R.S. Thomas Quotes

One has to be alone, under the sky, Before everything falls into place and one finds his or her own place in the midst of it all. We have to have the humility to realize ourselves as part of nature.

There is no creature so small and abject, that it representeth not the goodness of God.

Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.

Truth is mighty and will prevail

If you cannot mould yourself entirely as you would wish, how can you expect other people to be entirely to your liking?

Wine brightens the life and thinking of anyone

Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

Self-love . . . is the sole antagonist of virtue, leading us constantly by our propensities to self-gratification in violation of our moral duties to others.

One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

The plough is to the farmer what the wand is to the sorcerer. Its effect is really like sorcery.

It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason.

I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance.

A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.

Women are attracted to silent men. They believe they are listening.

The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain.

Confidence is the illusion born of accidental success.

The covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in water, and yet thirsty.

The great thing, and the only thing, is to adore and praise GOD.

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.

Sight is about what lies right in front of us. Vision is what lies ahead.

Every company has big data in its future and every company will eventually be in the data business.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

Passion costs me too much to bestow it on every trifle.

The Christian is not always praying; but within his bosom is a heaven-kindled love--fires of desire, fervent longings--which make him always ready to pray, and often engage him in prayer.

Prayer flies where the eagle never flew.

I can depend less and less on my own power and sense of direction...It is so strange to advance backwards and get where you are going in a totally unexpected way

Our mind is where our pleasure is, our heart is where our treasure is, our love is where our life is, but all these, our pleasure, treasure, and life, are reposed in Jesus Christ.

Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.

What difference does it make to you what someone else becomes, or says, or does? You do not need to answer for others, only for yourself.

Now anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. It is the fruit of unanswered questions. But questions cannot go unanswered unless they first be asked.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.

Infinite sharing is the law of God s inner life.

Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will be worthy to receive greater.

Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used used them.

In a storm there is no shelter like the wings of God.

As to posterity, I may ask what has it ever done to oblige me?

Every man has a coward and hero in his soul.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

The soul doesn't distinguish between good and bad as much as between what is nutritious and what isn't. Finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the world.

He has every attribute of a dog except loyalty.

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Good Americans, when they die, go to Paris.

[Oppose] with manly firmness [any] invasions on the rights of the people.

An humble soul looks upon Christ's righteousness as his only crown.

My mother was the making of me.

Cruelty is a tyrant that's always attended with fear.

It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who He is, and who we are.