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...is likely to put
questions about. Avoid all that as entirely unworthy of an honourable
habit. Be modest, and humble, and diligent in your attention to what
your teachers tell you, who are profoundly interested in trying to
bring you forward in the right way, so far as they have been able
to understand it. Try all things they set before you, in order, if
possible, to understand them, and to value them in proportion to your
fitness for them. Gradually see what kind of work you can do; for
It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe. 
In fact, morality as regards study is,
as in all other things, the primary consideration, and overrides
all others. A dishonest man cannot do anything real; and it would be
greatly better if he were tied up from doing any such thing. He does
nothing but darken counsel by the words he utters. That is a very old
doctrine, but a very true one; and you will find it confirmed by
all the thinking men that have ever lived in this long series of
generations of which we are the latest.
I...
Carlyle, Thomas
Source: Address at Edinburgh ·
Excerpt from On the Choice of Books ·
This quote is tagged Vocation ·
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A little bit about Carlyle, Thomas
Thomas Carlyle (December 4, 1795 - February 5, 1881) was a Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian, whose work was hugely influential during the Victorian era. Coming from a strictly Calvinist family, Carlyle was expected by his parents to become a preacher. However, while at the University of Edinburgh he lost his Christian faith. Nevertheless Calvinist values remained with him throughout his life. This combination of a religious temperament with loss of faith in traditional Christianity made Carlyle's work appealing to many Victorians who were grappling with scientific and political changes that threatened the traditional social order. · Can we improve this biography? Post your version
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