Thomas Carlyle Quotes - Page 25

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• A force as of madness in the hands of reason has done all that was ever done in the world.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Funny, Hands, Insanity

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• Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Happiness, Greatness, Men

  'Sartor Resartus' (1834) bk. 2, ch. 9

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• The philosopher is he to whom the highest has descended, and the lowest has mounted up; who is the equal and kindly brother of all.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Brother, Philosophy, Philosopher

  Thomas Carlyle (1850). “Past and Present: Chartism and Sartor Resartus”

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• Without oblivion, there is no remembrance possible. When both oblivion and memory are wise, when the general soul of man is clear, melodious, true, there may come a modern Iliad as memorial of the Past.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Wise, Memories, Past

  Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Carlyle (1857). “Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations”, p.6

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• The greatest of all heroes is One--whom we do not name here! Let sacred silence meditate that sacred matter; you will find it the ultimate perfection of a principle extant throughout man's whole history on earth.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Hero, Men, Names

  Thomas Carlyle (1846). “On Heroes, Hero-worship, & the Heroic in History: Six Lectures ; Reported, with Emendations and Additions”, p.10

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• If there be not a religious element in the relations of men, such relations are miserable and doomed to ruin.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Religious, Men, Religion

  Letter to Thomas Chalmers, October 11, 1841.

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• Contented saturnine human figures, a dozen or so of them, sitting around a large long table...Perfect equality is to be the rule; no rising or notice taken when anybody enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place and pipe, without obligatory remarks; if he cannot smoke...let him at least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream of things.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Taken, Men, Perfect

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• At the bottom there is no perfect history; there is none such conceivable. All past centuries have rotted down, and gone confusedly dumb and quiet.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Past, History, Perfect

  Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Duff Traill (2010). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.7, Cambridge University Press

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• Earnestness alone makes life eternity.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Eternity, Earnestness

  Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2010). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.157, Cambridge University Press

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• The situation that has not its duty, its ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy ideal; work it out therefrom, and, working, believe, live, be free. Fool! the ideal is in thyself.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Believe, Men, Fool

  Thomas Carlyle (1871). “Works”, p.135

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• Freedom is the one purport, wisely aimed at, or unwisely, of all man's struggles, toilings and sufferings, in this earth.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Freedom, Struggle, Men

  Thomas Carlyle (1872). “The French Revolution: a History”, p.160

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• Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Art, Silence, Speech

  Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.20, CUP Archive

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• Once turn to practice, error and truth will no longer consort together.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Errors, Practice, Together

  Thomas Carlyle (1881). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished”, p.162

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• Might and right do differ frightfully from hour to hour, but then centuries to try it in, they are found to be identical.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Trying, Vices, Might

  Thomas Carlyle (1872). “Works”, p.158

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• Properly speaking, all true work is religion.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Work, Religion

  Thomas Carlyle (1843). “Past and Present”, p.115

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• A very sea of thought; neither calm nor clear, if you will, yet wherein the toughest pearl-diver may dive to his utmost depth, and return not only with sea-wreck but with true orients.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Sea, Depth, Wrecks

  Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.129, CUP Archive

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• The mystery of a person, indeed, is ever divine to him that has a sense for the godlike.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Spirituality, Mystery, Divine

  Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.214, CUP Archive

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• It is part of my creed that the only poetry is history, could we tell it right.

  Thomas Carlyle

  History, Creeds, Poetry Is

  Thomas Carlyle (2007). “The French Revolution: A History”, p.17, Modern Library

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• Skepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and digest! Lower than that he will not get.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Believe, Men, Soul

  Thomas Carlyle, Edwin Markham (1842). “On Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History: Six Lectures, Reported, with Emendations and Additions”, p.215

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• Life is a series of lessons that have to be understood.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Teaching, Learning, Lessons

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• Goethe's devil is a cultivated personage and acquainted with the modern sciences; sneers at witchcraft and the black art even while employing them, and doubts most things, nay, half disbelieves even his own existence.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Art, Black, Doubt

  Thomas Carlyle (1872). “Miscellanies”, p.135

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• A collection of books is the best of all universities.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Book, Collections, University

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• Let Time and Chance combine, combine!
  Let Time and Chance combine!
  The fairest love from heaven above,
  That love of yours was mine,
  My Dear!
  That love of yours was mine.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Life, Heaven, Chance

  Thomas Carlyle (1857). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays”, p.473

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• We have not read an author till we have seen his object, whatever it may be, as he saw it.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Reading, May, Saws

  Thomas Carlyle (1864). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays ...”, p.57

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• Clever men are good, but they are not the best.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Inspirational, Clever, Men

  Thomas Carlyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Swasey McKean, Charles Stearns Wheeler (1838). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays”, p.278

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