, but they are mistaken.

I needed some real danger and some mortal risk to run, to tranquilize me.

If you had the mental energy in the tank, you could create in an instant.

Dead heroes do nothing to protect their people tomorrow.

There are no atheist in foxholes.

There are no athiests in foxholes.

What is my message? That is what troubles me. I have not got a message.

He [Weishaupt] says, no one ever laid a surer foundation for liberty than our grand master, Jesus of Nazareth.

If you serve humanity, you serve humanity's God.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.

While the art of printing is left to us science can never be retrograde what is once acquired of real knowledge can never be lost.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

All that is necessary for a student is access to a library.

I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.

I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.

Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.

If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

Plato offers the amazing idea that contemplation of the way things really are is, in itself, a purifying process that can bring human beings into the only divinity there is.

All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.

I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.

They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.

A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be.

Determine never to be idle. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry...

The more ignorant we become the less value we set on science, and the less inclination we shall have to seek it.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none

I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

...We are all Federalists, and we are all Republicans.

The dead should not rule the living.

The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government.

[Based upon the message of "nothing new under the sun" in Ecclesiastes, ] If nothing ever changes, then God has no plan.

Always do what you're afraid to do"-Robert F. Kennedy

History is philosophy teaching by examples.

We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work

It is a wise man who said there is no inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.Fillossofee: Messages From a Grandfather, an ebook

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.-Thomas Jefferson

In these writings, and in all my teaching work, I continue to ask the question, “What about the children?