Quotes by Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Scottish writer and historicus

Lived from: 1795 - 1881

Category: History and sociology | Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited Kingdom

Born: 4 december 1795 Died: 5 february 1881

  • All men, if they work not as in the great taskmaster's eye, will work wrong, and work unhappily for themselves and for you.
  • The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.
  • To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.
  • Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.
  • If a book comes from the heart it will contrive to reach other hearts. All art and author craft are of small account to that.
  • The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.
  • True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper.
  • That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy.
  • I grow daily to honor facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing - a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.
  • Good breeding differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights.
  • Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it ;better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.
  • The person who cannot laugh is not only ready for treason, and deceptions, their whole life is already a treason and deception.
  • Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.
  • Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.
  • What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a man by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?
  • No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.
  • We call it a Society; and go about professing openly the totalest separation, isolation. Our life is not a mutual helpfulness; but rather, cloaked under due laws-of-war, named ''fair competition'' and so forth, it is a mutual hostility.
  • Not our logical faculty, but our imaginative one is king over us. I might say, priest and prophet to lead us to heaven-ward, or magician and wizard to lead us hellward.
  • Men do less than they ought unless they do all that they can.
  • The end of man is an action and not a thought, though it were the noblest.
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  • A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun.
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  • Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
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  • Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.
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  • I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
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  • I don't pretend to understand the Universe - it's a great deal bigger than I am.
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  • 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.
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  • The real use of gunpowder is to make all men tall.
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  • There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.
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  • 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.
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  • A fair day's wages for a fair day's work.
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  • A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.
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  • A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner.
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  • A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.
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  • A man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities; and with the man himself first ceases to be a jungle, and foul unwholesome desert thereby. The man is now a man.
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  • A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.
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  • A mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one
    Goethe's Works (1832)
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  • A person usually has two reasons for doing something: a good reason and the real reason.
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  • A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.
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  • A person with half volition goes backwards and forwards, but makes no progress on even the smoothest of roads.
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  • A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.
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What are the most famous quotes from Thomas Carlyle?

The two most famous quotes from Thomas Carlyle are:

  • "A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun."
  • "Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity."

When did Thomas Carlyle live?

Thomas Carlyle was born in 1795 and died in the year 1881.