R.S. Thomas Quotes

Everyone was talking about the gap between my teeth, my monocle, the fancy waistcoats I wore and the seven-inch cigarette holders I used

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.

It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.

Speech is great, but silence is greater.

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve.

Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait.

Decoration is just make-up for the wrinkles of the idea.

Reduced to a miserable mass level, the level of a Hitler, German Romanticism broke out into hysterical barbarism.

A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.

Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents.

As there is no danger of our becoming, any of us, Mahometans (i.e. Muslim), I mean to say all the good of him I justly can.

Never be discouraged, because every wrong turn attempt, when left behind you, is another step forward taking you closer to your goals.

We cannot expect you to be with us all the time, but perhaps you could be good enough to keep in touch now and again.

The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.

No one gives up on something until it turns on them, whether or not that thing is real or unreal.

That a Parliament, especially a Parliament with Newspaper Reporters firmly established in it, is an entity which by its very nature cannot do work, but can do talk only.

I start where the last man left off.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

Its assimilation requires the reconstruction of prior theory and re-evaluation of prior fact, an intrinsically revolutionary process that is seldom completed a single man and never overnight

This is the worst President ever. He [George W. Bush] is the worst President in all of American history.

We are the only institution in our society that can question a president on a regular basis and make him accountable. Otherwise, he could be king.

There are no truths. Only stories.

I must apologise because I know all writers have memories of being on the outer because it's the children on the side of the playground who become the dangerous writers.

Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh, just, subtle, and mighty opium!

A teetotaller is one who suffers from thirst instead of enjoying it.

If you willing to put in that sweat! Blood! And tears! I'm telling you! You can have, be and do what you want!

My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.

As the cherub is to the angel, so the cat is to the tiger.

Strain your brain more than your eye.

The Great Work - the work of ensuring a just, healthy, beautiful, and sustainably life-giving world for future generations of all species.

On the field accolades are great, but in order to reach your full potential, you have to overstep the boundaries of football and go out into the community and be an All-Pro there too.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.

Don't be afraid to be unique or speak your mind, because that's what makes you different from everyone else.

Japan is dealing us a dead hand. For two years we have watched the Japanese drag their feet and we can't let them continue to slam the door in our faces.

Forget 'branding' and 'positioning.' Once you understand customer behavior, everything else falls into place.

All power is inherent in the people.

Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.

Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory due to His name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. The most praying souls are the most assured souls.

For an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Moreover, as God respects no persons, so He respects no conditions upon which He gives salvation to us.

And so Adam, in that his speech to Eve, uttered his faith in the promise made to her of her seed, and so in that respect Adam himself came in under her covenant.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.

From toil he wins his spirits light, From busy day the peaceful night; Rich, from the very want of wealth, In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.

Not all that tempts your wandering eyes And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all that glisters gold.

Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility.

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! Confusion on thy banners wait! Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state.

Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.

Weak Christians are afraid of the shadow of the cross.

Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.

Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.