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She is young. Have I the right
Even to name her? Child,
It is not love I offer
Your quick limbs, your eyes;
Only the barren homage
Of an old man whom time
Crucifies.

— R. S. Thomas Pietá (1966)

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More quotes by R. S. Thomas

Art is recuperation
from time. I lie back
convalescing upon the prospect
of a harvest already at hand.

Between Here and Now (1981)

You have to imagine
a waiting that is not impatient
because it is timeless.

The deep spaces between stars,
Fathomless as the cold shadow
His mind cast.

The Bread of Truth (1963)

The darkness
is the deepening shadow
of your presence; the silence a
process in the metabolism
of the being of love.

Laboratories of the Spirit (1975)

It is alive. It is you,
God. Looking out I can see
no death.

Laboratories of the Spirit (1975)

All R. S. Thomas quotes →

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: R. S. Thomas (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.