Quotes By Thomas Carlyle

Wonder is the basis of worship.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Love is not altogether a delirium, yet it has many points in common therewith.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

Work alone is noble.

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

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

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

Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

All great peoples are conservative.

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

Happy the people whose annals are vacant.

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.

I don't pretend to understand the Universe - it's a great deal bigger than I am.

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

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes.

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.