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Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle Quotes

Philosopher

Thomas Carlyle, born on December 4, 1795, and died on February 5, 1881, was a prominent Scottish philosopher, historian, and writer. His works are known for their profound social criticism and unique literary style, which had a significant impact on 19th-century British literature and thought.

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Famous Thomas Carlyle Quotes

“Be a pattern to others, and then all will go well; for as a whole city is affected by the licentious passions and vices of great men, so it is likewise reformed by their moderation.”

Men Wells Whole Passion Cities Influence Patterns Vices Great Men Affected Moderation

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“High Air-castles are cunningly built of Words, the Words well bedded also in good Logic-mortar; wherein, however, no Knowledge will come to lodge.”

Wells Air Built Logic Castles Lodges Mortar

Book:Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh

Source: Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh

“Man always worships something; always he sees the Infinite shadowed forth in something finite; and indeed can and must so see it in any finite thing, once tempt him well to fix his eyes thereon.”

Men Wells Eye Worship Infinite His Eyes Finite

Book:Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished

Source: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished

“Men are grown mechanical in head and in the heart, as well as in the hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, and in natural force of any kind.”

Men Wells Heart Kind Hands Individual Lost Force Natural Endeavour Lost Faith

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him.”

Men Wells Said Facts Religion Regard Chiefs Well Said

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Macaulay is well for awhile, but one wouldn't live under Niagara.”

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“A dandy is a clothes-wearing man--a man whose trade, office, and existence consist in the wearing of clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, person and purse is heroically consecrated to this one object--the wearing of clothes, wisely and well; so that, as others dress to live, he lives to dress.”

Men Wells Persons Soul Spirit Existence Objects Office Clothes Dresses Trade Faculty Purses Dandy

Book:The Collected Works of Thomas Carlyle

Source: The Collected Works of Thomas Carlyle

“Friend, hast thou considered the "rugged, all-nourishing earth," as Sophocles well names her; how she feeds the sparrow on the housetop, much more her darling man?”

Men Wells Earth Names Darling Sparrows Rugged

Book:Carlyle Reader

Source: Carlyle Reader

“Well might the ancients make silence a god; for it is the element of all godhood, infinitude, or transcendental greatness,--at once the source and the ocean wherein all such begins and ends.”

Wells Ends Might Silence Greatness Source Elements Ocean Transcendental

Book:Works

Source: Works

“Professors of the Dismal Science, I perceive the length of your tether is now pretty well run; and I must request you to talk a little lower in the future.”

Wells Littles Running Perceive Length Professors Request

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Man makes circumstances, and spiritually as well as economically, is the artificer of his own fortune.”

Men Wells Circumstances Fortune

Book:Critical & Miscellaneous Essays: Collected & Republished

Source: Critical & Miscellaneous Essays: Collected & Republished

“The times are very bad. Very well, you are there to make them better.”

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite.”

Source: Critical & Miscellaneous Essays: Collected & Republished

“The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only.”

Men Wells Lying Western Rounds Zeal Muhammad Slander Disgraceful

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”

Source: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished (first Time, 1839; Final, 1869)

“A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.”

Life Inspirational Wells Life Is Written Positive Well Written

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.”

Wells Action Depth Narrative Height Linear Breadth

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“There are female dandies as well as clothes-wearing men; and the former are as objectionable as the latter.”

Men Wells Fashion Clothes Female Former Latter

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“The actual well seen is ideal.”

Wells Ideals Idealism

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept well to heart: "Do the duty which lies nearest to thee," which thou know to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.”

Knows Wells Heart May Light Lying Darkness Duty Praying Lays Obligation Thee Dawn Uncertain

Author:Thomas Carlyle

“Rich as we are in biography, a well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one; and there are certainly many more men whose history deserves to be recorded than persons willing and able to record it.”

Men Wells Persons Able Life Is Rich Records Written Willing Deserve Biographies Well Written

Book:Critical and Miscellaneous Essays ...

Source: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays ...

“If you will believe me, you who are young, yours is the golden season of life. As you have heard it called, so it verily is, the seed-time of life; in which, if you do not sow, or if you sow tares instead of wheat, you cannot expect to reap well afterwards, and you will arrive at little. And in the course of years when you come to look back, if you have not done what you have heard from your advisers,-and among many counsellors there is wisdom,-you will bitterly repent when it is too late.”

Source: Autobiography of J.S. Mill & on Liberty; Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh & Sir Walter Scott

“The glory of a workman, still more of a master workman, that he does his work well, ought to be his most precious possession; like the honor of a soldier, dearer to him than life.”

Life Wells Doe Stills Work Masters Ought Honor Glory Soldier Possession Workmen Precious Possessions

Book:The Works of Thomas Carlyle: Volume 30, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays V

Source: The Works of Thomas Carlyle: Volume 30, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays V

“No conquest can ever become permanent which does not show itself beneficial to the conquered as well as to the conquerors.”

Wells Doe Shows Victory Permanent Conquest Beneficial Conqueror

Author:Thomas Carlyle

About the Author

Born: December 4, 1795
Died: February 5, 1881
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 849

Related Topics

Men World Ifs Soul Inspirational Lying History Kind Book Work Heart Whole Littles May Knows Doe Eye Life Persons Wells

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Books & Sources

The Selected Works of Thomas CarlyleRelated source material

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The Works of Thomas CarlyleRelated source material

Past and PresentRelated source material

Carlyle ReaderRelated source material

Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and RepublishedRelated source material

The Collected Works of Thomas CarlyleRelated source material

Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three BooksRelated source material

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On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in HistoryRelated source material

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