Quotes by Carlyle, Thomas

"Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether."

Carlyle, Thomas on advice   

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"Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us."

Carlyle, Thomas on age and aging   

"The outer passes away; the innermost is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

Carlyle, Thomas on age and aging   

"There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out."

Carlyle, Thomas on debt   

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"The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong."

Carlyle, Thomas on decisions
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"The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of claim we have to hope."

Carlyle, Thomas on despair
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"The devil has his elect."

Carlyle, Thomas on evil   

"The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough."

Carlyle, Thomas on difficulties
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"No sooner is your ocean filled, than he grumbles that it might have been of better vintage. Try him with half of a Universe, of an Omnipotence, he sets to quarrelling with the proprietor of the other half, and declares himself the most maltreated of men. Always there is a black spot in our sunshine: it is even as I said, the Shadow of Ourselves."

Carlyle, Thomas on action   

"The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself."

Carlyle, Thomas on doubt
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"Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone."

Carlyle, Thomas on doubt
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"Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer."

Carlyle, Thomas on duty
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"Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries."

Carlyle, Thomas on egotism   

"If there be no enemy there's no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown."

Carlyle, Thomas on enemies
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"The condition of the most passionate enthusiast is to be preferred over the individual who, because of the fear of making a mistake, won't in the end affirm or deny anything."

Carlyle, Thomas on enthusiasm   

"All evil is like a nightmare; the instant you stir under it, the evil is gone."

Carlyle, Thomas on evil   

"Let each become all that he was created capable of being."

Carlyle, Thomas on excellence
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"No violent extreme endures."

Carlyle, Thomas on extremes and extremists   

"Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects."

Carlyle, Thomas on eyes
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"What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a man by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?"

Carlyle, Thomas on facts   

"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."

Carlyle, Thomas on facts   

"Conclusive facts are inseparable from inconclusive except by a head that already understands and knows."

Carlyle, Thomas on facts   

"To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes."

Carlyle, Thomas on faith
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"Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such; it is an accident, not a property of man."

Carlyle, Thomas on fame   

"Society is founded upon cloth."

Carlyle, Thomas on fashion   

"If the cut of the costume indicates intellect and talent, then the color indicates temper and heart."

Carlyle, Thomas on fashion   

"The greatest of all faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none."

Carlyle, Thomas on faults
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"The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then."

Carlyle, Thomas on fear
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"A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus."

Carlyle, Thomas on focus
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"Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains."

Carlyle, Thomas on genius
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"A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder."

Carlyle, Thomas on goals   

"Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die."

Carlyle, Thomas on goodness
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"Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable."

Carlyle, Thomas on government   

"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."

Carlyle, Thomas on government   

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"The difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious."

Carlyle, Thomas on greatness   

"No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men."

Carlyle, Thomas on greatness   

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

Carlyle, Thomas on happiness   

"But the whim we have of happiness is somewhat thus. By certain valuations, and averages, of our own striking, we come upon some sort of average terrestrial lot; this we fancy belongs to us by nature, and of indefeasible rights. It is simple payment of our wages, of our deserts; requires neither thanks nor complaint. Foolish soul! What act of legislature was there that thou shouldst be happy? A little while ago thou hadst no right to be at all."

Carlyle, Thomas on happiness   

"Ill-health, of body or of mind, is defeat. Health alone is victory. Let all men, if they can manage it, contrive to be healthy!"

Carlyle, Thomas on health
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"The heart always sees before than the head can see."

Carlyle, Thomas on art
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