Thomas Carlyle Quotes
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A greater number of God's creatures believe in Mahomet's word at this hour than in any other word whatever. Are we to suppose that it was a miserable piece of spiritual legerdemain, this which so many creatures of the almighty have lived by and died by?
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Insurrection, never so necessary, is a most sad necessity; and governors who wait for that to instruct them are surely getting into the fatalest course.
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All destruction, by violent revolution or however it be, is but new creation on a wider scale.
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Poetry is the attempt which man makes to render his existence harmonious.
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Woe to him that claims obedience when it is not due; woe to him that refuses it when it is.
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O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other.
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Why multiply instances? It is written, the Heavens and the Earth shall fade away like a Vesture; which indeed they are: the Time-vesture of the Eternal. Whatsoever sensibly exists, whatsoever represents Spirit to Spirit, is properly a Clothing, a suit of Raiment, put on for a season, and to be laid off. Thus in this one pregnant subject of CLOTHES, rightly understood, is included all that men have thought, dreamed, done, and been: the whole External Universe and what it holds is but Clothing; and the essence of all Science lies in the PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHES.
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No violent extreme endures.
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A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.
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It is great, and there is no other greatness-to make one nook of God's Creation more fruitful, better, more worthy of God; to make some human heart a little wiser, manlier, happier-more blessed.
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Love is the only game that is not called on account of darkness.
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The first sin in our universe was Lucifer's self conceit.
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Force, force, everywhere force; we ourselves a mysterious force in the centre of that. "There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has Force in it: how else could it rot?" As used in his time, by the word force, Carlyle means energy.
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Manhood begins when we have in any way made truce with Necessity; begins even when we have surrendered to Necessity, as the most part only do; but begins joyfully and hopefully only when we have reconciled ourselves to Necessity; and thus, in reality, triumphed over it, and felt that in Necessity we are free.
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No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.
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No conquest can ever become permanent which does not show itself beneficial to the conquered as well as to the conquerors.
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A pygmy standing on the outward crust of this small planet, his far-reaching spirit stretches outward to the infinite, and there alone finds rest.
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Fire is the best of servants, but what a master!
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The modern majesty consists in work. What a man can do is his greatest ornament, and he always consults his dignity by doing it.
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The universe is but one vast Symbol of God.
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Neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man proceed by mere accident.
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Such is the world. Understand it, despise it, love it; cheerfully hold on thy way through it, with thy eye on highest loadstars!
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A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.
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We are to take no counsel with flesh and blood; give ear to no vain cavils, vain sorrows and wishes; to know that we know nothing, that the worst and cruelest to our eyes is not what it seems, that we have to receive whatsoever befalls us as sent from God above, and say, "It is good and wise,--God is great! Though He slay me, yet I trust in Him." Islam means, in its way, denial of self. This is yet the highest wisdom that heaven has revealed to our earth.