R.S. Thomas Quotes

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.

We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility

Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.

For in order that man may do well, whether in the works of the active life, or in those of the contemplative life, he needs the fellowship of friends.

Grace comes into the soul as the morning sun into the world: there is first a dawning, then a mean light, and at last the sun in his excellent brightness.

Amid those scenes of solitude... the mind is cast into the contemplation of eternal things.

Overall, rocks, wood and water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the soul to its innermost depths.

"Have you heard any Stockhausen?" Beecham was asked. "No, but I believe I have stepped in some."

Oh despise not election! therein lies all your hope, that there is a remnant who shall infallibly be saved.

It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income.

Fear of power invisible, feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly allowed, is religion; not allowed, superstition.

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time, not tomorrow or next year.... Today should always be our most wonderful day.

Every weirdo in the world is on my wavelength.

Murphy's Law, that brash proletarian restatement of Godel's Theorem.

One day each of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us not put off what is important.

It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.

A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

Guard against that vanity which courts a compliment, or is fed by it.

A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone. Go back to school, little Starling.

There is musick, even in the beauty and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

In Christ are treasures that will require digging to the end of the world.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.

Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact Angels have no religion as we know it... Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on Earth.

Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.

Never face facts; if you do, you'll never get up in the morning.

Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.

The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

Two evils, greed and faction are the destruction of all justice.

If you raise your gaze, you don't see the boundaries anymore.

There is nothing that politicians like better than handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else.

It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.

It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.

Think it more satisfactory to live richly than die rich.

Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government.

Prayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer is a greater work for God.

Be courageous! Have faith! Go forward.

The rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.

Science is simply common sense at its best.

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.

In Istanbul I met a man who said he knew beyond a doubt that God was a cat. I asked why he was so sure, and the man said, "When I pray to him, he ignores me."

Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools.

Prudence is a presumption of the future, contracted from the experience of time past.

Hard work is good for the soul, and it keeps you from feeling sorry for yourself because you don’t have time.

Somebody's boring me. I think it's me.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.

Look to the lighthouse of the Lord. There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue.