Quotes by Thomas Carlyle

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The whole soul of the past lives in books. They are the clear and powerful voice of the past that is heard when the body and its material substance is gone.

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Does not every true man feel that he exalts himself when he respects that which really stands above him?

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There is no sadder proof of man's nothingness than the lack of faith in great men.

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The most unpleasant feeling is that of one's own helplessness.

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The biggest fault is not admitting your fault.

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Anything can be proved with the help of numbers.

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Speech is the part of man, and silence is the part of God, but also of the animal, and of death. That is why we must know both arts.

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In any controversy, from the moment we start to get angry, we are no longer fighting for the truth, but for ourselves.

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It is correct in every sense when it is said that man is judged by his faith. Or by his lack of faith.

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Hero worship must be expressed in the fact that we ourselves have a heroic nature.

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Man's primary duty is to overcome fear. As long as he trembles with fear, his actions will be servile.

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Experience is the best teacher, but the pay for teaching is too high.

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A new point of view is always in the minority...

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Nothing teaches us better than realizing our own mistake. This is one of the main methods of self-education.

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No one knows how the mob will behave, much less the mob itself.

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Among men there is no law more ethical than the law of power and submission.

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The worst distrust is self-distrust.

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The most unhappy of men is he who has not found an occupation in life.

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Nature does not tolerate lies.

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I don't believe in the collective wisdom of a bunch of ignoramuses.

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I don't even pretend to understand the Universe; he is much bigger than me...

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I believe that respect for heroes, which manifests itself in different ways in different eras, is the soul of social relations between people, and that the manner of expression of this respect serves as a measure of the normality or abnormality of the relations prevailing in the world.

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Economics is an ominous science.

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Man lives only with hope. Basically, hope is his only asset.

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A man cannot be incorrigibly evil if he has laughed heartily at least once in his life.

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Man need not complain of the times in which he lives; it doesn't solve anything with it. Times are bad: that's why man exists - to make them better.

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A life well described is as hard to find as a life well lived.

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The people from the people who can perceive, on all occasions, the invisible justice of Heaven and who know that it is all-powerful on earth, these are the ones who oppose the disappearance of the people. Only these and no others. The supreme heavenly power is sending us together new men who have hearts of flesh and not of stone, and oppressive misery, and so oppressive enough proves to be the teacher of men!

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The blind man can go through the whole world without noticing anything.

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Happy is the people whose annals do not appear in the history books.

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He who has done nothing knows nothing.

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The three basic elements of contemporary civilization are: Gunpowder, Printing and Protestantism.

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Hundreds can endure hardship, but only a few can endure prosperity.

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Any reform, apart from moral reform, is useless.

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People need to be more modest.

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Metaphysics is the attempt of the intellect to rise above the intellect.

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You can worship something, however insignificant it may be, but you cannot worship absolute nothingness.

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Silence is as deep as Eternity; conversations are small like Time.

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Music, through its melody, leads us to the edge of eternity and gives us the opportunity there, for a few minutes, to understand its greatness.

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In our clear sky there is always a dark spot, and this is our own shadow.

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Money is not the only connection between two people.

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As long as fear prevails, man remains man.

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The present is a summary of the past.

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Our mission is not to try to see clearly what is far from us and hidden in the fog, but to strive for what is within our reach.

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Don't be a slave to words.

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No matter how often we are told that a longer and more detailed acquaintance with people and things diminishes our enthusiasm, or that only the unknown or half-known can seem uplifting to us, we must not believe this unconditionally. And in this case, as in many others, it is not knowledge and an insufficient knowledge that makes us fools and again replaces enthusiasm for the object of knowledge with enthusiasm for the knower himself.

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Man always has to "pay with his life" he has to, like the soldier, do his job by putting his life on the line.

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If Jesus Christ had appeared today, no one would have crucified him, they would have invited him to the table, they would have listened to him and they would have laughed heartily at him.

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Two, three people are already a Society. One will become God and the other, the devil. One will preach from the pulpit, the other will swing from a beam.

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The main organ of the human body, the unshakable foundation on which the soul rests, is the wallet.

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Geniuses were our genuine men, our remarkable men, leaders of the foolish herd who followed them as if they submitted to fate. They possessed the rare ability not only to find solutions and think, but also to know and believe. They were naturally inclined to live not on hearsay, but on certain conceptions. While some, blinded by the outward aspects of things, run aimlessly through the great maze of life, they examine the essence of things, and go forward like men who have before them a guiding star, and who walk in sure paths.

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Genius is above all the ability to be responsible for everything.

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No greatness is aware of itself, otherwise it is small and void.

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All work is noble and only work is noble.

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Happy is he who has found his purpose in life; we don't have any more.

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All the bullies need to understand one thing: it's stupid to be bullied.

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The greatness of a remarkable man is manifested in the way he treats the little people.

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The treasure of the world is represented by the original people. Thanks to them and their works, the world is a world, and not a desert. The memories of men and the history of lives is the power of mankind, its sacred wealth for eternity, which supports and helps it as far as possible to advance through the still unexplored depths.

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Piety and sour face are two different things.

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If you want to stop someone from doing something, make them talk about it: the more people talk, the less inclined they are to act.

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If we ourselves are slaves, for us heroes cannot exist.

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If a man knows his measure, then he knows everything.

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The book is the pure essence of the human soul.

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World history is a biography of remarkable people.

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History is a quintessence of gossip.

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Being able to get excited about something gives a person honest joy; nothing raises him - even for a little while - above the mean condition, like honest enthusiasm.

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Of all the expressions of human creativity the book is the most astonishing and the most worthy of attention. In books live the thoughts of past times; the voices of men whose bones have shattered like a dream are heard clear and distinct. Everything that humanity has created, everything that it has achieved, everything has been miraculously preserved in the pages of books.

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Of all rights, the most undeniable is the right of the wise man to draw the foolish man after him (either by force or by persuasion).

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The ideal is within yourself. The obstacles to its attainment are all within you. You yourself are the material out of which you must realize this ideal.

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A shower of gold would erase all borders.

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Health is a great thing both to the one who enjoys it and to others.

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A healthy person is the most precious, masterpiece of nature.

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The wanderings of a wise man are more instructive than the truth of a fool.

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The life of a remarkable man is not a merry dance, but a struggle and a march, a struggle with sovereigns and whole kingdoms.

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Life is a very short period of time between two eternities...

"To be honest, the earth has two masters: the first is almighty God and the second are his sons; all the people who have worked and will work on it."

"Right cannot be defeated, because it is done not by your will but according to the eternal laws of God."

"What is truth? For the majority of people, truth is the majority of counted votes."

"Real life starts with self-sacrifice."

"If you want to stop a person from an action, ask him to speak more on the topic. The more people speak, the less desire they have to act."

"We cannot hope to obtain any sort of perfection in a society which is divided into two parts: rich people who rule the world and poor people who obey their orders. We came to strange conclusions in this world: we say that we live in society but at the same time we live lonely lives."

"When a person sets to work, even if it is the most unqualified, primitive, simple work, the human soul calms down. As soon as a person starts to work, all the demons leave him and cannot approach him. A man becomes a man."

"Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education."

"The ideal is within you, and the obstacle to reaching this ideal is also within you. You already possess all the material from which to create your ideal self."

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War is the feud between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore, they take the boys from one village and the other, put uniforms on them, arm them, and let them loose like wild animals against each other.

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If a person has a clear goal, he will follow even the most difficult path. If a person does not have a goal, even the smoothest road will get nowhere.

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When the oak is felled, the whole forest resounds with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an imperceptible breeze.

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History is the sum total of countless biographies.

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Through music, we can look into infinity for minutes.

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The greatness of a great man is shown in the way he treats small people.

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Man's great task is not to see clearly what is obscured in the distance, but to do what he can clearly see at arm's length.

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It is surely well said that there is an inexhaustible meaning in every object; each eye sees in it as much as it has vision.