Thomas Carlyle
Scottish essayist and historian, 1795-1881
95 quotes.
Quotes by Thomas Carlyle
- If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that.
- Imperfections cling to a man, which, if he wait till he have brushed off entirely, he will spin for ever on his axis, advancing nowhither.
- Impossible is the precept "Know thyself," till it be translated into this partially possible one, "Know what thou canst work at.
- In every ship there must be a seeing pilot, not a mere hearing one.
- In idleness alone is there perpetual despair.
- In the denial of self is the beginning of all that is truly generous and noble.
- Infinite is the help man can yield to man.
- It is a mathematical fact that the casting of a pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe.
- It is character which builds an existence out of circumstance. Our strength is measured by our plastic power.
- It is in general more profitable to reckon up our defects than to boast of our attainments.
- It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe.
- Labour is life. From the inmost heart of the worker rises his God-given force--the sacred celestial life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God.
- Labour, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven.
- Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right, he will daily grow more and more right. It is at the bottom of the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves.
- Life everywhere will swallow a man, unless he rise and try vigorously to swallow it.
- Love is ever the beginning of knowledge.
- Love is ever the beginning of knowledge, as fire is of light; and works also more in the manner of fire.
- Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.
- Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.
- No book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.
- No honestly exerted force can be utterly lost.
- No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether and irreclaimably depraved.
- No noble task was ever easy.
- No worth, known or unknown, can die even on this earth.
- Not what I Have, but what I Do is my Kingdom.
- Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.
- Nothing but ourselves can finally beat us.
- Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.
- One monster there is in this world: the idle man.
- Our grand business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
- Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
- Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve; hast thou not two eyes of thy own?
- Properly thou hast no other knowledge but what thou hast got by working.
- Silence is more eloquent than words.
- Sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic.
- Sorrow has not been given us for sorrow's sake, but always as a lesson from which we are to learn somewhat, which once learned, it ceases to be sorrow.
- Speak not at all till you have somewhat to speak; and care simply and with undivided mind for the truth of your speaking.
- Speech is great, but silence is greater.
- The block of granite, which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong.
- The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.