R.S. Thomas Quotes

Human nature is not of itself vicious.

There was no difference between the behavior of a god and the operations of pure chance.

The finest productions of human art are immensely short of the meanest work of Nature. The nicest artist cannot make a feather or the leaf of a tree.

Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of an adult.

It is better to be early than too late in recognizing the passing of one era, the waning of old investment favorites and the advent of a new era affording new opportunities for the investor.

So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference.

Work without vision is drudgery. Vision without work is dreaming. Work coupled with vision is destiny.

Find joy in the journey.

The good you have done, the kind words you have spoken, the love you have shown to others, can never be fully measured.

Perhaps when we face our maker, we will not be asked, 'How many positions did you hold,' but rather, 'How many people did you help?

Everyone can be discontented if he ignores his blessings and looks only at his burdens.

We need to learn how to separate need from greed.

There are hearts to gladden... kind words to say... gifts to be given... deeds to be done.

Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable.

All that occurs within the walls of the temple is uplifting and enobling.

In reality, we are all travelers - even explorers of mortality.

Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today's problems are a result of yesterday's solutions.

There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.

The whole idea of equal justice under law is completely incompatible with the idea of judges deciding cases according to "empathy".

The fashionable idiocy that haters must have justifications is one of those ideas that George Orwell said only an intellectual could believe -- because no one else could be such a fool.

Few of the great tragedies of history were created by the village idiot, and many by the village genius.

People who think that they are being 'exploited' should ask themselves whether they would be missed if they left, or whether people would say: 'Good riddance?'

All too often, we do smart things only after exhausting every conceivable dumb thing we could have done.

Life does not ask what we want. It presents us with options

All justice is inherently social. Can someone on a desert island be either just or unjust?

Forever all goodness will be most charming; forever all wickedness will be most odious.

The point at which the photograph ceases to function as a metaphor is the point at which it is free to propose an experiential model.

A person cannot make another happy, but he can make him unhappy. This is the main reason why there is more unhappiness than happiness in the world.

Work is pushing matter around. Politics is pushing people around.

Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage.

Mysticism joins and unites; reason divides and separates. People crave belonging more than understanding. Hence the prominent role of mysticism, and the limited role of reason in human affairs.

There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography.

We have, in our day, witnessed the birth of the Therapeutic State. This is perhaps the major implication of psychiatry as an institution of social control.

The right manner of growth is to grow less in one's own eyes.

Knowledge is the eye which must direct the foot of obedience.

Whoever brings an affliction, it is God who sends it.

The Ediles among the Romans had their doors always standing open, that all who had petitions might have free access to them. The door of heaven is always open for the prayers of God's people.

The future of this business is far beyond the vision of any of us.

How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year!

A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain, and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing.

It is not through the great skill of the hunter himself that success is achieved, but through the hunter's awareness of his place in Creation and his relationship to all things.

If a person perceives a situation as real, it is real in its consequences.

There are few things quite so boring as being religious, but there is nothing quite so exciting as being a Christian!

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature.

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

In fair weather prepare for foul.