R.S. Thomas Quotes

The more we enjoy of God, the more we are ravished with delight.

It is hard to carry a full cup without spilling, and a full estate without sinning.

Though we as Christians are like Christ, having the first fruits of the spirit, yet we are unlike him, having the remainders of the flesh.

Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges.

All... religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest.

And who shall say--whatever disenchantment follows--that we ever forget magic; or that we can ever betray, on this leaden earth, the apple-tree, the singing, and the gold?

Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time.

...he was like a man who stands upon a hill above the town he had left, yet does not say 'The town is near,' but turns his eyes upon the distant soaring ranges.

...Wild to hold, though I seem tame.

Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am / And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

Once you know about these things, you will also love them, because you will see that without a sense of the sacred, you are less than a man.

A vision could put you on a path you don't want to follow.

You must be prepared and know the reason why you dance.

Proposition VIII. When two Undulations, from different Origins, coincide either perfectly or very nearly in Direction, their joint effect is a Combination of the Motions belonging to each.

The 'good food' is...the food of the Word of God, for as food builds up the tissues of the body, repairs waste, and preserves us in health, so the Word of God is the complete food of the soul.

Disease may be defined as "A change produced in living things in consequence of which they are no longer in harmony with their environment."

I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

All authority belongs to the people.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

Religion is all bunk.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

We never repent of having eaten too little.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.

Best-selling horror fiction is indeed necessarily conservative because it must entertain a large number of readers. It’s like network television. I’m your local cable access station.

It considered trying to explain their error to them, but what would be the use? They would only go away with hurt feelings. You can't always expect people, or squirrels, to be rational.

Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able men to improve into useful matter.

Beware the man of a single book.

The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance

But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.

If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.

Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together.

All of today's DNA, strung through all the cells of the earth, is simply an extension and elaboration of [the] first molecule.

The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses.

If the story-tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true stories, who'd have troubled to invent parables?

The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting.

My life has a mysterious purpose that I don't understand, and day by day, conflict by conflict, I learn by going where I have to go.

Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell.

It is by desiring to grow in love that we receive the Holy Spirit, and the thirst for more charity is the effect of this more abundant reception.

Giving freaks a pass is the oldest tradition in Montana.

We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid.

Biography is the only true history.

Debt is a bottomless sea.