R.S. Thomas Quotes

Every man obeys Christ as he prizes Christ, and no otherwise.

An idle life and a holy heart is a contradiction.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Women are so strange in their influence that they tempt you to misplaced kindness.

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.

A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.

It was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity

It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude

The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.

The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.

When asked how to achieve success more rapidly, came the quick reply, 'Double your failure rate'.

Whatever your income, always live below your means.

The truth of the Christian faith surpasses the capacity of reason.

When God's hand is on thy back, let thy hand be on thy mouth, for though the affliction be sharp it shall be but short.

I'd be a butterfly; living a rover, Dying when fair things are fading away.

I prayed, thanking God, for making it all possible for me, because I knew where I came from.

The two poles could sooner meet, than the love of Christ and the love of the world.

'Infidel' is a term of reproach, which Christians and Mohammedans, in their modesty, agree to apply to those who differ from them.

If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.

If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies.

Wonder is the desire of knowledge.

What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine

Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.

My country is wherever liberty lives.

How necessary it is at all times to watch against the attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence.

Compassion, the fairest associate of the heart.

I don't think there is any serious evidence that we need to be paying people more than 100 times the average wage in order to get high-performing managers.

Oh, this beer here is cold, cold and hop-bitter, no point coming up for air, gulp, till it's all--hahhhh.

Happiness comes when we stop complaining about the troubles we have and offer thanks for all the troubles we don't have.

Any excuse, no matter how valid, only weakens the character.

He who gives money gives some, he who gives time gives more, and he who gives of himself gives all.

If we will put our trust in the Lord, he will help us through our difficulties, whatever they my be.

How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven and delivering hell before people catch on and stop getting swept away by rhetoric?

Although much of the media have their antennae out to pick up anything that might be construed as racism against blacks, they resolutely ignore even the most blatant racism by blacks against others.

Our national problems usually do not cause nearly as much harm as the solutions.

The curse of the intelligentsia is their ability to rationalize and re-define. Ordinary people, lacking that gift, are forced to face reality.

Ideological bigotry has become the norm on even our most prestigious campuses, where students can go for years without reading or hearing anything that challenges the left vision.

As an economist, whenever I hear the word shortage I wait for the other shoe to drop. That other shoe is usually price control.

We need laws written by people who have confronted life in the real world, not in the sheltered world of trust fund recipients of the insulated cocoon of academia.

Too often the past has been twisted to fit the visions and agendas of the present.

Economics is concerned with what emerges, not what anyone intended.

Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens.

How you treat the helpless is the real test of morality. Lots of people are flunking that test big time.

Whenever people talk glibly of a need to achieve educational "excellence," I think of what an improvement it would be if our public schools could just achieve mediocrity.

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

How should we judge what we see? More intimately, let us consider the vulnerability of the human body and soul under these circumstances. It’s all creation. It’s made. It’s not a given.