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He arose, pacing the floor
Strewn with books, his mind big with the poem
Soon to be born, his nerves tense to endure
The long torture of delayed birth.

— R. S. Thomas Song at the Year's Turning (1955)

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Books

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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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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.