100+ Thomas Carlyle Quotes For All Budding Historians
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Thomas Carlyle is one of the most famous philosophers, a historian, mathematician, and writer from Scotland also regarded as one of the most influential personalities during the 19th century.
One of the most noted historians of the 19th century, Thomas Carlyle quotes are intelligent. He is known for his work and authoritative account on the French Revolution in his famous book 'The French Revolution: A History'.
Apart from his contribution in history, he is also known as the writer of various books and novels including, 'Sartor Resartus' and 'On Heroes, Hero Worship, and The Heroic In History' from where we get many Thomas Carlyle quotes. Thomas Carlyle is also the person who regarded economics as ‘dismal science’.
Here is our collection of Thomas Carlyle quotes inspired by his profound thinking and intellect.
You can also take a look at John Ruskin quotes and Wittgenstein quotes. Here we have a collection of quotes by Thomas Carlyle for you to enjoy.
Inspirational Thomas Carlyle Quotes
Thomas Carlyle - the famous historian -writer of 'On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic In History' is known for his profound quotes and sayings regarding different topics related to philosophy. Let’s take a look at some of the best Thomas Carlyle quotes that people would find inspiring.
1. “Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It's a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.”
- Thomas Carlyle
2. “When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.”
- Thomas Carlyle
3. “A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.”
- Thomas Carlyle
4. "No sooner does a great man depart, and leave his character as public property, than a crowd of little men rushes towards it.
There they are gathered together, blinking up to it with such vision as they have, scanning it from afar, hovering round it this way and that, each cunningly endeavoring, by all arts, to catch some reflex of it in the little mirror of himself."
- Thomas Carlyle
5. “Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life, which they are thenceforth to rule.”
- Thomas Carlyle
6. “Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.”
- Thomas Carlyle
7. “Experience is the best of school masters, only the school fees are heavy.”
- Thomas Carlyle
8. “Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw into your work such strength of mind and muscle as God has given you.”
- Thomas Carlyle
9. “Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness on the confines of two everlasting hostile empires, Necessity and Free Will.”
- Thomas Carlyle
10. “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.”
- Thomas Carlyle
11. “No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offense.”
- Thomas Carlyle
12. "Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world."
- Thomas Carlyle
13. “The very Truth has to change its vesture, from time to time; and be born again. But all Lies have sentence of death written down against them, and Heaven's Chancery itself; and, slowly or fast, advance incessantly towards their hour.”
- Thomas Carlyle
14. “The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.”
- Thomas Carlyle
15. “Were we required to characterise this age of ours by any single epithet, we should be tempted to call it, not an Heroical, Devotional, Philosophical, or Moral Age, but above all others, the Mechanical Age. It is the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of the word.”
- Thomas Carlyle
16. “I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.”
- Thomas Carlyle
17. “Not what you possess but what you do with what you have, determines your true worth.”
- Thomas Carlyle
18. “Let me have my own way in exactly everything and a sunnier and pleasanter creature does not exist.”
- Thomas Carlyle
Famous Thomas Carlyle Quotes
Thomas Carlyle is among the most influential thinkers and philosophers of the 19th century whose quotes and contributions in history have inspired and taught hundreds of people. Here are some of the most famous Thomas Carlyle quotes from the great man to help you.
19. “He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”
- Thomas Carlyle
20. “Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.”
- Thomas Carlyle
21. “All human souls, never so be darkened, love light; light once kindled spreads till all is luminous.”
- Thomas Carlyle
22. "Only the person of worth can recognize the worth in others."
- Thomas Carlyle
23. “The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.”
- Thomas Carlyle
24. “Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.”
- Thomas Carlyle
25. “Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted with an eye and a soul.”
- Thomas Carlyle
26. “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.”
- Thomas Carlyle
27. “Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him.”
- Thomas Carlyle
28. “In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.”
- Thomas Carlyle
29. “Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.”
- Thomas Carlyle
30. "Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness."
- Thomas Carlyle
31. “Go as far as you can see; when you get there you'll be able to see farther.”
- Thomas Carlyle
32. “The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.”
- Thomas Carlyle
33. “There is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; also it may be said, there is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.”
- Thomas Carlyle
34. “Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.”
- Thomas Carlyle
35. "There is no permanent place in [this universe] for evil... Evil may hide behind this fallacy and that, but it will be hunted from fallacy to fallacy until there is no more fallacy for it to hide behind."
- Thomas Carlyle
36. “Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite of him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.”
- Thomas Carlyle
37. “Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.”
- Thomas Carlyle
38. “A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.”
- Thomas Carlyle
Best Thomas Carlyle Quotes
Thomas Carlyle is credited with different works and writings which inspire people till date to achieve something as remarkable as him. 'On Heroes, Hero Worship, and The Heroic In History' is the most famous and brings many Thomas Carlyle quotes. Let’s take a look at the collection of best Thomas Carlyle quotes to inspire the budding historians.
39. “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”
- Thomas Carlyle
40. “The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.”
- Thomas Carlyle
41. “The great law of culture is: Let each become all that he was created capable of being.”
- Thomas Carlyle
42. “Once the mind has been expanded by a big idea, it will never go back to its original state.”
- Thomas Carlyle
43. “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.”
- Thomas Carlyle
44. "Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation."
- Thomas Carlyle
45. “Meanwhile, we too admit that the present is an important time? We were wise indeed, could we discern truly the signs of our own time; and by knowledge of its wants and advantages, wisely adjust our own position in it.”
- Thomas Carlyle
46. “A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun.”
- Thomas Carlyle
47. “He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem.”
- Thomas Carlyle
48. “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.”
- Thomas Carlyle
49. “Work is the grand cure for all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind,—honest work, which you intend getting done.”
- Thomas Carlyle
50. “The man of Humor sees common life, even mean life, under the new light of sportfulness and love; whatever has existence has a charm for him. Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.”
- Thomas Carlyle
51. “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.”
- Tomas Carlyle
52. “He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”
- Thomas Carlyle
53. “Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men.”
- Thomas Carlyle
54. “If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.”
- Thomas Carlyle
Motivational Thomas Carlyle Quotes
Thomas Carlyle has gifted this world with a collection of some most famous quotes and philosophies inspired by his thinking. His work 'On Heroes, Hero Worship, and The Heroic In History' bestowed on us the knowledge of history and great Thomas Carlyle quotes.
He let us know that the greatest of faults would be to not educate ourselves. So, here are some of the best motivational Thomas Carlyle quotes.
55. “Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”
- Thomas Carlyle
56. “Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.”
- Thomas Carlyle
57. “The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.”
- Thomas Carlyle
58. “Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property of a man.”
- Thomas Carlyle
59. “There are depths in man that go to the lowest hell, and heights that reach the highest heaven, for are not both heaven and hell made out of him, everlasting miracle and mystery that he is.”
- Thomas Carlyle
60. “No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve.”
- Thomas Carlyle
61. “To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned we should have had no conscience. Were defeat unknown, neither would victory be celebrated by songs of triumph.”
- Thomas Carlyle
62. “Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.”
- Thomas Carlyle
63. “Scepticism means not intellectual Doubt alone, but moral Doubt.”
- Thomas Carlyle, 'On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'
64. “The genuine essence of truth never dies.”
- Thomas Carlyle
65. “Language is called the garment of thought: however, it should rather be, language is the flesh-garment, the body, of thought.”
- Thomas Carlyle
66. “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.”
- Thomas Carlyle
67. “The man who cannot laugh is not only fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, but his whole life is already a treason and a stratagem.”
- Thomas Carlyle
68. “The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not for another.”
- Thomas Carlyle
69. “The true university of these days is a collection of books.”
- Thomas Carlyle, 'On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'
70. “If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.”
- Thomas Carlyle
71. “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.”
- Thomas Carlyle
Best Thomas Carlyle Quotes On History
Thomas Carlyle the famous historian and author of 'On Heroes, Hero Worship, and The Heroic In History' is known for his contributions in history and regarded as a hero due to his findings which have left the door open for new researches to develop.
He is one of the greatest thinkers, writers and philosophers whose words and quotes have inspired people for ages.
Let’s take a look at some of the best Thomas Carlyle quotes about history. You're sure to learn from these Thomas Carlyle quotes.
72. “All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.”
- Thomas Carlyle
73. “All work, even cotton spinning, is noble; work is alone noble ... A life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god.”
- Thomas Carlyle
74. “There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.”
- Thomas Carlyle
75. “The sincere alone can recognize sincerity.”
- Thomas Carlyle
76. “Of all the paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path .. A thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do... To find this path, and walk in it, is the one thing needful for him.”
- Thomas Carlyle
77. “The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of claim we have to hope.”
- Thomas Carlyle
78. “Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.”
- Thomas Carlyle
79. “Out of Eternity the new day is born; Into Eternity at night will return.”
- Thomas Carlyle
80. “Great men are the inspired texts of that divine Book of Revelations, whereof a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch, and by some named History.”
- Thomas Carlyle
81. “This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.”
- Thomas Carlyle
82. “A person with a clear purpose will make progress, even on the roughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress, even on the smoothest road.”
- Thomas Carlyle
83. “What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us.”
- Thomas Carlyle, 'On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'.
84. “The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.”
- Thomas Carlyle
85. “We are firm believers in the maxim that for all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.”
- Thomas Carlyle
86. “Obstructions are never wanting: the very things that were once indispensable furtherances become obstructions; and need to be shaken off, and left behind us,—a business often of enormous difficulty.”
- Thomas Carlyle
87. “No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”
- Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle Quotes On Philosophy
Thomas Carlyle quotes have inspired people, since his demise on 5 February 1881. His philosophies have enriched and inspired the philosophers, historians as well as writers of present times.
We have curated a list of Thomas Carlyle quotes for you to enjoy. Here are the most famous philosophy quotes from Thomas Carlyle to inspire you, including Thomas Carlyle quotes about Muhammad.
88. “If there be no enemy there's no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.”
- Thomas Carlyle
89. “Silence is deep as Eternity, speech is shallow as Time.”
- Thomas Carlyle
90. “Once turn to practice, error and truth will no longer consort together.”
- Thomas Carlyle
91. “No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.”
- Thomas Carlyle
92. “A man's religion consists, not of the many things he is in doubt of and tries to believe, but of the few he is assured of and has no need of effort for believing.”
- Thomas Carlyle
93. “Speech is human , silence is divine , yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts."
- Thomas Carlyle
94. "The soul gives unity to what it looks at with love."
- Thomas Carlyle
95. “Of all your troubles, great and small, the greatest are the ones that don't happen at all.”
- Thomas Carlyle
96. “Democracy means despair of finding any heroes to govern you, and contented putting up with the want of them.”
- Thomas Carlyle
97. “The meaning of song goes deep. Who in logical words can explain the effect music has on us? A kind of inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite, and lets us for a moment gaze into that!”
- Thomas Carlyle
98. “If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.”
- Thomas Carlyle
99. “The word of Mohammad is a voice direct from nature's own heart - all else is wind in comparison.”
- Thomas Carlyle
100. “Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.”
- Thomas Carlyle
101. "All evil is like a nightmare; the instant you stir under it, the evil is gone."
- Thomas Carlyle
102. “Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.”
- Thomas Carlyle
103. “Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.”
- Thomas Carlyle
104. “Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.”
- Thomas Carlyle, 'On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'.
105. “The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only.”
― Thomas Carlyle, 'On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Thomas Carlyle quotes, then why not take a look at [Arthur Miller quotes], or Will Durant quotes.
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Bachelor of Arts Hons specializing in Modern Languages (French and Spanish)
Monisha KochharBachelor of Arts Hons specializing in Modern Languages (French and Spanish)
A Modern Languages graduate from the University College London, Monisha with a passion for travel and exploring different cultures. She is fluent in French and Spanish and is currently learning Hindi. Monisha enjoys discovering new foods and is an avid sports fan, following soccer and Formula 1. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis and watching TV shows.
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