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Thomas Carlyle

70 quotes

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher who became one of the most influential social commentators of the Victorian era. Known for his passionate writing style and moral seriousness, Carlyle wrote extensively on history, heroism, and the human condition.

“A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Work

All Quotes by Thomas Carlyle

“There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Great

“I don't pretend to understand the Universe - it's a great deal bigger than I am.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Great

“If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?”

— Thomas Carlyle

Truth

“History, a distillation of rumour.”

— Thomas Carlyle

History

“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Business

“In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom we have to say, Like People like Government.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Government

“Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Music

“For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that - is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?”

— Thomas Carlyle

Good

“Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Good

“The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Courage

“The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Happiness

“Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Time

“Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Alone

“What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Teacher

“Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Humor

“Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better, Silence is deep as Eternity speech is shallow as Time.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Good

“Work alone is noble.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Alone

“Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Men

“Clever men are good, but they are not the best.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Best

“A strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to hope.”

— Thomas Carlyle

Hope