R.S. Thomas Quotes

Compliments cost nothing, yet many pay dear for them.

[All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.

The superiority of chocolate (hot chocolate), both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.

By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.

The human body is not an instrument to be used, but a realm of one's being to be experienced, explored, enriched and, thereby, educated.

To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to definition.

Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself.

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.

I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality.

The federal government is our servant, not our master.

And you very soon find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair.

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.

When you want to be a good player in next years worldcup you wanna be in good shape to appear strong at the tournament.

Perhaps the belief in God is the belief that the universe is intelligible, but not to us.

fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something it is like for the organism.

Christianity is the strangest religion ever set up, for it committed a murder upon Jesus in order to redeem mankind from the sin of eating an apple.

To take away (voting) is to reduce a man to slavery.

The balance of power is the scale of peace.

Someday it'll all be done by machine. Information machines.

The Holy Grail of neuroscience has been to understand how and where information is encoded in the brain.

It is so easy to be wrong-and to persist in being wrong-when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.

Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.

People used to say, "Ignorance is no excuse." Today, ignorance is no problem. After all, you have "a right to your own opinion" - and self-esteem to boot.

Senator John McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain.

Eternal vigilance is only part of the price of freedom. The maturity to live with imperfections is another crucial part of the price of freedom.

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man.

This crown of free will is fallen from our head" and "If it be God's purpose that saves then it is not free will.

Do not value money for any more nor any less than its worth; it is a good servant but a bad master.

The Christian life is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ lived two thousand years ago, lived now by Him in you!

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

There's a way to do it better - find it.

God is never angry for His sake, only for ours.

Solitude produces originality, bold and astonishing beauty, poetry. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportianate, the absurd and the forbidden.

The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.

We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to "like" one another.

How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.

Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen.

On Pride: This sickness is most dangerous when it succeeds in looking like humility. When a proud man thinks he is humble his case is hopeless.

Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.

In an age where there is much talk about "being yourself," I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else.

Hero-worship exists, has existed, and will forever exist, universally, among mankind.

You can't realize your dreams unless you have one to begin with.

I am left alone on the surface of a turning planet.

Parliament will train you to talk; and above all things to hear, with patience, unlimited quantities of foolish talk.

I'll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.