R.S. Thomas Quotes

The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error.

History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

Old timidity has disappeared, and is replaced by silent, quaint fun, with which his face twinkles all over, as he listens.

It is not safe in the republican form of government that clannishness should exist either by compulsory or voluntary reason. It is not good for the government and it is not good for the individual.

The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.

Economy does not lie in sparing money, but in spending it wisely.

Great hopes make great men.

Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.

It is our work to cast care, and it is God's work to take care.

Dedicate some of your life to others. Your dedication will not be a sacrifice. It will be an exhilarating experience because it is an intense effort applied toward a meaningful end.

Peace and rest at length have come, All the day's long toil is past; And each heart is whispering, "Home, Home at last!"

There is some secret stirring in the world, / A thought that seeks impatiently its word.

Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions.

Silence is the eternal duty of man.

If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell, And the crier rung his bell, What would you buy?

Like mighty eagle soaring light. O'er antelopes on Alpine height. The anchor heaves, the ship swings free, The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!

The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of claim we have to hope.

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

First, study the present construction. Second, ask for all past experiences ...study and read everything you can on the subject.

What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?

Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.

The coldest word was once a glowing new metaphor.

Music first and last should sound well, should allure and enchant the ear. Never mind the inner significance.

The distances between the stars seem brief by contrast to the distances between each of us and his fellows.

Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.

At every crossroad, follow your dream. It is courageous to let your heart lead the way.

Wise men, like wine, are best when old; pretty women, like bread, are best when young.

The bee, though it finds every rose has a thorn, comes back loaded with honey from his rambles; and why should not other tourists do the same?

The secret of my vigor and activity is that I have managed to have a lot of fun.

Basketball is not played simply with X's and O's. It's played with both trust and confidence.

All the arts in America are a gigantic racket run by unscrupulous men for unhealthy women.

If I had not had so much ambition and not tried to do so many things, I probably would have been happier, but less useful.

A feather will weigh down a scale when there is nothing in the opposite one.

There are principles which govern our life-they are the principles of Life. If our life is lived according to these principles all is well, and harmony reigns in place of vexation and struggle.

A man is never astonished that he doesn't know what another does, but he is surprised at the gross ignorance of the other in not knowing what he does.

Sir, the slowness of genius is hard to bear, but the slowness of mediocrity is insufferable.

Friendship is the heaven of life.

First be sure a thing is wanted or needed, then go ahead.

Then haste we down to meet thy friends and foes; To place thy friends in ease, the rest in woes. For here though death doth end their misery, I'll there begin their endless tragedy.

As I am never better than when I am mad; then methinks I am a brave fellow; then I do wonders: but reason abuseth me, and there's the torment, there's the hell.

Ideas without execution are hallucinations.

I don't think there are any rude questions.

I'm decrepit but I don't want to give up, and I love my work.

Try to reject war and give peace a chance. Question the powers that be and find out why they make the dubious decisions they do that send young people to war.

Each paradigm will be shown to satisfy more or less the criteria that it dictates for itself and to fall short of a few of those dictated by its opponent.

We're quite lucky that we've got political freedoms. We should be using them.

Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead, and which I don't half know to this day?

The principle was, death should not be entered like some snug harbor. It should be an unambiguous refusal to surrender.

Instead of seeing the rug being pulled from under us, we can learn to dance on the shifting carpet.

If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it.