R.S. Thomas Quotes

When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.

Easter was when they nailed Him to the cross. And He never said a mumbling word.

The people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights.

The people cannot be all, and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.

Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety.

[T]he dignity of parliament it seems can brook no opposition to it's power. Strange that a set of men who have made sale of theirvirtue to the minister should yet talk of retaining dignity!

On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar.

We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.

How sublime to look down on the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet!

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

There is, therefore, a more perfect intellectual life in the angels. In them the intellect does not proceed to self-knowledge from anything exterior, but knows itself through itself.

By making this wine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt.

When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.

letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation.

It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy.

I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.

If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices.

Faith does not quench desire, but inflames it.

It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.

What i value more than all things, good humor.

It [covetousness] is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things.

The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

We are now vibrating between too much and too little government, and the pendulum will rest finally in the middle.

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.

I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural.

Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, cheerfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends

Preachers dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight.

Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved inreality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.

He who lights his [candle] at mine receives light without darkening me.

First, I say that he draws near to those who make peace with him. For God is the One who brings about peace; and where else should peace dwell than in peace?

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free.

No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity

A lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools.

Amplification is the vice of modern oratory. It is an insult to an assembly of reasonable men, disgusting and revolting instead ofpersuading. Speeches measured by the hour, die by the hour.

The constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruption's of time and party, its members would become despots.

The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require that force should be interposed to a certain degree.

The day is not distant when we must bear and adopt [the abolition of slavery], or worse will follow.

The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible.

If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.

Every truth without exception- and whoever may utter it- is from the Holy Spirit.

Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.

Religious leaders will always avail themselves of public ignorance for their own purpose.

I have lived temperately....I double the doctor's recommendation of a glass and a half wine each day and even treble it with a friend.