R.S. Thomas Quotes

Everything is ultimately peculiar and ultimately ridiculous.

Mules and human jackasses are proverbially stubborn.

I have had a lot of success with failure

Romance makes a radiant sunrise out of every moment.

The ills of discrimination are still with us. We have to continue the tenacity and vigilance of the 1960s. Racial understanding is not something we find; it's something we create.

The difference between those who succeed and fail: not taking advantage of opportunities.

Greatness is a lot of small things done well.

I like to think of poetry as statements made on the way to the grave.

Music's another big love of mine.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.

Sin is a spiritual illness; thus sinners are in need of salvation.

Those sins that seem most sweet in life, will prove most bitter in death

Everything yields to diligence.

Repentance is the vomit of the soul.

Never use two words when one will do.

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.

The dead should not rule the living

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

By oft repeating an untruth, men come to believe it themselves.

Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn't it?

Everywhere do I percieve a certain conspiracy of rich men seeking their own advantage underthat name and pretext of commonwealth.

I should only ever tell the king what he ought to do, not what he could do. For if the lion knows his own strength, no man could control him.

You must in your music be wavering like the wind; sometimes wanton, sometimes drooping, sometimes grave and staid, otherwhile effeminate; and the more variety you show, the better shall you please.

Good deeds in this life are coals raked up in embers, to make a fire next day

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.

As to the book called the bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions and a history of bad times and bad men.

Prophesying is lying professionally.

What is it the Bible teaches us? -- rapine, cruelty, and murder.

Yes, in socialism the rich will be poorer - but the poor will also be poorer. People will lose interest in really working hard and creating jobs.

I wanted to be a part of the downtown renaissance.

Don't save something for a special occasion. Every day of your life is a special occasion.

Social Engineering - The art of replacing what works with what sounds good.

The New York times' long-standing motto, 'All the News That's Fit to Print,' should be changed to reflect today's reality: 'Manufacturing News to Fit an Ideology.'

No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: 'But what would you replace it with?' When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?

Gout, unlike any other disease, kills more rich men than poor, more wise men than simple. Great kings, emperors, generals, admirals and philosophers have all died of gout.

Speaking absolutely, humility excels virginity.

Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

How many souls have been blown into hell with the wind of popular applause?

Spiritual matters are difficult to explain because you must live with them in order to fully understand them.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness, Star-dust, or sea-foam, flower or winged air.

Only when we can accept God as he is can we give up the desire for spiritual experiences that we can feel.

Fond memory brings the light of other days around me.

Usually, the main problem with life conundrums is that we don't bring to them enough imagination

Without kindness there can be no true joy.

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.

I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first.

The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.

Look whether it be indifferently, as well for sins secret as open, what you find to be your best cordials to comfort you, whether God's Word, or natural means.