R. S. Thomas Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of R. S. Thomas's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Poet R. S. Thomas's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 2 quotes on this page collected since March 29, 1913! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
All quotes by R. S. Thomas: Heart Silence more...
  • I am left alone on the surface of a turning planet.

    "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("Threshold", p. 110), 1981.
  • I have nowhere to go. The swift satellites show The clock of my whole being is slow.

    R.S. Thomas (2012). “R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry: Everyman's Poetry”, p.62, Hachette UK
  • Is there a place here for the spirit ? Is there time on this brief platform for anything other than mind 's failure to explain itself?

    Mind   Spirit   Platforms  
    R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.355, Hachette UK
  • I am a man now. Pass your hand over my brow. You can feel the place where the brains grow.

    Men   Hands   Brain  
    "Tares". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1961.
  • Natural, hell! What was it Chaucer Said once about the long toil that goes like blood to the poems making? Leave it to nature and the verse sprawls, Limp as bindweed, if it break at all Life's iron crust Man, you must sweat And rhyme your guts taut, if you'd build Your verse a ladder.

    Men   Blood   Sweat  
    R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.85, Hachette UK
  • The old men ask for more time; the young waste it. And the philosopher simply smiles, knowing there is none there.

    Men   Knowing   Waste  
  • I turn now not to the Bible but to Wallace Stevens.

    Turns  
    "No Truce with the Furies" by R. S. Thomas, ("Homage to Wallace Stevens"), 1995.
  • I have been all men known to history, Wondering at the world and at time passing; I have seen evil, and the light blessing Innocent love under a spring sky.

    Spring   Blessing   Men  
    "Song at the Year's Turning : Poems, 1942-1954". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1955.
  • The furies are at home in the mirror; it is their address. Even the clearest water, if deep enough can drown. Never think to surprise them. Your face approaching ever so friendly is the white flag they ignore. There is no truce with the furies. A mirror's temperature is always zero. It is ice in the veins. It's camera is an x-ray. It is a chalice held out to you in silent communion, where gaspingly you partake of a shifting identity never your own.

    Zero   Fear   Home  
  • To live in Wales is to be conscious at dusk of the spilled blood that went into the making of the wild sky

    Blood   Sky   Conscious  
    R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.45, Hachette UK
  • Sunlight 's a thing that needs a window Before it enter a dark room. Windows don't happen." So two old poets, Hunched at their beer in the low haze Of an inn parlour, while the talk ran Noisily by them, glib with prose.

    Beer   Dark   Two  
    R. S. Thomas, “Poetry For Supper”
  • Deliver me from the long drought of the mind. Let leaves from the deciduous Cross fall on us, washing us clean, turning our autumn to gold by the affluence of their fountain.

    Fall   Autumn   Long  
    "Laboratories of the Spirit" by R. S. Thomas, ("Prayer", p. 10), 1975.
  • You have to imagine a waiting that is not impatient because it is timeless.

    "The Echoes Return Slow". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1988.
  • In the silence that is his chosen medium of communication and telling others about it in words. Is there no way not to be the sport of reason?

    "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("The New Mariner", p. 99), 1981.
  • I'm obviously not orthodox, I don't know how many real poets have ever been orthodox.

    Real   Poet   Orthodox  
    "R. S. Thomas in conversation with Molly Price-Owen". The David Jones Journal, 2001.
  • I have been Merlin wandering in the woods Of a far country, where the winds waken Unnatural voices , my mind broken By a sudden acquaintance with man's rage.

    Country   Men   Wind  
    "Song at the Year's Turning : Poems, 1942-1954". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1955.
  • Even God had a Welsh name : He spoke to him in the old language; He was to have a peculiar care For the Welsh people. History showed us He was too big to be nailed to the wall Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him Between the boards of a black book .

    Wall   Book   Names  
    R. S. Thomas, “A Welsh Testament”
  • Now the power of the imagination is a unifying power, hence the force of metaphor; and the poet is the supreme manipulator of metaphor... the world needs the unifying power of the imagination. The two things that give it best are poetry and religion.

    "Selected Prose" by R. S. Thomas, (p. 131), 1995.
  • I have known exile and a wild passion Of longing changing to a cold ache. King, beggar and fool , I have been all by turns, Knowing the body's sweetness, the mind 's treason ; Taliesin still, I show you a new world , risen, Stubborn with beauty , out of the heart 's need .

    Kings   Passion   Heart  
    "Song at the Year's Turning : Poems, 1942-1954" by R. S. Thomas". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1955.
  • Imaginative truth is the most immediate way of presenting ultimate reality to a human being... ultimate reality is what we call God.

    Reality   Way   Truth Is  
    "R. S. Thomas : Priest and Poet". BBC TV, April 2, 1972.
  • It is too late to start For destinations not of the heart . I must stay here with my hurt.

    Hurt   Heart   Too Late  
    R.S. Thomas (2012). “R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry: Everyman's Poetry”, p.62, Hachette UK
  • The meaning is in the waiting.

    Waiting  
    R.S. Thomas (2012). “R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry: Everyman's Poetry”, p.74, Hachette UK
  • Verse should be as natural As the small tuber that feeds on muck And grows slowly from obtuse soil To the white flower of immortal beauty

    Flower   White   Soil  
    R. S. Thomas, “Poetry For Supper”
  • I have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while, and gone my way and forgotten it. But that was the pearl of great price, the one field that had treasure in it. I realize now that I must give all that I have to possess it. Life is not hurrying on to a receeding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

    R.S. Thomas (2012). “R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry: Everyman's Poetry”, p.96, Hachette UK
  • A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes.

    Moving   Writing   Eye  
  • Ah, what balance is needed at the edges of such an abyss. I am left alone on the surface of a turning planet. What to do but, like Michelangelo's Adam, put my hand out into unknown space, hoping for the reciprocating touch?

    Hands   Space   Balance  
    "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("Threshold", p. 110), 1981.
  • Poetry is that / which arrives at the intellect / by way of the heart.

    Heart   Way   Intellect  
  • I had looked forward to old age as a time of quietness, a time to draw my horizons about me, to watch memories ripening in the sunlight of a walled garden. But there is the void over my head and the distance within that the tireless signals come from. And astronaut on impossible journeys to the far side of the self I return with messages I cannot decipher.

    "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("The New Mariner", p. 99), 1981.
  • Art is recuperation from time. I lie back convalescing upon the prospect of a harvest already at hand.

    Art   Lying   Hands  
    "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("Pissaro: Kitchen Garden, Trees in Bloom", p. 41), 1981.
  • Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is sweet.

    Dream   Sweet   Fall  
    "Neb". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1985.
Page of
We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 2 quotes from the Poet R. S. Thomas, starting from March 29, 1913! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
R. S. Thomas quotes about: Heart Silence